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Short Ruby Newsletter - edition 110

Short Ruby Newsletter - edition 110

Stay updated on Ruby with launches like Ruby Static Pro, events like RubyConf, and the first RC of Rails 8.0.0. Explore new Ruby gems, tools, and insightful code samples in our latest newsletter.

Lucian Ghinda
October 21, 2024

In partnership with

🚀 Launches and discounts
📅 Events
👉 All about Code and Ruby
🧰 Gems, Libraries, Tools and Updates
🤝 Related (but not Ruby-specific)
More content: 📚 🗞 🎧 🎥 ✍🏾

(Partnership)

📢 A rather rare job opportunity popped up at Avo. If you have the skills and think this will challenge you to grow, send in your resume. Avo, the custom Admin Panel Framework, Content Management System, and Internal Tool Builder for Ruby on Rails, is looking to hire a mid-level Ruby on Rails Developer.

Source: avohq.io

🚀 Launches and discounts

🚀 Donn Felker launched Ruby Static Pro - Welcome - a Ruby static site generator template based on Middleman:

Source: @donnfelker

🚀 Trae Robrock (re)launched Translated

Source: @trobrock

🚀 RailsDesigner (pre)launched a book “Javascript for Rails Developer”

Source railsdesigner.com

📅 Events

📅 Alex Rudall announced a workshop by Obie Fernandez about Ruby AI Show n Tell happening on 22 October:

Source: @alexrudall

📅 Honeybadger.Io announced a workshop together with Wafris on 24 October about Errors n’ Incidents

📅 Thoughtbot announced Open Summit Hack on 25 October:

Source: @thoughtbot

📅 Lukasz Reszke announced a workshop by Arkency about 10 Arkency Lessons from Rails apps for 2025 happening on 30 October:

Source: products.arkency.com

📅 Ruby Conf announced there is still time to book a room until October 25 for the RubyConf:

Source: @rubyconf

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👉 All about Code and Ruby

👉 David Heinemeier Hansson announcing Rails 8.0.0.rc1 release. See release notes here

Source: @dhh

and Lex Fridman replying with:

Source: @lexfridman

👉 Ruby On Rails announced New Rails maintenance policy and end of maintenance announcements

Source: rubyonrails.org

👋 Please take a few seconds to reflect if you want to upgrade your newsletter subscription to a paid version. You will enjoy an ad-free edition and support the newsletter for as low as 8$ per month. Here are more reasons why I think you should upgrade to paid.

💻 Code Samples

️💻 Jason Nochlin shared a code sample showing how to use Kamal 2 with its own private registry: Host Your Own Docker Registry with Kamal 2

Source: @jasonnochlin

️💻 Nate Berkopec shared about common cache mistake in Rails views:

Source: @nateberkopec

️💻 Mohit Sindhwani shared a code sample (see the article Ruby Tips 14 - Copy a file with a new base name)

Source: @onghu

# Source: https://notepad.onghu.com/2024/ruby-tips-014-save-file-with-new-name/

  def save_old_file (file)
    # nothing to do if the file is not there
    return unless File.exist?(file)

    # suffix has the date and time in it
    suffix = DateTime.now.strftime("p%Y%m%d-%H%M%S")

    dir = File.dirname(file)
    ext = File.extname(file)

    # Get the base name without the extension
    base_name_without_ext = File.basename(file, ext)

    # Constitute the new name using the base name, the suffix, and the extension
    new_name = "#{base_name_without_ext}-#{suffix}#{ext}"

    # Create the full path
    new_file_path = File.join(dir, new_name)

    # Copy the original file to the new path
    puts "Backing up: #{file} -> #{new_file_path}."
    FileUtils.cp(file, new_file_path)
  end

️💻 Alex Rudall shared a code sample showing how to use OpenAI Rag with ruby-openai: OpenAI API + Ruby!

