ShakaCode blog - All Topics

When selecting a platform for deploying your application, ShakaCode helps you weigh the strengths of Kamal versus Control Plane based on your specific needs.

Heroku's user-friendly environment makes it a popular choice for startups and early-stage applications.

By utilizing pre-commit and pre-push hooks, developers can automate various checks and tasks that contribute to maintaining high code quality standards.

Slim is a templating language designed to streamline the view syntax to its fundamental elements while avoiding cryptic complexity.

Draper provides a simple, elegant way to separate presentation and model logic in Rails applications.

Keeping your database migrations strong with strong_migrations gem

Enhance the reliability and safety of your migration tasks, reducing the risk of data loss or corruption using strong_migrations.

Feedback on ReScript

A few months ago, I asked fellow devs to give honest feedback on their experience with ReScript, and this is what I got in replies.

Supercharge your Rails App with Active Admin

Active Admin is a gem that simplifies the creation of administrative interfaces for your Ruby on Rails applications.

Unlocking SEO-Friendly URLs with FriendlyID Gem

FriendlyId is a Ruby gem that extends Active Record functionality. It lets you create custom URLs for your models using text strings instead of numeric IDs.

Boost Your Ruby on Rails Application Performance with Bullet Gem

Ruby on Rails developers know N + 1 queries are performance killers. Bullet helps you spot them in your code before they become bottlenecks.

Simplify Your Ruby Application Configuration with Figaro Gem

Figaro simplifies the process of securely storing sensitive information.

Debugging Made Easy with Pry

The Pry gem offers a robust alternative to the standard IRB shell for Ruby. Easily configure your Rails app to utilize Pry for improved debugging and development efficiency.

Empower Your Rails Application with CanCanCan Gem

With CanCanCan streamlines permission management for your Rails app.

Comprehensive Guide to SimpleCov Gem

SimpleCov is a gem used for code coverage analysis in Ruby projects, providing insights into how thoroughly the codebase is being tested.

Mastering Authorization in Rails with Pundit

Discover how Pundit promotes a clear separation of concerns, allowing you to focus on building features without worrying about intricate permission checks.

Exploring the FFaker Gem - A Comprehensive Guide

FFaker simplifies the process of generating fake data, allowing you to focus on what truly matters.

Streamlining Rails Development with GitHub CI/CD

With Rails 8, GitHub CI files will be added by default to the new applications.

RuboCop comes built-in with Rails 8.0

Wondering what RuboCop is? Starting with Rails 8.0, it's included by default to automatically check your code for quality and adherence to coding standards.

Rails 8.0 adds Brakeman

With Rails 8.0, brakeman will be added by default to your application, enhancing its security.

Rails 8 adds explain support to ActiveRecord::Relation

With Rails 8, the object returned by explain now responds to pluck, first, last, average, count, maximum, minimum, and sum.

Rails 8.0 adds allow_browser to set minimum versions for application

Rails 8.0 adds the allow_browser method to specify the browser versions, allowing access to all actions.

Rails 7.1 adds support for MessagePack as a Message Serializer

Rails 7.1 welcomes MessagePack, a binary data format delivering significant payload size reduction and performance improvements over traditional serializers like JSON.

Ruby 3.3.0

Ruby 3.3.0 has been released! Take advantage of what's new. Check out this summary of features, improvements, additions, and removals.

Headless Chrome Ruby - Conquering Automation with Ferrum

Ferrum streamlines Chrome automation in Ruby by establishing a WebSocket connection and elegantly exposing the Chrome DevTools Protocol through a well-crafted API.

Using GraphQL in Ruby on Rails

GraphQL (flexible, strong typing) empowers front-end devs to query Rails data without much backend fuss.

How to upgrade Rails 6.1 to 7.0

A step-by-step guide to upgrading Rails from 6.1 to 7.0.

Rails 8.0 adds rate limiting to ActionController

Rails 8.0 introduces built-in rate-limiting capabilities for controller actions, allowing you to fine-tune user access and prevent abuse.

Upgrading Rails 5.2 to 6

Upgrading to Rails 6 made easy, learn the steps and discover crucial tips for a smooth transition.

Rails 7.1 adds path_params option to url_for for flexible URL generation

When using url_for in Rails 7.1, leverage the new path_params option to craft URLs with specific path parameters precisely.

Conquering Code Clutter - A Guide to Rails Concerns

In Ruby on Rails, ActiveSupport's Concern is a module that allows you to encapsulate shared behaviour and code in a modular and reusable way.

