ActiveRecord's where.not
Rails 4.0 introduced a helpful new method for ActiveRecord queries: where.not. It can make clunky queries easier to read.
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How to make changes to a Ruby gem (as a Rails developer)
At makandra, we've built a few gems over the years. Some of these are quite popular: spreewald (> 1M downloads), active_type (> 1M downloads), and geordi (> 200k downloads)
Developing a Ruby gem is different from developing Rails applications, w...
Apply a new callback to existing records
So you added a new callback to your model that (e.g.) caches some data when it is saved. Now you need to run that callback for the 10000 existing records in the production database. You have two options here:
- Write a clever migration, possibly...
Best practices: Writing a Rails script (and how to test it)
A Rails script lives in lib/scripts and is run with bin/rails runner lib/scripts/.... They are a simple tool to perform some one-time actions on your Rails application. A Rails script has a few advantages over pasting some prepared code into a...
Upgrade guide for moving a Rails app from Webpack 3 to Webpack 4
Webpacker is Rails' way of integrating Webpack, and version 4 has been released just a few days ago, allowing us to use Webpack 4.
I successfully upgraded an existing real-world Webpack 3 application. Below are notes on everything that I encounte...
Rails: How to check if a certain validation failed
If validations failed for a record, and you want to find out if a specific validation failed, you can leverage ActiveModel's error objects.
You rarely need this in application code (you usually just want to print error messages), but it can be u...
How to load an SQL dump from a migration
If you want to load an SQL dump from an ActiveRecord migration, you might find this to be harder than you thought. While you can call ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute(sql) to execute arbitrary SQL commands, the MySQL connection is configure...
New Cucumber Factory makes it easier to associate records
I pushed a new version of the Cucumber Factory gem. This new release lets you refer to a previously created record by any string attribute:
Given there is a movie with the title "Before Sunris...
Guide to localizing a Rails application
Localizing a non-trivial application can be a huge undertaking. This card will give you an overview over the many components that are affected.
When you are asked to give an estimate for the effort involved, go through the list below and check wh...
Accept nested attributes for a record that is not an association
Note: Instead of using the method in this card, you probably want to use ActiveType's nested attributes which is a much more refined way of doing this.
The attach...
Rails: Using PostgreSQL full-text search without a gem
PostgreSQL can cosplay as a full-text search engine. It doesn't have the features or fidelity of ElasticSearch or Algolia, but it's good enough if you just need to search and rank large volumes of text.
This card will teach you how to index, sear...