# How to implement Discourse with an already built Rails project

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-implement-discourse-with-an-already-built-rails-project/57353
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [February 14, 2017, 11:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-implement-discourse-with-an-already-built-rails-project/57353 "2017-02-14T11:46:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Winston\_Pogi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/winston_pogi/32/67677_2.png) [@Winston\_Pogi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Winston_Pogi)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2017, 11:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-implement-discourse-with-an-already-built-rails-project/57353/1 "2017-02-14T11:46:01Z")

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I want to use Discourse as a private messaging as well as forum. How can I use it when I already created my rails project and it only lacks the messaging and forum feature. I have read a lot of articles but I can’t find an example where it is implemented in another project. All I see is that the Discourse project is cloned and make it running. I would be glad if you could answer me concern. I really like to implement discourse with my website.

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2017, 12:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-implement-discourse-with-an-already-built-rails-project/57353/2 "2017-02-14T12:16:26Z")

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Read through

[https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-as-rails-engine/3260](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-as-rails-engine/3260)

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### Author: ![erlend\_sh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/erlend_sh/32/119475_2.png) [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2017, 8:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-implement-discourse-with-an-already-built-rails-project/57353/3 "2017-02-14T20:23:50Z")

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In other words:

- Discourse should always run as a stand-alone application. There’s no (sane) way around it.
- Use our [extensive API](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-api-documentation/22706) to incorporate Discourse content into your existing application.
- Use [single sign-on](https://meta.discourse.org/t/official-single-sign-on-for-discourse/13045) for seamless authentication.

Great example here:

> [@Discourse for Online Education Communities](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-for-online-education-communities/48828/4):
>
> We’re self-hosting too - [forum.easyuni.com](https://forum.easyuni.com) - a site in Asia for students to search, compare and “apply” to universities locally or abroad. For the past several months we’ve been working on integrating Discourse more closely with our site (and a new version of the site). Here’s how we use Discourse: 1st level categories are countries (study destinations) 2nd level are colleges in those countries Every college published on the site would get it’s own category in Discourse. Then, on a college …