Ready, Set, Deploy! Rails 7.1 Gets Docker Support

With Rails 7.1, Dockerfiles make deploying apps to production environments a breeze with Docker.

Rails 7.1 adds ActiveRecord regroup

With Rails 7.1, ActiveRecord regroup allows you to change a previously set group statement.

Rails 7.1 empowers the resetting of singular associations

Resetting singular associations unloads the cached associate record and causes the subsequent access to query it from the database.

Rails 7.1 ActiveStorage's TransformJob cleverly pre-processes videos and PDFs for smooth previews

Rails 7.1 ActiveStorage's TransformJob expands its pre-processing power to videos and PDFs, enriching preview possibilities beyond images.

Rails 7.1 allows ActiveRecord reselect to accept a hash

With Rails 7.1, developers can now use intuitive hash syntax with the reselect method for more transparent and flexible database queries.

Rails offers a game-changer ErrorReporter#unexpected for developers facing tricky precondition violations.

Rails 7.1 lets you turn off the creation of custom methods for enum attributes, giving you more control over your models.

Rails 7.1 allows using aliased attributes with insert_all and upsert_all

As of Rails 7.1, you can utilize aliased attributes when employing the insert_all and upsert_all methods.

Rails 7.1 adds ActiveRecord::Base::generates_token_for

In Rails 7.1, ActiveRecord::Base::generates_token_for provides a convenient way to generate and validate tokens for various use cases in Rails applications.

Rails 7.1 allows passing options to ActiveRecord explain

Rails 7.1's explain method now accepts options for more detailed query insights.

Rails 7.1 adds support for multiple-column ordering in Activerecord

Rails 7.1 supports multiple-column ordering for find_each, find_in_batches and in_batches.

Rails 7.1 adds the ability to autoload the lib directory

Rails 7.1 introduces the autoload lib method and allows one to pass the option :ignore to avoid subdirectories that should not be autoloaded.

An introduction to test suite optimization in Ruby

Going over some common pitfalls that might be making your tests slower than they need to be, and what to do about them.

Flaky Visual Regression Tests, and what to do about them

Let's go over some tips about what to do when your visual regression tests are failing intermittently for no apparent reason.

Rails 7.1 limits the maximum length of auto-generated index names

Rails 7.1 defines a 62-byte maximum limit for auto-generated index names.

Rails 7.1 adds an option to extract the sample rate of an audio file

In Rails 7.1, leverage ActiveStorage::AudioAnalyzer to extract an audio file's sample rate, bit rate, and duration.

Rails 7.1 allows ErrorReporter to handle several error classes

With Rails 7.1, you can use the Rails.error.handle method to deal with multiple error classes.

Rails 7.1 adds support for infinite ranges for LengthValidators

With Rails 7.1, you can pass an infinite range to the :in/:with options of length validators.

Rails 7.1 expands its support for ActiveRecord asynchronous queries

With Rails 7.1, you can execute the aggregate queries asynchronously.

Rails 7.1 raises an error on generating model attributes with dangerous name

In Rails 7.1, generating a model with attributes named keywords like hash or save would raise an error.

Rails 7.1 adds validation to enums

With Rails 7.1, if you want to validate the enum values before saving, use the option `:validate`.

Rails 7.1 allows matching exception messages to assert_raises assertion

In Rails 7.1, you can now use a single assert_raises assertion to match both the exception class and the message.

Rails 7.1 adds Object#with method

Rails 7.1 implements object#with as a method that allows you to set and restore public attributes around a block.

Rails 7.1 allows attaching file or pathname to has_one_attached

With Rails 7.1, users can attach a file or pathname directly to has_one_attached associations. This makes it easier to attach files already stored on the filesystem.

The expires_at option for ActiveStorage Blob signed IDs allows you to specify when the signed ID will expire. This can be useful for sharing sensitive files or files you don't want publicly accessible forever.

Ruby 3.3 introduces range overlap? method

The Ruby team introduces the range overlap? method that returns true or false if the two range overlaps each other or not.

Metaprogramming in Ruby

Explore about metaprogramming in Ruby and how to use it.

Rails 7.1 gives templates more control over the locals they receive

Rails 7.1 introduces an option that enables templates to have required arguments with default values.

Ruby 3.2 introduces Data, a new core class for immutable value objects

Ruby 3.2 adds Data that provides a convenient way to define simple classes for value-alike objects.

Rails 7.1 makes it possible to execute tests for a given range of lines in a file

In Rails 7.1, you can execute tests for a given range of lines (a-b) by passing the range to the test command.

