I understand that Plugins are the recommended way to customize Redmine's functionality, but when business needs call for more drastic changes, another solution is needed. I have a few installations now with conflicting customizations, and including Redmine as a gem and running it as a "Rails Engine":http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/Rails/Engine.html would make them easier to maintain - upgrading would involve simply changing the Redmine version number in the Gemfile, then running bundle install and tests.

I'm unaware of any existing efforts to allow Redmine to run as an engine. I searched the web as well as this site for information related to this, but was unable to find anything relevant to this topic.

Needed features:

• Ability to include Redmine as a gem in Gemfile of a new Rails app with bare Redmine configuration
• Inherit all Redmine functionality (models, controllers, routes, configuration defaults, etc.) in including application
• Extend or modify Redmine functionality by adding or replacing Redmine files in new app

Ideal features:

• Generators to create some needed files to aid setting up a new Redmine site, such as copying over migrations and template config files