Can Embedded Ruby Be Used Outside of Rails?

Question

Can embedded ruby (erb) be used outside of rails in regular webpages to dynamically update content (almost as a replacement for PHP)?

Answer 1

Yes, as long as the pages are processed by a Ruby interpreter.

For instance, the Sinatra framework uses ERB along with other template languages such as HAML and Erubis.

Answer 2

Yes. Simply via CGI: http://wiki.railsplayground.com/railsplayground/show/How+To+Use+RHTML+without+rails

Answer 3

erb is part of the ruby standard library. I would recommend using erubis if possible though, since it is significantly faster (about 3x)

Answer 4

In Ruby off the Rails, one person describes using ERB in a not just non-Rails, but a non-web context - using it to generate text files. I don't know how often people take that approach though.