HOWTOs for Ruby on Rails and JavaScript

HTML5: Allow to choose multiple files with a vanilla file picker

Native file inputs can accept several uploads at once with multiple, but server parsing usually needs array-style names and custom Rails adaptation.

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Angular Filters

Useful AngularJS filters for fuzzy string search and formatting values such as percentages.

github.com

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Tagging in Rails 4 using Postgres Arrays

Store multiple labels in one field and query records by any or all of them with PostgreSQL array operators and a GIN index in Rails 4.

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Iterate over any enumerable with an index

Iterating with a position counter helps rank or label items from any enumerable, including find_each and map, by chaining with_index to the enumerator.

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rails/activeform

Alternative form objects for Rails may fit better than model-based validation and could become part of Rails 5.

github.com

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Wrapping Your API In A Custom Ruby Gem

Packaging API bindings as a custom Ruby gem makes reuse and distribution easier, with tests recording HTTP interactions through VCR.

engineyard.com

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How to fix: Font too small when reading e-mails in Thunderbird

Plain-text e-mails in Thunderbird can ignore custom font settings because fonts are stored per character encoding, so some messages still appear tiny or default.

font-settings.png

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Backup an entire website using wget

Copying a whole website for offline browsing is simple with wget; recursive fetching and link conversion make local viewing possible.

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pdfkit/wkhtmltopdf: When a header is invisible

header_html and footer_html can stay invisible in PDFKit and wkhtmltopdf unless the header or footer HTML starts with <!doctype html>.

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Eager-loading polymorphic associations

Polymorphic eager loading avoids n+1 queries, but includes can fail when ordering or filtering on joined tables; explicit joins or preload keep loading efficient.

api.rubyonrails.org

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Rails 4.1+: New locale files require a Spring restart

Rails 4.1 development can ignore newly added I18n YAML files because Spring caches the load path; restarting Spring makes new translations appear.

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Pete Hunt: React - Rethinking Best Practices

React.js shifts UI development toward reusable components and declarative rendering, reducing the complexity of manual DOM updates.

youtube.com

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Use a Bash function to alias the rake command to Spring binstubs or "bundle exec" fallback

A Bash function can route rake to bin/rake when Spring binstubs exist, otherwise to bundle exec rake, speeding Rails 4.1+ and avoiding version conflicts on older apps.

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Linux: Running a program with a different locale than your default

Run a command with a different locale when scripts or output parsing need English labels or predictable text. LC_ALL, LANG, and locale -a control and list available locales.

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How Exchange handles multipart/alternative emails

Exchange can discard the plaintext part of multipart/alternative email, leaving only HTML in normal mail accounts and complicating debugging.

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Change the existing order of an ActiveRecord scope

reorder replaces an existing order clause in an ActiveRecord relation, making it easy to change sort order without rebuilding the query.

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The Curious Case of the Flip-Flop

Ruby’s flip-flop operator is obscure and rarely useful, often adding confusion rather than clarity. Recognizing it helps when reading unfamiliar code.

ruby.about.com

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