Rails 7.1 removes the secrets:setup command and deprecates secrets:edit and secrets:show commands

Rails 7.1 removes the deprecated setup command of secrets and adds a deprecation warning for secrets edit and show commands.

Rails 7.1 makes increment_counter and decrement_counter accept a by argument

In Rails 7.1, the increment_counter and decrement_counter methods can now be passed an argument to increment or decrement the counter by any value.

Shakapacker 7

Shakapacker, Webpacker's official successor, is a Ruby gem that integrates webpack into Ruby on Rails. Version 6 had references to both webpacker and shakapacker, but with version 7, Shakapacker is now entirely Shakapacker.

In Rails 7.1, the Array#intersect? method can be used to find if two ActiveRecord::Relation objects intersect or not.

Rails 7.1 adds the ability to raise errors on missing callback actions

In Rails 7.1, you can now configure your controllers to throw an error if the only or except options in controller callbacks refer to actions that don't exist. This helps detect and fix typos and other mistakes in your controller code.

Rails 7.1 adds the ability to defer the unique constraints in PostgreSQL

With Rails 7.1, you can delay the unique constraints check using the deferrable option.

Rails 7.1 enhances PostgreSQL enum functionality

Rails 7.1 adds rename_enum, add_enum_value and rename_enum_value commands to DB migration extending support for PostgreSQL enums.

Normalize Data with Rails 7.1

Rails 7.1 adds ActiveRecord::Base::normalizes method to standardize the data before saving it to the database.

Rails 7.1 adds --parent option to the controllers

Rails 7.1 controller generator accepts the --parent option. It allows to generate a controller that inherits from the specified parent controller.

Rails 7.1 adds picture_tag helper to support HTML5 picture element

Rails 7.1 adds the picture_tag helper method that renders the HTML picture tag for handling responsive images.

Rails 7.1 adds routes --unused option to detect extraneous routes

Discover extraneous routes in your Rails application effortlessly by utilizing the --unused option with the rails routes command.

Rails 7.1 adds perform_all_later to ActiveJob that enqueues many jobs at once, eliminating repeated Redis roundtrips.

Rails 7.1 adds before_deliver and after_deliver callbacks to ActionMailer to hook into the lifecycle events of the mail delivery.

With Rails 7.1, the ActiveRecord query cache uses the LRU strategy and removes the least recently used queries.

Tips and ideas on how to make the code review process as simple and painless as it can be — both for those reviewing and those preparing the code for review

Shortcut (Jira/Trello/Github) Toggl Time and Task Tracking

Clear and regular communications regarding time spent on various tasks are critical to having good client relationships. To this end, ShakaCode leverages Toggl with Shortcut to provide reports to our clients so they can assess the overall level of effort for various tasks and efficiency of ShakaCode development efforts.

Consulting Versus Full-Time Hires

A quick note on error handling in Rust.

React on Rails: File-System-Based Automated Bundle Generation

Automate bundle generation in Rails app using React on Rails.

React on Rails: How to use different versions of a file for client and server rendering

Let's explore the three ways to use different code for server vs. client rendering.

A note on a data partition during network communications.

RailsConf 2021 -- Implicit to Explicit: Decoding Ruby's Magical Syntax

Does a Rails model or config file seem like a magical syntax? Or can you read any Ruby code and understand it as the interpreter does?

Managing External Data Sources in End-to-End Testing for cross-platform React Native Application

End to end(E2E) testing is a traditional testing methodology where the aim is to examine how an application works by assessing the flow from start to end. In Scenario-Based End-to-End Testing, Application is examined from all layers – front end to backend along with its interfaces and the endpoints

Cool Things You Can Do with First-Class Modules in ReScriptReact

This post is about not so widely known advanced feature of the language, that helps to build handy abstractions over ReScriptReact components.

A definitive guide to E2E Testing CI Setup for React-Native using Cavy-CLI

React Native is a cross-platform mobile application development framework. It saves development time & cost and adds the ability to ship OTA (over the air) updates.

Let's dive into managing Rails application-specific business logic using ActiveInteraction.

Tips to buy Apple gear with the maximum extended warranty.

Remote Pair Programming Tips using RubyMine and Screenhero (Zoom)

Tips for successful remote pair programming.

Success the ShakaCode Way!

It’s Thanksgiving today! I’m taking a few minutes to put down a few thoughts that I hope will bring you, your family, and your friends “success” in the coming year.

How does the Webpacker gem provide "it-just-works" webpack integration with Rails? That simplicity did not come easily. The rich functionality, complexity, and rapid evolution of the webpack ecosystem necessitated extension points beyond a simple Ruby config file.

Migrations on Sequelize-CLI for beginners

Learn the basics of Sequelize-CLI with Renan Aguiar. Packages, npm, npx, configuration folders, migration statuses and more.

Optimizing js bundle

In this article, I'm considering how you can optimize the site load built on react and webpack.

Delivering an exceptional user and developer experience, ShakaCode offers "React on Rails Pro," a subscription-based service including a React-on-Rails Pro license for accelerating client- and server-side performance along with ongoing optimization and support.

Optimizing Google Fonts on Gatsby Sites

Achieve faster page loads and avoid flashing and jumping fonts by properly preloading Google fonts on your Gatsby sites with the gatsby-plugin-prefetch-google-fonts plugin.

Safe Routing in ReScript

Once you start using a language with sound and expressive type system, to fully leverage its advantages you should push loosely typed entities to the edges of application. One such entity is the URL.

Safe Identifiers in ReScript

Pretty much each entity in our apps has special field that uniquely identifies it. Usually, it's called id. Type of such identifier can be int or string (or any other serializable data type).

Introduction to Cypress on Rails

Cypress provides really powerful tools to create true end-to-end tests for modern web applications. With these testing features, stay 100% confident that all frontend user interactions, even async requests, work as expected.

Migrating from Angular to React

Foreword

Easy React Server Rendering with rails/webpacker v4 and React on Rails

I’m excited about the v4 update of Webpacker. This release brings several big updates from the Webpack ecosystem, notably support for Webpack v4 and Babel 7.

HVMN’s 90% Reduction in Server Response Time from React on Rails Pro

Since HVMN installed React on Rails Pro, they’ve seen a roughly 90% improvement in server-response times. The gain came from a combination of intelligent caching along with a much more efficient…

How I Almost Fell for Phishing!

I take some pride in being “tech savy” enough that I would never fall for phishing.

Eliminating Illegal State in ReScript

Next thing I’d like to share is how ReScript helps in making illegal states unrepresentable in our apps.

ReScript Modules

Recently, I’ve been investing quite a lot in learning ReScript and TBH I’m pretty much dead as JS developer right now because I’ve seen the better world. Much better one.

React on Rails v9 completes the update to using Webpacker for publishing assets to Rails views, rather than the legacy “asset pipeline.”

Front-End Sadness to Happiness: The React on Rails Story at GORUCO 2017

Here is a short recap of my odyssey around 4 major US cities giving talks on React on Rails in June of 2017. This talk focused on the “Why?” of React on Rails.

Optimized, Parallelized CircleCI Configuration for ReactOnRails

ReactOnRails + Jest + CodeCov + CircleCi Parallelization

Influencing Webpacker Rather than Forking to Support Webpacker in React on Rails

This article provides some background discussion of my work to influence Webpacker and how that lead to the creation of Webpacker Lite, as described in Webpacker Lite: Why Fork Webpacker?

Webpacker Lite: Why Fork Webpacker?

Update September 10, 2017. Webpacker Lite has been merged into v3 of Webpacker. If you’re using React on Rails, see the CHANGELOG for migration instructions to update to v9 of React on Rails which uses v3 of Webpacker.

What follows is a quick rundown of how we’re currently handling SVGs at ShakaCode.

Redux Tree

There are two ways of thinking of about UI: in terms of state or in terms of interactions.

Bulletproof Enums using Immutable Records and Flow

If you use immutable-js and flow in your projects, you can have statically type-checked Enums. This means you’ll errors right in your editor and on CI when you try to access an Enum property that is misspelled or doesn’t exist.

A Year of development with Redux. Part III

In the last post of this series, I’ll demonstrate writing UI code as a set of interactions and share how this facilitates integrating Redux and Flow.

Unnecessary re-renders can slow down your app, especially when rendering large collections where updates to the collection occur frequently. The React docs sometimes refer to these as “wasted” renders.

A Year of development with Redux. Part II

The previous post was about the composition of connected components and performance, but those changes introduced another kind of issues, that was solved by the second insight.

A Year of development with Redux. Part I

I’ve spent the past year working on the primary product of ShakaCode and I’d like to share three biggest insights that I gained during this journey.

Migration to Webpack@2

I spent the past few days upgrading our app to the latest RC of Webpack ver. 2. Here’s the official migration guide, that covers most of the common cases, but there were still a number of “gotchas” that I wish I had been aware of before I started this PR.

