5 Favorite Gems

A lightning talk delivered to the February BostonRB project night.

Transcript

1. Custom Software, Simplified 5 Awesome Gems ...and some fun with MemeGenerator Wednesday, February 6, 13
2. Custom Software, Simplified Hi! • I’m Dan • Co-Organizer @ BostonRB • Principal Consultant @ LaunchWare • Head of Instruction @ Launch Academy • dpickett on Twitter / GitHub/ everyHub Wednesday, February 6, 13
3. Custom Software, Simplified Some Favorites • inherited_resources • kaminari • guard • configatron • bourbon Wednesday, February 6, 13
4. Custom Software, Simplified Inherited Resources Wednesday, February 6, 13
5. Custom Software, Simplified Why? • Makes writing boilerplate controllers easier • Easy internationalization of flash text with the Responders gem • Easy API generation for JSON and XML Wednesday, February 6, 13
6. Custom Software, Simplified Why Not? • Another DSL/Library to Learn • Can sometimes get in your way for nonstandard controller actions • Not good for beginners - feel the pain of repetition in your controllers, first Wednesday, February 6, 13
7. Custom Software, Simplified class  AccountsController  <  ApplicationController    respond_to  :json    inherit_resources  #gives  you  all  RESTful  actions  for  Account end Wednesday, February 6, 13
8. Custom Software, Simplified Kaminari Wednesday, February 6, 13
9. Custom Software, Simplified Why? • Easily customizable/themed • great configuration options • awesome generators • Scope-Based • Doesn’t hack core objects • I18n ready for localization Wednesday, February 6, 13
10. Custom Software, Simplified Why Not? • Other engines might express alternative decisions (refinery, ie) • Can be painful to paginate non-scope/ AREL collections Wednesday, February 6, 13
11. Custom Software, Simplified #in  your  controller @users  =  User.    page(params[:page]).    per(50) #in your view <%= paginate @users %> