👋 Issue #12 - 26 Sep - 02 Oct 2022

Oct 3, 2022

If you want a short excerpt of this newsletter containing only some of the images with code, I created one here. But I invite you to read the entire newsletter as it has excellent content 😊.

This edition was created with support from @adrianthedev from Avo for Ruby on Rails (a friendly full-featured Rails admin panel) and from @jcsrb, who sent me recommendations to include in the newsletter.

I feel the same 👇

👉 Thiago Massa shared how to assign the previous result in Rails console:

Here is a Rails console / irb / debugging tip that well-seasoned Ruby developers know for sure. But if you are just starting out 🐣, you might have missed learning it: A real time-saver, huh? 👇✨ — Source: @th1agofm on Twitter

👉 Greg Navis shared code sample for using ActiveModel to validate forms without persistence

💡 Rails tip 💡 Active Model can be used to implement form objects, i.e. objects validating and performing actions that don't fit well with a model. They work great for: ✅ Complex operation-specific validations ✅ Calling third-party APIs ✅ Actions that don't fit a model — Source: @gregnavis on Twitter

👉 Kirill Shevchenko shared code sample about using Ruby defined?:

Ruby's defined? keyword is not a method, it's a language feature. It means using defined? doesn't evaluate the assignment, just parsing the argument. So, you can use it safely to check whether a variable/constant/method exists, or check if something is a method or variable. #ruby — Source: @kirill_shevch on Twitter

and here is a reply from Josh Cheek:

👉 Matt Swanson shared code sample about using compact_blank method:

You probably want `compact_blank` most places you are using `compact` — Source: @_swanson on Twitter

Lucian Ghinda added to the conversation some ideas in case performance is important:

👉 Peter Solnica shared a sample code showing how to use rightward assignment while verifying a service result:

👉 Steve Polito shared a migration example about create database index based on type cast value of a column:

Did you know, you can create a database index in PostgreSQL based on the **type cast** value of a column? This can be useful if you need to limit the number of records a user can create per day. Here’s an example in #rails. — Source: @stevepolitodsgn on Twitter

👉 Thiago Massa shared a configuration option to enable strict loading model that will raise error on N+1:

Did you ever have problems with N+1s in Ruby on Rails?🤨 Since Rails 6, there's a strict_loading mode that can help you to never have such issues again (at a cost of not having associations loaded whenever it is needed). Do you already use that feature? Check it out — Source: @th1agofm on Twitter

👉 Jason Swett shared a nice opinion about what people call Rails magic is not exactly magic and we should think about it more like well documented rules:

Regarding "Rails magic"... Something is magic if it defies the laws of nature or scientific explanation. Rails gives developers powerful leverage. The results are magical but they're NOT achieved via magic. They're achieved through understandable, well-documented _rules_. — Source: @JasonSwett on Twitter

👉 Greg Navis shared about conditional class names in Rails ERB:

Rails tip: Rendering class names conditionally in ERB is frustrating 😖 Fortunately, there's a better way: 👉🏻 class_names aka token_list Focus on the underlying logic that determines when a class should be applied instead of gluing strings. — Source: @gregnavis on Twitter

👉 Brad Gessler shared a code sample about running ActiveJob on Fly.io:

👉 Brad Gessler shared a code sample about making markdown-rails renderer work well, including code highlighting and Youtube tags

I finally have a decent Markdown renderer for Rails working. You’ll mostly work from the `./app/markdown/application_markdown.rb` file to customize stuff in Markdown like code highlighting, YouTube tags, etc. What’s great is you can reload the page to see changes! — Source: @bradgessler on Twitter

You should read the entire thread and see it working on his view-playground Rail app on Github. Also, if you want to use it in your rails app, Brad shared how.

👉 Dorian shared how to use ActionController::Parameters with_defaults, which seems to be an alias for reverse_merge:

👉 Joel Drapper asked about how Zeitwerk works when handling conflicting root directories:

@fxn how does Zeitwerk handle conflicting root directories? For example if I autoload `app` in Rails, could that conflict with `app/models`, `app/controllers`, etc? — Source: @joeldrapper on Twitter

Xavier Noria answered

You can read more about how nested root directories are loaded in Zeitwerk docs here.

He then added a suggestion about how to namespace files in a directory:

👉 Thiago Massa shared how to run a small piece on code in your Rails app context (like you will run it in the Rails console):

Frequently when using Rails console, we already know what we want to look for, or what we want to run. 💡 Rails has an often unused, but powerful command-line feature: rails runner. Do you ever use it? 🤨 Let's see how we can use it to our advantage. — Source: @th1agofm on Twitter

👉 Akshay shared a code sample about how to use Configurable concern:

Rails provides a `Configurable` concern that lets you add configuration options on classes. It uses `OrderedOptions` behind the scenes, so you can use the method-like syntax. — Source: @ak_rails on Twitter

👉 Kirill Shevchenko shared how to use Ruby built-in Tempfile class:

Ruby has a built-in Tempfile class. This allows you to create uniquely named tmp files, and instances behave like a regular File objects. — Source: @kirill_shevch on Twitter

Please note that Mika Henriksson warned:

Can have weird “disappearing” side effects inside a docker container though.
Alpine Linux issue perhaps with the temp directory but it caused me a lot of headache. Problem went away after using regular files and cleaning them up after usage.

👉 Robbyrussell.Rb shared how to open a gem in an editor and look at the source code:

I believe gem open to be one of the least utilized commands to run by RoR developers. No need to browse the source code online. You can load it up in your favorite editor like so. — Source: @robbyrussell on Twitter

Here is a summary from all replies and with one thing that I added there about how to explore local installed gems source code:

👉 Prabin Poudel shared a Rails anti-pattern thread talking about violation of MVC pattern by adding finders in views and controllers:

👉 Benoit Benoit shared a new feature, just merged to Rails master (probably will be part of Rails 7.1) about conditionally setting log level:

TIL `ActionController::Base.log_at` — Source: @Benoit_Tgt on Twitter

👉 Thiago Massa shared a code sample about strings and freeze and symbols:

It is also worth considering this reply from Josh Cheek, adding more context:

👉 Kirill Shevchenko shared how to enable YJIT when using Ruby 3.1:

If you're thinking about trying YJIT, you can enable it with the RUBYOPT='--yjit' for a specific process or globally. Requires Ruby version 3.1+. — Source: @kirill_shevch on Twitter

👉 David Copeland asked a question about how to group db updates and enqueue job in a fault-tolerant way:

There are a couple of solutions proposed there:

Using interactor rollback

Using the newly published changeset gem (you can see an example of code behind this idea of changeset here)
Using Acidic Job principles and ideas - see an example here - but I recommend you to read this thread where David asks questions about the code shared by Stephen to understand more why that solution is written like that.

👉 Thiago Massa shared a code sample about numbered params in Ruby:

Lucian added this context about how numbered params work:

It is also worth reading this exchange started with Joel reply about wanting an alias for _1.

If you are interested to read more about numbered params:

Read this ticket on Ruby where people discuss it
And then this one about re-reconsidering it

I think it is worth having an alias for _1, and it seems like `it` could be great for that.

👉 Greg Navis shared a code sample showing how to use queue_as with a block to route jobs to different queues:

💡 Active Job tip: queue_as accepts a block that can be used to route jobs to different queues dynamically. Example: paid users have priority over free users for expensive jobs. A sensible business requirement! 👉🏻 The next tweet explains how to make this mechanism generic. — Source: @gregnavis on Twitter

👉 Cezar Halmagean shared a thread about how to migrate from import maps to esbuild:

Migrate from import maps to esbuild with these 5 fixes. If you're trying to migrate from import maps to Bootstrap + esbuild you'll get some errors at build time. Here's how to fix them

👉 Fullstack Ruby shared about ::Data being merged to Ruby master:

Struct no more? ::Data has arrived in Ruby. A more modern take on "value objects". Person = Data.define(:first_name, :last_name) me = Person.new(first_name: "Jared", last_name: "White") Works with pattern matching! Details & docs here: — Source: @fullstack_ruby on Twitter

Read the PR on Github for more details about this. Here is a short snapshot of the description provided on the PR by Victor Shepelev:

Source: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/6353

👉 Greg Navis shared a code sample about filtering sensitive attributes in Active Record:

Rails tip: Active Record makes it trivial to filter out sensitive attributes. Just add them to a class attribute named filter_attributes on the relevant model. See the example below 👇🏻 — Source: @gregnavis on Twitter

As John Duff noted, this will only filter sensitive information while inspecting. Add params filtering, not to write sensitive information in logs.