Source: @alexrudall

require "openai"

# Make a client
client = OpenAI::Client.new(
  access_token: "access_token_goes_here",
  log_errors: true # Don't log errors in production.
)

# Upload image as a file
file_id = client.files.upload(
  parameters: {
    file: "path/to/example.png",
    purpose: "assistants",
  }
)["id"]

# Create assistant (You could also use an existing one here)
assistant_id = client.assistants.create(
  parameters: {
    model: "gpt-4o",
    name: "Image reader",
    instructions: "You are an image describer. You describe the contents of images.",
  }
)["id"]

# Create thread
thread_id = client.threads.create["id"]

# Add image in message
client.messages.create(
  thread_id: thread_id,
  parameters: {
    role: "user", # Required for manually created messages
    content: [
      {
        "type": "text",
        "text": "What's in this image?"
      },
      {
        "type": "image_file",
        "image_file": { "file_id": file_id }
      }
    ]
  }
)

# Run thread
run_id = client.runs.create(
  thread_id: thread_id,
  parameters: { assistant_id: assistant_id }
)["id"]

# Wait until run in complete
status = nil
until status == "completed" do
  sleep(0.1)
  status = client.runs.retrieve(id: run_id, thread_id: thread_id)['status']
end

# Get the response
messages = client.messages.list(thread_id: thread_id, parameters: { order: 'asc' })
messages.dig("data", -1, "content", 0, "text", "value")
=> "The image contains a placeholder graphic with a tilted, stylized representation of a postage stamp in the top part, which includes an abstract landscape with hills and a sun. Below the stamp, in the middle of the image, there is italicized text in a light golden color that reads, \"This is just an example.\" The background is a light pastel shade, and a yellow border frames the entire image."

️💻 Chris Oliver shared that Rails is looking for a specific DATABASE URL for each environment #{name.upcase}_DATABASE_URL:

Source: @excid3

️💻 Ruby Cademy shared a thread with 5 Rails shorthands. I am including here two of them but you should read the entire thread on Twitter or on Threadreader app:

Source: @RubyCademy

️💻 Greg Molnar shared a thread about TailwindCSS and Rails 8 | Greg Molnar

Source: @GregMolnar

Read the entire thread via Threadreader or via the article he wrote.

️💻 Maciej Mensfeld shared a code sample from a Ruby PR about Make JSON::Parser initialization faster by luke-gru · Pull Request #512

Source: @maciejmensfeld

️💻 Ross Kaffenberger shared a code sample about markdown rendering (read the entire thread in Threadreader)

Source: @rossta

# Source: https://x.com/rossta/status/1847301146404168169/photo/1

️require "commonmarker"

def visit (node)
  return if node.nil?

  case node.type
  in :document
    visit_children (node)
  in :heading
    header(node.header_level) { visit_children (node) }
  in :paragraph
    p { visit_children (node) }
    # ...
  end
end

def visit_children(node) 
  node.each { |c| visit (c) }
end

visit (Commonmarker.parse("# Hello World\n\nHappy Friday!"))

️💻 Ruby Cademy shared a code sample showing how to use the Data object:

Source: @RubyCademy

️💻 Bhumi reminded us about what === does in Ruby:

Source: @bhumi1102

>> String === "hello"
=> true

>> "hello". is_a?(String)
＝>true 

>> String === :hello
=> false

>>（1..10）=== 5
=> true

>> (1..10).include?(5)
=> true

>> (1..10) === 42

=> false

# Source https://twitter.com/bhumi1102/status/1846207979638473116

💻 Zach Gollwitzer shared a short video showing how to use the debug gem with VScode (see the video on Threadreader)

Source: @zg_dev

️💻 Haseeb Annadamban shared useful shortcuts in Rails Console:

Source: @Haseebeqx

️💻 Takeshi Komiya shared a demo of how RBS::Inline works. You should also read this article where they go over how to install and use RBS::Inline: I tried installing RBS::Inline (1) - EN translated with Google

Source: @tk0miya

️💻 Ahmed Nadar shared a code sample from their project RapidRails UI Components showing a Stimulus controller for link, avatar and preview:

Source: @ahmednadar

// Source: https://x.com/ahmednadar/status/1847625337191924117

import { Controller } from "@hotwired/stimulus"

export default class extends Controller {
  static targets = ["preview"]
  static values = { duration: { type: Number, default: 700 } }

  connect() {
    if (this.hasPreviewTarget) {
      this.previewTarget.classList.add('transition-all', `duration-${this.durationValue}`, 'ease-in-out', 'delay-300')
    }
  }

  show() {
    if (this.hasPreviewTarget) {
      this.previewTarget.classList.remove('opacity-0', 'hidden')
      this.previewTarget.classList.add('opacity-100', 'active')
    }
  }

  hide() {
    if (this.hasPreviewTarget) {
      this.previewTarget.classList.remove('opacity-100', 'active')
      this.previewTarget.classList.add('opacity-0')

      setTimeout(() => {
        this.previewTarget.classList.add('hidden')
      }, this.durationValue)
    }
  }
}

