# Configure Neovim as Ruby on Rails IDE

## Why vim and neovim?

[Vim](https://vim.org) is a highly configurable text editor built to make creating and changing any kind of text very efficient. It is included as "vi" with most UNIX systems and with Apple OS X.

[vim](https://vim.org) is highly customizable and it is the default fallback editor in most Linux systems. If you are the server admin, then vim can be a great tool for you. If you are a programmer, it already supports 100s of programming languages.

> Recently I have switched from [vim](https://vim.org) to [neovim](https://neovim.io) and neovim is fully compatible with Vim's editing model and Vimscript.

## How to install neovim?

If you want to use [vim](https://vim.org), it is already available in most Linux OS. you can follow https://vim.org to download and install it.

We are going to use [Lunarvim](https://www.lunarvim.org/#opinionated) for our neovim IDE. It has lots of great features which you can find on the official website.

You can follow the Installation section to install [Lunarvim](https://www.lunarvim.org) and also all the prerequisites.

**Install latest neovim**

```sh
# linux
sudo snap install neovim --classic

# Mac
brew install neovim
```

In this post, we are going to set up Lunar vim for [Ruby on Rails](https://rubyonrails.org) development, but feel free to check [Lunarvim Plugins](https://www.lunarvim.org/plugins/#plugins) section to install plugins as your need.

## Theme

I really like `dracula` theme and I use it in almost all of my tools: You can get [dracula](https://draculatheme.com/) for your choice of editor, terminal or even HD wallpapers from [here](https://draculatheme.com/).

```lua
lvim.colorscheme = "dracula"
```

## Configuration file

Open `~/.config/lvim/config.lua` file and keep the default configuration and replace the following sections in the file

**change the treesitter list of your choice**

```lua
-- if you don't want all the parsers change this to a table of the ones you want
lvim.builtin.treesitter.ensure_installed = {
  "bash",
  "c",
  "javascript",
  "json",
  "lua",
  "python",
  "typescript",
  "tsx",
  "css",
  "rust",
  "ruby",
  "java",
  "yaml",
}
```

**Additional plugins in** `lvim.plugins` section

```lua
lvim.plugins = {
  {
    "folke/trouble.nvim",
    cmd = "TroubleToggle",
  },
  { 'Mofiqul/dracula.nvim' }, -- theme
  { 'tpope/vim-rails' }, -- ruby on rails
  { 'kdheepak/lazygit.nvim' }, -- lazy git
  {
    "max397574/better-escape.nvim",
    config = function()
      require("better_escape").setup {
        mapping = { "jj" }, -- a table with mappings to use
        timeout = 200, -- the time in which the keys must be hit in ms. clear_empty_lines = false, keys = '<ESC>', -- keys used for escaping
      }
    end
  },
  { "preservim/vimux" }, -- send test command in tmux pane
  { "vim-test/vim-test" }, -- run test
  { "tpope/vim-abolish" }, -- search and replace preserving state
}
```

* `Mofiqul/dracula.nvim`: for dracula theme
    
* `tpope/vim-rails`: Ruby on rails power tool (recommended)
    
* `kdheepak/lazygit.nvim`: If you are [lazygit](https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit) user, you will love this integration within your neovim
    
* `max397574/better-escape.nvim`: it allows you to remap e.g: `jj` as ESC key
    
* `preservim/vimux`: If you love tmux, vim + tmux is great. This allows you to send command in separate tmux pane from your vim
    
* `vim-test/vim-test`: powerful when combined with `vimux` or even `neovim`
    
* `tpope/vim-abolish`: I recently found this tool, it helps you find and replace(or substitute) multiple occurances of the word preserving their case.
    

**Add the below configurations at the end of the file**

```lua
-- VIM configurations (my custom configurations)
-- relative line number
vim.o.relativenumber = true

-- using neovim strategy, so that pressing anykey will not close test result window
vim.g['test#neovim#start_normal'] = 1

-- autoclose tag
-- enable plugin for file extensions
vim.g['closetag_filenames'] = '*.html,*.erb'

-- vim-test strategy
vim.g['test#strategy'] = 'vimux'
-- vim-test keybindings
vim.cmd("let test#strategy = 'vimux'")
vim.keymap.set('n', '<space>tt', '<cmd>TestNearest<CR>', { desc = "Test nearest" })
vim.keymap.set('n', '<space>tl', '<cmd>TestLast<CR>', { desc = "Test last" })
vim.keymap.set('n', '<space>tf', '<cmd>TestFile<CR>', { desc = "Test file" })
vim.keymap.set('n', '<Leader>ts', '<cmd>TestSuite<CR>', {desc = "Test suite" })
```

## Some of the plugins worth mentioning

* [vim-test](https://github.com/vim-test/vim-test): Quickly test your rails project within neovim
    
* [vim-rails](https://github.com/tpope/vim-rails): This is a feature-rich plugin for rails
    
    * Easily navigate between pages `:help rails-navigation`
        
    * Easily generate the missing file by appending `!`
        
    * Interface to the `rails` command, e.g: `:Rails console`, `:Rails db:migrate`, `:Rails g controller example`, etc
        
    * Partial extraction `:help rails-:Extract`
        
    * Integrate with other plugins `:help rails-integration`
        
* [vim-closetag](https://github.com/alvan/vim-closetag): auto close html and erb tags
    
* [lazygit](https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit): One of my favourite terminal UI for git commands. This is so powerful, just try it.
    

## My config files

If you like my neovim config, you can use it from [https://github.com/przbadu/lvim\_config](https://github.com/przbadu/lvim_config/tree/main)