How does Module change the scope? - ruby

Question

My understanding of scope
I have been a Javascript developer for a long time and I am used to this...
var globalVar = "some value";
getGlobalVar = function(){
alert(globalVar);
}
getGlobalVar();
In Javascript everything defined outside of a function is attached to the window object and becomes part of the global scope. Anything that is part of the global scope is accessible within any function - at least as far as I'm aware. I am trying to do something similar in Ruby, but I am getting an error.
The problem
Here is how I have the code working:
# create CoreController
SINATRA = Sinatra
module Apollo
class Sinatra < SINATRA::Base
configure :development do
register SINATRA::Reloader
also_reload "app/**/*.rb"
dont_reload "lib/**/*.rb"
end
include CoreHelpers
include Helpers
# ----- Config ------
configure do
set :public_folder, Apollo.config[:sinatra][:public]
set :views, Apollo.config[:sinatra][:views]
set :static_cache_control, [:public, {:max_age => 600}]
enable :sessions
# Set the session secret
set :session_secret, "secret"
end
end
end
I added SINATRA = Sinatra as a hack, because I could not access Sinatra::Reloader inside of class Sinatra < SINATRA::Base.
This is what I would like the code to look like:
# create CoreController
module Apollo
class Sinatra < Sinatra::Base
configure :development do
register Sinatra::Reloader
also_reload "app/**/*.rb"
dont_reload "lib/**/*.rb"
end
include CoreHelpers
include Helpers
# ----- Config ------
configure do
set :public_folder, Apollo.config[:sinatra][:public]
set :views, Apollo.config[:sinatra][:views]
set :static_cache_control, [:public, {:max_age => 600}]
enable :sessions
# Set the session secret
set :session_secret, "secret"
end
end
end
Here is the error I'm getting:
How does putting this code inside of a class change the scope? Shouldn't global variables be accessible anywhere? Any and all help is appreciated.

Answer 1

I am not sure if I get all the technicalities right, but when you have class Sinatra and you use Sinatra::Something inside the class block, ruby interprets it as "he wants to access the constant Something in this class".
If you change the class name to something other than Sinatra, you should be fine. Or you can use the double colon as a prefix, like this
# create CoreController
module Apollo
class Sinatra < ::Sinatra::Base
configure :development do
register ::Sinatra::Reloader
also_reload "app/**/*.rb"
dont_reload "lib/**/*.rb"
end
include CoreHelpers
include Helpers
# ----- Config ------
configure do
set :public_folder, Apollo.config[:sinatra][:public]
set :views, Apollo.config[:sinatra][:views]
set :static_cache_control, [:public, {:max_age => 600}]
enable :sessions
# Set the session secret
set :session_secret, "secret"
end
end
end
It basically says ruby to look outside of the class Sinatra for another Sinatras.