torch
A rapid admin generator for Elixir and Phoenix applications that creates custom templates using Phoenix generators.
What is torch?
Torch is a rapid admin generator for Phoenix applications that accelerates the creation of administrative interfaces. It wraps Phoenix's built-in HTML generators to inject custom, styled templates, providing paginated admin panels out of the box without interfering with standard Phoenix workflows.
Phoenix developers building Elixir web applications who need to quickly generate functional, maintainable admin interfaces for managing data models.
Developers choose Torch because it integrates seamlessly with Phoenix generators, reducing boilerplate and offering pre-built features like pagination, internationalization, and customizable themes, allowing them to focus on application logic rather than admin UI scaffolding.
Overview
A rapid admin generator for Elixir & Phoenix
Use Cases
Best For
- Rapidly generating CRUD admin interfaces for Phoenix 1.7+ applications.
- Adding styled, paginated admin panels to existing Phoenix projects without rewriting controllers or contexts.
- Teams needing internationalized admin interfaces with support for multiple locales via .po files.
- Projects requiring customizable admin themes with base and themed CSS options.
- Developers who want to extend Phoenix's phx.gen.html with additional admin-specific features like built-in filters.
- Applications where maintainability is key, as Torch follows Phoenix conventions and avoids locking in custom generators.
Not Ideal For
- Projects built on Phoenix 1.6 or earlier, as Torch 6.x only supports Phoenix 1.7+ and OTP 25+.
- Applications requiring complex association filtering out of the box without writing custom Elixir code.
- Teams needing highly interactive, real-time admin panels with LiveView or WebSockets, as Torch generates traditional server-rendered HTML.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Torch wraps the standard `mix phx.gen.html` command, supporting all its arguments and options, ensuring compatibility with existing Phoenix workflows without interfering with generators.
Generates fully styled, paginated CRUD interfaces out of the box with base and themed CSS options, significantly reducing initial development time for admin panels.
Includes .po files for multiple locales and allows custom message backends, making it straightforward to localize admin interfaces for global audiences without extra setup.
Provides two CSS themes and enables custom overrides via additional stylesheets, allowing teams to match the admin UI to their application's design system with minimal effort.
Cons
Filtrex, the underlying filtering library, does not support association filters, forcing developers to implement workarounds with custom Elixir code as documented in the README.
Major upgrades like to version 6.x are not backwards-compatible, necessitating careful migration and potentially breaking changes for existing projects, as noted in the UPGRADING guide.
Deviating from the default Torch.Pagination requires writing custom pagination functions and modifying generated controllers, adding complexity for advanced use cases beyond basic CRUD.
Frequently Asked Questions
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