Ruby Ramblings

Even though we have been using Ruby for several years now we love to learn more about the language, the following posts are us sharing our learnings with you.

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

• Getting vips to work with Rails on Heroku
  As of Rails 7, vips is the default way to manipulate images. This is how we got vips working on Heroku
• What are the square brackets in my Rails migrations?
  Let's look at what these little square brackets are doing in our Rails migration files
• Setting up Permissions Policy with Rails
  How to set up Permissions Policy HTTP header in your Rails app
• Basic guide to Content Security Policy with Rails
  The basics of setting up CSP with your Rails app
• Postico basics
  The basics of using Postico
• Rails migrations - add default value to existing column
  Here's how to update an existing column to use a default value
• 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