Yak Shaving Failing Integration Tests with React and Rails

This Thanksgiving weekend, I decided to a major refresh of the react-webpack-rails-tutorial, including:

Why Hire ShakaCode?

At ShakaCode, we build custom web and mobile apps, specializing in the use of React or React-Native on the front end and Ruby on Rails on the back end.

My React on Rails Talk at the LA Ruby/Rails Meetup, November 10, 2016

I want to express my thanks to the organizers, Claudio and Anna, of the LA Ruby/Ruby on Rails Meetup, along with Stack Commerce, for hosting my talk on React on Rails. You can find the original meetup posting here.

General Troubleshooting and Getting Started with React on Rails

Recently, I’ve been doing more private coaching/pairing sessions on getting setup with React on Rails. In this article, I’m going to share my general tips for maximum productivity when using React on Rails. Many of these tips will apply regardless of your programming environment.

React on Rails, 2000+ 🌟 Stars

React on Rails is the number one open source integration of React + Webpack + Ruby on Rails. If we take out Webpack from the equation, React on Rails is the number 2 integration solution, second only to reactjs/react-rails, which started 2 years earlier.

I send this out to everybody that’s interested in our team. And the ones that excel at this become full time team members.

An Attitude of Gratitude for Open Source

This happened today, in a discussion on github, regarding the “damage” done by having two alternative mainstream ways of integrating React.js with Ruby on Rails.

The React on Rails Doctrine

This document is an extension and complement to "The Rails Doctrine."

Who Is ShakaCode?

by JUSTIN GORDON in SEP 17, 2015

Universal React with Rails: Part IV

Building Universal JavaScript app using React, Redux and Ruby on Rails. Part IV: Making Universal Flux app

Universal React with Rails: Part III

Building Universal JavaScript app using React, Redux and Ruby on Rails. Part III: Building Universal app

Universal React with Rails: Part II

Building Universal JavaScript app using React, Redux and Ruby on Rails. Part II: Building JSON API

Universal React with Rails: Part I

Building Universal JavaScript app using React, Redux and Ruby on Rails. Part I: Planning the application

Understanding Ruby and how enums work in Rails 4.1.

Fast Rich Client Rails Development with Webpack and the ES6 Transpiler

This article shows you how to integrate webpack into the Rails ecosystem, allowing the use of npm modules and tools, including the ES6 and JSX transpilers.

Should you store your node_modules in your git repository or configure git to ignore the node_modules directory.

How to update Octopress to Jekyll 2 and add Discourse for comments on a static site.

Example showing how pry demonstrates the usefulness of Array#zip with CSV

Best-practices for upgrading Ruby on Rails gems to newer versions while saving time and avoiding headaches.

This article describes some tougher issues I faced when upgrading to Rails 4.1 and RSpec 3.

A comparison of using Zeus vs Spring with Rails 4.1 along with the parallel-tests gem.

Example showing how pry can help one better understand the useful Ruby Hash[] constructor.

2014 Golden Gate Ruby Conference: Top 10 Reasons to Attend

My top reasons to attend the 2014 Golden Gate Ruby Conference (GoGaRuCo).

RailsConf 2014

RailsConf Notes

tmux, tmuxinator, and iTerm2 tips for productivity with Rails Development

This is a refresh of my original post from April, 2013 to adjust for Emacs 24.3 and org-mode 8.2.x

Fixing RecordNotUnique errors by turning on disable_with by default for all submit buttons using simple_form.

Tutorial and example of using Jetbrain's RubyMine and IntelliJ's interactive regexp search and replace.

How and why on migration from bash to zsh on Mac OS.

GoGaRuCo 2013: Community > Code

A Newbie's 2013 GoGaRuCo Experience

Instructions on Upgrading Octopress

Tips for efficiently migrating a test rspec test suite from capybara-webkit to poltergeist-phantomjs

Tips to learn emberjs and advice on getting started with Tom Dale's Tutorial

This post demonstrates how to build a simple Ember.js app with Rails 4 for persistence, and includes a detailed screencast.

Useful tools for Chrome with CoffeeScript

A quick guide to installing discourse to see a production quality rails project on github.

How do ensure that your application properly handles errors, especially when relying on third parties, such as payment processors? Is it easy to verify that the right things happen when the wrong things happen?

Here's a few tips regarding renaming and redating posts and pages in Octopress.

Clean logging and error handling is a critical aspect of a RoR app. What’s a good strategy? Why does this matter?

Installing Octopress with github hosting, Org Mode markup, and Live-Reload