👉 Colleen Schnettler asked what the most important Rails library/gem/package is:

Rails devs - what's your "I can't live without it" Rails library/gem/package? — Source: @leenyburger on Twitter

Here are some of the responses:

annotate, awesome_print, better_errors, bullet, bundle-audit, byebug, capybara, chusaku, devise, draper, dry-monads, dry-validation, faker, faraday, flipper, guard, haml-rails, http.rb, js-routes, kaminari, lockbox, pagy, pay, prosopite, pry-rails, pry-usable, pundit, railseventstore, retest, rspec-rails, rubocop, shoulda, sidekiq, skunk, sorbet-runtime, strong_migrations

👉 Kirill Shevchenko shared a code sample about calling lambda and proc with square brackets in Ruby:

Josh Cheek added 7 ways to call a proc in Ruby (read more about it here):

👉 Nick Schwaderer asked about problems with Rails:

Please retweet for visibility to your Rails friends 🙏 I'm on the Scalable Rails Apps team as part of the Ruby and Rails Infrastructure team at Shopify. A lot of our work touches on open source. What is your biggest pain point or missing feature in Rails? #ruby #rails — Source: @schwad_rb on Twitter

Here are some of the answers:

If you read so far and you like the content, maybe you take into consideration sharing this and subscribe:

Related (but not Ruby specific)

🧐 Richard Schneeman shared a good thread about how to contribute to open source

Over the past 11 years, I have 2.8k GitHub stars on a repo, 1.9 billion library downloads, and over 1k GitHub 🟩 a year. What most people don’t realize is I use a simple 4-step repeatable framework to help me keep going. 🧵👇 — Source: @schneems on Twitter

🧐 Brandon Weaver shared an idea about a healthy mindset fore growing and learning:

My greatest asset as an engineer is being able to admit my foolishness and ignorance, rather than assuming my own intelligence. — Source: @keystonelemur on Twitter

🧐 Yasuhiro Matsumoto shared a nice perspective about some of the debates regarding programming languages

Programming languages tend to be judged good or bad by their syntax alone, tend to be dominated only by local benchmarks, and in most cases evaluated by people who haven't actually used them. — Source: @mattn_jp on Twitter

🧐 Heroku announced their new low-cost plans:

Read the official announcement here and see some reactions here on Reddit /r/ruby

There seems to be another announcement about a partnership with Github to offer Student Developer Program/

If you are an educator not from University you should give feedback on this Github issue and say what you need or how you see the support for this community.

🧐 Dave Paola asked what we do to familiarize ourselves with a new codebase:

What is your #1 tip for familiarizing yourself with a new codebase? — Source: @dpaola2 on Twitter

Here are some of the answers to this question:

🧐 Shopify Engineering asked about what advice one would give to interns or CS students:

If you could give one piece of advice to current interns or CS students, what would it be? — Source: @ShopifyEng on Twitter

Here are some answers to this question, and I invite you to read the entire conversation as it has a lot more ideas:

🧐 Jason Swett shared hot take about frameworks:

Here's something about frameworks that it took me a long time to realize. A framework can give you an initial productivity boost, but once your codebase gets sufficiently large, your framework can no longer help you keep your code organized, and it's all up to you. — Source: @JasonSwett on Twitter

He also added this in one of the replies:

Keeping large amounts of code understandable requires skill, and tools can't be a substitute for skill. (That's why frameworks can only help in the early stages, because they're tools.) - source @JasonSweet on Twitter

🧐 Adrian Marin shared a thread about a category of persona present on social media - the toxic developer.

It is also worth considering this response from Mika Henriksson:

Articles and Videos

Courses or Books or Communities

📚 Richard Schneeman launched their new book How to Open Source. Buy the book at howtoopensource.dev

🎥 Noah Gibbs shared the video playlist of Ruby Learning Center. See it here

Something to read

Newsletters

🗞 Emmanuel Hayford shared a new edition of This Week in Rails.

