Sometimes you may need to override a method or add a new one to an existing class from a library or gem using a monkey patch.

I did this in an initializer and uses a snazzy method called class_eval.

MyClass.class_eval do
  def do_work
    #do work
  end
end

If you did not use class_eval you can run into errors where your patch creates a new class instead of overriding. This just makes your monkey patches much more sure-fire.

Related External Links:

• Ruby Journal - how-to-open-slash-override-slash-monkey-patch-a-class-in-ruby