Software developer Nestor Walker walks us through creating admin interfaces the easy way.

1. Active Admin
Create your admin interface the easy way
Nestor Walker

2. Install
● Add to your Gemfile:
● For Rails >= 3.1 Active Admin is also dependant on sass-rails and a beta
version of meta_search:
● After updating the Bundle, run the active admin install generator.
● Migrate your db and start the server
● Now visit http://localhost:3000/admin
● Log in with admin@example.com / password
● You now have an admin interface.

4. Models
Active admin will set up your models with the following generator:
This creates a file in app/admin/my_model_name.rb

5. Models
● Index Columns
By default Active Admin will create a table view of the model with a column
for each field. This can also be customized.

6. Models
● Filters
Active Admin out of the box has the ability to filter by string, date_range,
numeric, select, and check_boxes. By default it will create filters with all the
models fields using the appropriate selection type.

7. Models

8. Forms
Active Admin uses Formtastic to give you complete control over your data
entry.

9. Forms
The form can also be put into a partial.
app/views/admin/users/_form.html.erb

10. Forms
With the partial:

11. Dashboard
The dashboard can be customized in a way similar to the index pages.
A partial can also be used inside a section with:
render 'new_users' # => this will render/app/views/admin/dashboard/_new_users.html.erb