🗞 Marc Busqué shared their OSS update for September 2022.

🗞 Joe Masilotti shared the September edition of The Hotwire dev newsletter

🗞 Ruby LibHunt published their 332 edition of Awesome Ruby Newsletter

🗞 Ruby Weekly published their 622 edition Sidekiq 7 (beta) and Sinatra 3 (for real)

🗞 Ruby Radar published their 70 edition Hackathon Success

Articles

✍🏾 Austin Gil shared a nice cool hidden feature of VS Code: Timeline view

✍🏾 Robby Russell shared an older article with very good information about how to take over an existing Rails app

✍🏾 Sam Ruby shared an article about how to run Ruby on Rails via region replicated sqlite 3 (what Fly calls LiteFS - distributed file system built for replication SQLite databases)

✍🏾 Steve Polito shared an article about detecting anomalies in user behavior using PostgreSQL

Something to watch 🎥 or listen 🎧

Videos

🎥 Drifting Ruby shared a new episode Downloading Cloud Database. See it on driftingruby.com

🎥 Eric Berry shared an old (but still relevant) video about Arel by Cameron Dutro. See it Advanced aRel: When ActiveRecord Just Isn't Enough

🎥 Go Rails shared a new video created by Collin Jilbert. See it → How to Deploy Rails to Render

🎥 Justin Searls shared a video they created to show a new way to sort Ruby objects. See → A better way to Sort Ruby Objects

🎥 Janko Marohnić shared a video they streamed about adding admin accounts to the Rodauth demo Rails app. See Adding admin accounts with Rodauth

🎥 Drifting Ruby shared the video log for This Week in Rails. See This Week in Rails Sept 30th, 2022

🎥 Aaron Patterson shared a live stream with Vinicius Stock where they play around with Language Servers. See Pairin' with Aaron: Messing with Language Servers

🎥 Adrian Marin recommended we watch a video by Rafał Rothenberger from wroclove.rb conference. See Devise pitfalls and way to tighten security

🎥 Joel Drapper shared a pairing session with Stephen Margheim working on the Phlex compiler. See Phlex Ruby Compiler

Audio & Podcasts

🎧 The Ruby on Rails Podcast shared a new Ruby on Rails podcast episode. Listen → It's Not Only Sauerkraut and Pickles (Brittany + Nick)

🎧 Schwad shared a Twitter space recording named “Code with Jason LIVE!! It’s not a goodbye forever”. Listen here

🎧 Ruby For All shared a new episode they published where they talk about interviews with Brandon Weaver. Listen to Understanding Interviews with Brandon Weaver

🎧 Remote Ruby shared a new episode about Rails Hackathon and Turbo 7.2 release. Listen to Rails Hackathon 2022 & Turbo 7.2 release

Gems, Libraries, and Updates

🧰 Avo shared a new release of their powerful and flexible Rails admin. Check the release notes here or see a video of the new features here.

🧰 Lázaro Nixon shared a Github repo of Trix extensions. See them here: github.com/lazaronixon. Examples of what you can find there: multiple headings and choosing between multiple colors.

🧰 Mike Perham shared a Sidekiq 7.0 release. See the changelog. It comes with very nice things.

🧰 Eric Berry shared a new gem used for debugging whoop. Here are some examples:

Source: https://github.com/coderberry/whoop

Among the most exciting parts is the ability to add :explain for logging SQLs.

🧰 Kasper Timm Hansen launched a new gem called active_job-performs that adds the performs macro to setup job by convention. Here is an example:

Source: https://github.com/kaspth/active_job-performs

🧰 Julian Rubisch shared their gem attractor for generating a report with code complexity metrics for Ruby and Javascript. This is a cool gem for knowing how your code base is.

Justin Searls shared a video that contained a new gem called put that helps with sorting arrays. Here is how the code looks like:

Source: https://github.com/testdouble/put

🧰 Joel Drapper announced a change in Phlex from Phlex::Components to Phlex::Views:

🎸 Music to listen to while coding

This is just something extra this week, as I discovered on Reddit r/ruby two excellent playlists to listen to while coding:

Please consider sharing this on social media or with your colleagues:

Short Ruby Newsletter