Archives
What do you do if your legacy data defies convention or is just generally complex? Here are some notes from my recent experience using rake to accomplish difficult data migrations.
(December 11, 2011)
Rails developers with deadlines will love ActiveAdmin for building high-quality interfaces for managing a site's data.
(November 11, 2011)
Here's the general process I follow whenever adding authorization—the logic that says what a user's allowed to do—to my Rails applications.
(October 06, 2011)
There's no shortage of approaches to adding password-based security to your Rails applications. Here's a look at the current lineup.
(September 21, 2011)
Get legacy data? Trucker makes moving it from old codebases into new Rails apps with relative ease.
(September 16, 2011)
Get e-mail feedback from your site's visitors though this simple-to-implement web form.
(September 07, 2011)
Let your users opt out of a form and return to the page they came from with this simple helper.
(June 16, 2011)
You don't need to send out e-mail messages to real addresses during development with these two easy-to-use options for SMTP handling.
(May 26, 2011)
Don't forget, RVM gemsets are great for trying out pre-release versions of Rails without interfering with other work. Here's a reminder on how to set that up.
(May 08, 2011)
The very convenient try() method has been available to Rails developers since version 2.3, but it's easy to forget if you're not in the habit of using it. Here's a brief primer.
(April 28, 2011)
How do you back up production data for your Rails projects? A new gem called Backup may be all you need.
(April 03, 2011)
SEO-friendly URLs are great, but what if you want to obfuscate things a bit? Here's a proof of concept of one way to get the job done with the FriendlyId gem.
(March 11, 2011)
Here are some thoughts on bootstrapping Rails 3 apps with customized templates.
(February 28, 2011)
If, like me, you've been dragging your feet about upgrading to Passenger 3, stop waiting. In this post I'll quickly walk through using it with RVM for Rails development.
(January 25, 2011)
There's been a lot of conversation recently about the best ways to get started with Ruby. Here's my take on the subject, based on how I learned Ruby back in 2005 and what I'd do differently today.
(January 19, 2011)
Still not writing tests for your Rails applications? Here are a few suggestions from my own experiences to get you started.
(January 11, 2011)
RailsAdmin gives you a rich, web-based interface to your Rails 3 application's data in minutes. Here's how to get started.
(December 17, 2010)
Finding objects by nice-looking, search engine-friendly string parameters instead of the default object ID is easy with these Ruby gems.
(December 07, 2010)
Ancestry is a new gem for adding tree structures to content in your Rails applications.
(November 16, 2010)
jQuery Mobile is easy to integrate with Rails and Devise to create authenticated, mobile-friendly web applications.
(November 09, 2010)
Even in Rails, documenting your code is important. It's also pretty easy with these tools.
(October 16, 2010)
Refactoring a Rails project can be a daunting task for new developers. Here are three tools to help ease the pain.
(September 27, 2010)
Take advantage of RVM's gemset feature to create project-specific gem installations for your Rails applications.
(September 13, 2010)
Continuing on my project to build a mobile-friendly Rails application, here's a look at making the jQTouch mobile framework talk to your Rails application.
(August 29, 2010)
Looking for the best way to make a mobile-optimized version of your website? Here are three resources to get you started, and a look at next steps.
(August 22, 2010)
Make dates, times, and durations friendlier to users with Chronic and Chronic Duration, two must-have gems for Rails developers.
(August 11, 2010)
Looking for more free books to get better at Ruby and Rails? Here are six more titles for your digital bookshelf.
(August 04, 2010)
The very handy Nifty Generators gem works in Rails 3 with a few minor usage changes.
(July 30, 2010)
You don't need to spend a lot of money to build a reference collection for Ruby and Rails. Here are some free books to help you become a better Rails developer.
(July 28, 2010)
There's no getting around the command line when it comes to developing Rails applications. Here are several resources to help you get the most out of the Rails command line experience.
(July 23, 2010)
These four tutorials will get you up to speed quickly on the ins and outs of RESTful routing in Rails.
(July 18, 2010)
Want to nest an #index action under multiple parent scaffolds? It's actually pretty easy; this tutorial explains how.
(July 13, 2010)
Thoughtbot's Paperclip gem makes uploading files through web forms a breeze, but sometimes you need to keep those files protected from the general public. Here's how I require authenticated access to uploaded files in my Rails apps. Updated July 10, 2010.
(July 08, 2010)
So you've watched the podcasts, read the books, done the tutorials, and written your own Rails app. What's next?
(July 05, 2010)
Worried about Rails 3 disrupting your workflow? Here's how I use RVM's gemsets feature to keep my day-to-day development environment and Rails 3 distinct.
(June 28, 2010)
Leverage your applications' model relationships to write complex, but clean, authorization rules.
(June 24, 2010)
Here's how to protect your application's data through an easy-to-apply access control layer.
(June 21, 2010)
Build a full-featured template for your Rails applications with a few mouse clicks.
(June 19, 2010)
Need easy-to-use authorization in your application? Check out this useful alternative to other, better known options.
(June 16, 2010)
Rails Footnotes is a must-have gem for Rails developers of all skill levels. Here's how to get started with this invaluable debugging tool.
(June 10, 2010)
Edit user accounts and add administrator users to your legacy Rails apps using the popular Restful Authentication login system.
(June 08, 2010)
It's almost inevitable that your Rails application will ultimately need some sort of login mechanism to protect access to certain parts. This post begins a series of looks at various options for authorization in Rails.
(June 06, 2010)
How do you find the best gems to add features to your applications? Save a lot of search time with a new-ish index of Ruby gems.
(June 03, 2010)
Scaffolds are great when you're learning Rails, but the nifty_scaffold generator makes them effective timesavers when you're working on an app.
(June 01, 2010)
Nifty Generators does more than just view-related code; here's an easy way to create a global config file for your app.
(May 27, 2010)
Nifty Generators make scaffolding in Rails an even more effective way to get your Rails app off the ground quickly. Here's how I use this handy gem to create a basic layout and stylesheet for my app.
(May 25, 2010)
Now that you've seen how I configure my Rails applications out of the gate, here's a way to do the same thing with one command.
(May 22, 2010)
The process of creating a new Rails application is straight from Rails 101, but there are a few steps you can add early on to help you code more efficiently down the road.
(May 19, 2010)
Everyday Rails is written by Aaron Sumner.
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