️💻 Peter Solnica shared a code sample from Sidekiq:

Source: @solnic29a

💻 Zhephyn shared a thread about about introduction in building with Hotwire (read the entire thread on Threadreader app):

Source: @zhephyn

️💻 Jack Sebben shared their learnings so far about Rack (read the entire thread on Threadreader). Here is the first part of their long post:

Source: @JackUnicyclist

📐 Thinking a bout Code Design

️📐 Josef Strzibny shared about kamal redeploy speeding up frequent deployments:

Source: @strzibnyj

️💻 Guillaume reminded us about Docker bypassing UFW rules (see also How to deploy Rails with Kamal, PostgreSQL, Sidekiq and Backups on a single host)

Source: @guillaumebriday

️📐 Joel Drapper doing a short demo about sever-sent-events with Yippee:

Source: @joeldrapper

️📐 Vitaly Slobodin shared that Gitlab billing system relies heavly on VCR for testing:

Source: @Vitalliumm

Julia added:

Source: @yukideluxe

️📐 Joel Drapper shared about SQLite:

Source: @joeldrapper

️📐 Nate Berkopec shared about starting a new Rails app and hosting it in EU:

Source: @nateberkopec

📐 Matt Swanson did an interesting and open exercise sharing some code and asking to be roasted:

Source: @_swanson

Among the replies Kasper shared a proposal and also wrote a post about it explaining more their improvements and decisions made:

Source: @kaspth

️📐 Daniel Hoelzgen asked about Sidekiq vs GoodJob vs Solid Queue:

Source: @dhoelzgen

A couple of reources where shared:

Trying out Solid Queue and Mission Control with PostgreSQL | Andrew Atkinson
Background Job Comparision table by Seth Horsley

And here are some other replies:

Source: @JoshReedSchramm

Source: @robzolkos

Source: @julikt

Source: @lfv89

️️️📐 Nate Hopkins shared about using Minitest assert_pattern method:

Source: @hopsoft

️️📐 Nate Berkopec shared about boot time:

Source: @nateberkopec

️📐 Greg Molnar shared about the advantages of using ActiveJob as it allows easily migrating between background processing queues:

Source: @GregMolnar

💡Around code (news, findings, books, and more - all about Ruby)

💡 Jeremy Evans shared roda passed 10 million downloads:

Source: @jeremyevans0

️💡 Samuel Williams shared installation stats about rack 3:

Source: @ioquatix

💡 Joe Masilotti shared about their Hotwire Native community on Discord:

Source: @joemasilotti

💡 Ruby Europe shared about their second pillar for building a Ruby Europe:

Source: @RubyEurope

❤️ Why Choose Ruby and Rails

❤️ Avi Flombaum shared about Rails:

Source: @aviflombaum

❤️ Vojtech Rinik shared how they started with Rails:

Source: @_vojto

❤️ Siddharth shared about Rails ecosystem:

Source: @sid_thinketh

❤️ Stephen Margheim shared about Rails 8 providing a production-ready SQLite experience:

Source: @fractaledmind

🧰 Gems, Libraries, Tools and Updates

🆕 New Gems and Repos

🆕 ️Landon Gray launched an experimental gem called swarm-rb - An educational framework exploring ergonomic, lightweight multi-agent orchestration in Ruby.

Source: @thedayisntgray

🆕 Ro R Vs Wild announced a new gem rorvswild-theme-rdoc - RDoc theme for developers with sensitive eyes (read also the launch article at RoRvsWild RDoc theme - RorVsWild)

Source: @rorvswild

🆕 Not exacly a new project, but Ylluminate shared about the existence of traveling-ruby: Self-contained Portable Ruby ( 2.6.10 -> 3.3.x ) Binaries for Linux/MacOS/Windows

Source: traveling-ruby

🧰 Updates

🧰 Ruby On Rails announced Rails Versions 6.1.7.9, 7.0.8.5, 7.1.4.1, and 7.2.1.1 have been released

Source: rubyonrails.org

🧰 Samuel Williams announced a new version of rack/CHANGELOG.md at main · rack/rack

Source: @ioquatix

🧰 Bozhidar Batsov announced a new release of Release RuboCop 1.67 · rubocop/rubocop with a lot of bug fixes and changes. Here is just the part of the release notes about new linters/cops: