Ruby Ramblings

Even though we have been using Ruby for several years now we feel like we still have a lot of learn, the following posts are us sharing our learnings with you.

We maintain a large list of current Ruby conferences.

There is also a category dedicated to Ruby on Rails, if that is more your thing.

• Optionally creating or removing a column or table with Rails migrations
  Here's how to go about creating or removing a column optionally using Rails migrations
• Using Faker with Rails
  A guide to setting up Faker to work within Rails and why you'd want to
• Using Shoulda Matchers with RSpec
  A guide to setting up Shoulda Matchers to work with RSpec
• Testing Routes with RSpec
  Testing routes can give you more confidence and help drive application development; here is how to do it with RSpec
• How to ignore Bullet in RSpec tests
  Using Bullet during a test can pick up mistakes but also has false negatives; here is an easy way to ignore them
• How we used Nokogiri to fix a sizing issue in YouTube's oEmbed
  At some point, one of our calls to YouTube's oEmbed endpoint was returning videos way too small; we fixed in in our Rails application by using Nokogiri
• How to comment Rails migrations
  We recently learned how you could apply comments to your migrations in Rails
• Action Text Sanitizer update to more inclusive language
  How I went about updating my Action Text allowed tags/attributes
• SEO for Ruby on Rails projects
  How to do technical SEO with your Ruby on Rails application
• Converting images to use Google's webp format
  A quick guide to using Google's command line tool to convert images to webp format
• Speed up pasting text into Rails console
  Recently we had to copy and paste large amounts of text into a ruby console and we found a pretty quick way to do it
• A quick tip to speed up bundle installs
  Use more computing power to install gems faster
• History of Ruby Programming Language
  The history of the Ruby programming language - the essentials
• Removing fields with a Rails migration
  Ruby on Rails gives you powerful tools to make removing old fields easy, lets walk through how we can do this
• Testing Arrays In RSpec
  Three patterns for testing ruby arrays in RSpec, pick the one most appropriate for your use case
• Using RSpec to test meta descriptions
  A little code snippet to show you how to test meta descriptions in RSpec
• Rails Admin - only display field on edit
  Conditionally displaying fields only if they are present in the database
• Generating Open Graph social media images
  A Ruby Open Graph image generator using Tinify and RMagick
• Fixing an issue with Sprockets and feature tests
  A fix we found for issues with the asset pipeline on CircleCI
• Removing unused Trix Editor buttons
  How to quickly remove unused Trix Editor buttons from your site
• Quick and dirty initial avatars
  A quick guide to adding initial avatars using the Avatarly gem
• Creating a SagePay Encryption in Ruby
  A SagePay encryption for Ruby that some folk might find useful
• Active Storage - resizing images on upload
  Our fix for app timeouts due to upload of large images when Active Storage was used
• Making your Trix toolbar sticky
  Editing long sections of text can be cumbersome with the Trix editor. Let's make it better
• Testing ActionText without JavaScript
  I needed JS to get out of the way so I could do basic testing
• How to install a beta version of Rails
  This article will show you how using the gem command you can install beta versions of Rails
• Ruby Conferences
  Ruby conferences are a chance for the Ruby community to come together and share what we have learned recently
• How to fix problem installing Charlock Holmes Gem
  My fix for installing 0.7.6 of the Charlock Holmes gem on macOS
• Rubocop CircleCI Config
  How to fix issues with Rubocop running on your entire code base
• Using the 'it' Gem to add links to translations
  How to can use the 'it' Gem to add links to your translations
• Setting up Rails to use PostgreSQL
  A short guide to setting up your Rails project to use the PostgreSQL database
• How to change the column type with Rails migrate
  How to change the column type with a Rails migration. Lets find out how to do this common Rails task
• When to include irb in Ruby 2.4.0
  When should you include irb into your scripts and when you don't need to in Ruby 2.4.0
• ActiveJob Vs ApplicationJob
  A very quick clarification on ActiveJob and ApplicationJob
• Spring and Foreman complaining about secret_key not being set
  Spring and Foreman when freshly set up can complain about secret_key not being set when it is, I will show you how to fix this
• LRUG July 2016
  My writeup of the July 2016 LRUG, a monthly Ruby User Group meetup in London, England
• Brighton Ruby 2016
  My writeup of Brighton Ruby 2016, an annual Ruby conference in Brighton, England
• Fixing No Default Alternative Specified error in rails
  If you spot an error saying No default alternative specified when starting up rails, we can fix that
• Loading a specific file into Dotenv
  Loading a specific file into Dotenv. A quick guide for when you want to run Ruby files from outside of a document root
• How does Capistrano work?
  How does Capistrano work? There is nothing magic, there is nothing to be scared of
• My notes from November 2015's LRUG
  My notes from the London Ruby User Group that happened in November 2015
• Pictures from LRUG Nov ‘15
  Some pictures from November 2015’s London Ruby User Group
• What is a Gemfile
  What is a Gemfile? Here is my detailed explanation of what a Gemfile is and what it does, enjoy
• Adding skip_after_filter to Rails Admin
  How I added a skip_after_filter to rails_admin, which is something I recently had to do to extend the functionality of Rails Admin
• Uploading files with Capybara in RSpec tests
  You can easily upload files with Capybara when testing with RSpec
• The difference between Render and Redirect in Rails
  Find out the difference between Render and Redirect in Rails
• What is a Proc?
  Here I explain what a proc is in Ruby and some of the nuances
• Deleting Attachments with rails_admin
  How you can go about deleting attachments using Rails Admin
• Updating a Slug on a live Rails System
  How you can go about updating slugs and dealing with redirects
• Ruby’s Partition for Enumerables
  Something new I learned about partitioning on enumerables in Ruby
• POODIR On Testing
  I've been re-reading Sandi Metz' POODIR and here are my thoughts on testing
• Rails Migrations for Beginners
  An overview of Rails migrations, what they are and how to use them
• Set Intersection in Ruby
  How to see commonalities between two data sets using Ruby
• Some notes and links on WebSockets with Rails
  Here's some useful points on using WebSockets with Rails
• Nokogiri won't install? Check that you have accepted Xcode's EULA
  An non obvious reason for being unable to install updates to Nokogiri
• Converting numbers to hex using to_s in Ruby
  How you can use the Ruby to_s method to convert numbers to hex
• Get the name of a Ruby class
  Here's how you can go about getting the name of a class in Ruby
• Programmatically finding the size of the retry queue with Sidekiq
  How to use Sidekiq's API for querying the state of queues
• Using Ruby to get access to Google Keywords
  Here's a guide on how you can use Ruby to get access to Google Keywords
• Generating migrations with couchrest_model
  How you can go about generating migrations with couchrest_model
• CouchRest Rails Setup - Blank username/password issues
  Setting a blank username/password is not the same as not setting a username/password
• An introduction to Ruby/Rails/Git - Belfast Ruby
  Here's a writeup of an event that I attended in Belfast
• When testing the datasift ruby gem locally be sure to turn SSL off
  Here's how to go about not getting caught out with this
• Belfast Ruby: Talks on Elixir, Tmux and Jekyll
  A quick write up on a few different talks given at Belfast Ruby
• Using Devise to verify an email address and password
  How to go about using Devise to do verification on user credentials
• Barry Gordon talks about Vagrant - Belfast Ruby
  A short writeup on a talk given at Belfast Ruby by Barry Gordon
• Getting the flot-rails gem to play nicely with IE8
  How to go about getting this Gem working nicely with IE8
• Rspec's be_an_instance_of is pretty useful
  A handy little method I found when testing my application with RSpec
• Passing a day of the week into Ruby's Date.parse
  How you can go about passing a day into Ruby's Date.parse
• Some things I have learned about Ruby's fetch method
  Here are some things that I have learned about 'fetch' that you may find useful
• The quickest way to get from nothing to Ruby and Rails
  How to get Ruby on Rails set up easily and quickly on your Mac
• Killing all instances of Ruby on Rails running on a certain port
  How to find and stop all instances of Rails running on a specific port
• Using Dropdowns in Watir Webdriver
  How you can go about using dropdowns using the Watir Webdriver
• Controlling a jQuery datepicker with Watir
  Using a jQuery datepicker with the Watir Webdriver - example code
• Write simple rspec tests on one line for fun and profit
  How you can change your simple RSpec tests to one liners
• Adding Data Attributes using haml_tag
  A guide to using haml_tag to add data attributes - dealing with hyphens
• Getting the rmagick 2.12.2 gem working on Mac OS X
  How you can go about getting RMagick working on Mac OSx
• Validation Helpers
  Here are some of the common validation helpers in Ruby on Rails
• Secure your Redmine install by patching Ruby on Rails
  How to go about securing your Redmine install on Ruby on Rails
• What is the RAILS_GEM_VERSION
  Where to find it and what it actually does in your application
• My scribbled thoughts on Belfast Ruby's first meet up
  Some jots on what I thought about the first meetup for Ruby folk
• Ruby Fizz Buzz Solution
  My Ruby Fizz Buzz solution - I've been trying to get to know the language better
• Ruby Testing and Documenting best practice
  A little learning project with Ruby and how it manages testing