Things I learned from functional programming

New engine generator features in Refinery 2

I just released new article introducing new RefineryCMS engine generator features on my Retro Rubies blog. New major Refinery version will be released soon. So if you want to keep in touch, you can discover new features right now.

Emerging Trends in Ruby on Rails Development in 2012

In this post, a few Ruby on Rails developers and experts share their trend predictions in Ruby on Rails development in 2012.

Don’t name your Ruby project with underscore on Github

I just wrote an article about project name SEO. Read more

Mongoid::Token - Short snappy tokens for Mongoid documents

I have just completed version 1.0.0 of Mongoid::Token - a little library for generating short, unique tokens for your mongoid documents. Great for keeping your URLs nice and short.

A Lightweight Alternative to DCI

With all the talk about putting models on a diet with DCI, I thought I’d write about how I used the Command Pattern to achieve similar goals in my aptly-named turn-based strategy game Elite Command.

Designing Rails API using Rabl and Devise

Enabling RESTful API access for Rails application is easy. However, the complexity arises when some responses are expected in xml format and JSON format. Complexity increases manyfold when these API calls need authentication. Sethu explains how to use Rabl and Devise for designing your API access.

Newman 0.2.0 Released!

For the last week or so, I’ve been trying to build a framework which does for email what Sinatra/Rack have done for web application development. It’s not nearly production ready, but Newman now has good documentation of its implementation, and I’d love to hear what people think of it. I could really use some help, since email is not something I’m an expert on.

DCI Role Injection in Ruby

Many people have been wondering the proper way to inject Roles into Data objects with DCI. I tackle this topic in DCI Role Injection in Ruby.

'Working With Unix Processes' eBook update

I just launched a big update to Working With Unix Processes, an eBook addressing Unix programming specifically for Ruby developers. The book was released back in December but it never got a mention here on Rubyflow. To mark the release the book is selling for 25% off today only.

New Virtus Release With Truly Awesome Features

I’m happy to announce that I’ve released Virtus 0.2.0 with nice new features. You can learn more here.

Triggering the DCI Context

In continuing the discussion of DCI, I’ve written a bit about what purpose the Context serves. It’s not just a new junk drawer to use extend with objects and modules.

Mendicant University Global Hack Day #1, Thursday 2/16

Many Ruby users groups have periodic hack nights where folks get together and work on their own projects while sharing questions and ideas with one another. We’d like to do something similar at Mendicant University, but on a global scale. Read more

Ruby Trick Shots - a screencast of Ruby tricks and techniques

I’m putting together a free e-book of Ruby tricks and techniques that I’ve seen surprise other Rubyists I know. To commit myself to the project, I’ve recorded a screencast of 24 random tricks from my selection. Enjoy!

More on Ruby internals

Two weeks ago I wrote about My first impression of Rubinius internals, and this morning I went on a Journey to the center of JRuby.

What code goes in the lib/ directory?

A common question teams run into while building a Rails app is “What code should go in the lib/ directory?”. In this post I describe a common antipattern for Rails code organization and a principle for determining what classes should go where.

Travis needs your help!

Travis CI has run 406,714 tests for 5,442 open-source projects to date, including Ruby, Rails, Rubinius, Rubygems, Bundler, Leiningen, Parrot, Symfony, … If you use any of these then you benefit from Travis CI. Read more

logmein & remindme - Drop-in authlogic-based login and forgot password engines

logmein and remindme are two Rails engines developed a while back but only just now putting a few notices around in hopes they are useful to others. Built on Authlogic they provide the views and controllers that Authlogic does not provide. Great for a drop-in authentication system. If you later need something more custom you can keep the Authlogic base and replace the controllers/views with your own stuff.

Sidekiq - simple, efficient message processing for Rails

Sidekiq is my new message processor for Rails 3 apps. It aims to be Resque-compatible but much, much more efficient because it uses threads rather than multiple processes. Read the wiki or the code.

SSTable and Log Structured Storage: LevelDB

LevelDB combines the SSTable, MemTable a number of processing conventions to create a fast, open-source database engine. LevelDB is now embedded in WebKit (IndexDB), but you can also easily embed it in your own Ruby application!

Faster unit tests by skipping loading fixtures

A lot of the time when running individual unit tests was wasted re-loading fixtures into the test db, but I figured out how to let ActiveRecord think it’s loading in fixtures w/o actually touching the DB. If you’re stuck with a lot of fixtures, maybe this will help your tests run faster!