The Ruby and Rails community linklog
Made a library? Written a blog post? Found a useful tutorial? Share it with the Ruby community here or just enjoy what everyone else has found!
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RubyPlus Podcast Episode 25
This episode covers JSONlite by Justin Keller : A simple, self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, json document store. This is written in Python. It would be nice to develop a Ruby gem that has the same functionality. It should be easier to setup and use. For more stories listen to the episode now.
Generate web fonts from your SVG icons with Iconly
Iconly is a Rails engine that allows you to import your SVG icons and then create web fonts for your projects. It allows you to add only the icons your project needs, not hundreds of them. And if you’ll be using Bootstrap 4, that doesn’t include glyphicons, then you might be needing this. It is also the engine behind the Iconly.net website, that allows hosting of up to 5 free projects.
15 Weird Things About Ruby That You Should Know
This is round two of my super-popular “11 ruby tricks” post that I published last year. 15 NEW tricks for you!
Podcast on TDD, Ruby, and Rails
Podcast conversation with Noel Rappin (author of Rails 4 Test Prescriptions), Sam Phippen (RSpec core team and frequent speaker on testing), and Justin Searls (maintainer of a bunch of testing tools, and frequent speaker and blogger on testing). [more inside]
Using PhantomJS to Capture Analytics for a Rails Email Template
I wrote a new article on Using PhantomJS to Capture Analytics for a Rails Email Template. Hope you enjoy!
Building a tool that's easy for your team to use
This is my 3rd post in a series about building tools for your team that builds on previous solutions of solving a problem using background jobs and making it a reusable tool:
RSpec through the eyes of a complete beginner
A writeup of how a complete beginner to programming found following the RSpec tutorial. [more inside]
New website for KMS
Finally I’ve done better website for KMS. It describes basic features and has good start on documentation. Check it out at http://getkms.com
search_cop 1.0.7 released
I just released v. 1.0.7. of SearchCop, the Gem to add fulltext query features to your models. This is mainly a bugfix release, but brings new features as well, like a coalesce option for postgres.
3llo - Interactive CLI for Trello
3llo is an interactive CLI for Trello which allows you to manage your Trello cards without leaving your beloved terminal. Link here:
Objects as Ruby Hash Keys
One often-overlooked feature of Ruby’s hashes is that you can use any object as a hash key, not just strings and symbols. In this post we examine how Optcarrot, the Ruby NES emulator, uses this feature to optimize its mapped memory implementation. - http://blog.honeybadger.io/objects-as-ruby-hash-keys/
Build an API in your Rails app now! (Rails 5 version)
An extensive tutorial (with fully working/deployed code!) on how to build a modern API on Rails. [more inside]
Class attributes in Ruby and ActiveSupport
Even such simple thing as class-level attributes may get tricky. Read about how does it work and how it’s implemented in Rails and learn some cool tricks.
Going further with Service Objects in Ruby on Rails
As a follow-up to the recent post about Service Objects, “Service Objects in Ruby on Rails…and you”, I wanted to go deeper into Service Objects subject with details such as keeping objects to a single responsibility, better error handling, and clearer usage. https://hackernoon.com/going-further-with-service-objects-in-ruby-on-rails-b8aac13a7271
When to require irb in Ruby 2.4.0
One of the things you’ll notice if you search for tutorials on Ruby 2.4’s Binding.irb is that some examples need a require 'irb' and some don’t. In this article When to include irb in Ruby 2.4 I explain why.
Add an admin dashboard to a Rails 5 API app using Administrate
Continuing the series on configuring popular admin dashboard frameworks for a Rails 5 API application (previous: Active Admin, Rails Admin). This post focuses on thoughtbot’s Administrate. http://www.carlosramireziii.com/using-administrate-with-a-rails-5-api-application.html
Planet Jekyll's Showcase Feb'17 Update - Babel, HTML Reference, Vienna.html, Scorsese
Hello, I’ve added 10 new static websites to the Planet Jekyll’s Showcase that highlights the latest (and greatest) sites built with the Jekyll machinery. [more inside]
Faster CI builds using an in-memory database
What if you could get some speed improvement for your database intensive tests for free? In my test, I got 32% speed improvement by using in-memory database with tmpfs file storage. Give it a try yourself and see what you get out of it.
Rails::API vs. Sinatra vs. Grape: which microframework is right for you?
Rails dominates Ruby web frameworks: the next most popular framework, Sinatra, has 5% of the popularity of Rails. However, that doesn’t mean non-Rails frameworks like Sinatra and Grape don’t have their place. I explore the sweet spots and gray areas for Rails::API, Sinatra, and Grape.
5 Steps To a Fast Reliable Test Suite
Sign up at for a free email course on testing from Noel Rappin and Avdi Grimm to learn:
[Screencast] Working with Internationalization
Adding translations into your website does not have to be hard. With Rails built in I18N functionality, we gain access to many helpers and conventions that makes it a much easier task. Learn how to add I18N into your Rails application. https://www.driftingruby.com/episodes/working-with-internationalization
5 habits that made me a better Ruby developer
Over the last two years as a freelance developer I’ve picked up a couple of habits that improved the quality of my work and that I’d like to share:
Faster RSpec: Profiling FactoryGirl
One way to speed up a slow test suite is to optimize how FactoryGirl is used, but where do you focus your efforts? Before tuning your factory usage, use FactoryGirlProfiler to measure which factories are adding the most time to your test runs:
Methods Can Be Longer Than Five Lines
Let’s look at the pros and cons of short methods, and when it’s OK to break the rules.