Background: I have a java library that is accessed by many developers - usually via java. However, a few devs hope to access this via a Ruby API. I am gravitating in the direction of Jruby in order to implement a Java-Ruby API.
Questions:
My main concern is that these developers will not be able to utilize the API in their current, Ruby on Rails development framework; but instead will have to operate within Jruby's rails environment. Is this going to be the case?
Perhaps I'm missing a connection between Jruby and Ruby on Rails. But it seems that you can either work in Rails, or work in Jruby's rails - are these technically two different development environments?
I would really appreciate any light someone could shed on this..
Edit: Forcing developers (actually clients to be more specific) to make large changes to their projects in order to accomodate for this API is not really an option. So, if their Rails apps would have to be converted to Jruby on Rails apps, then perhaps someone could offer yet another alternative for me (other than Jruby)?
First, I should mention that Ruby on Rails is simply Ruby code, and the same code can run in the JRuby environment (on the JVM) or the MRI (written in C) runtime.
However, only JRuby can load Java classes and use a Java API. Asking your clients to switch their deployment environment to JRuby may not be feasible, but if you can set up a service in Java that speaks XML or JSON then they will be able to easily use it from Rails.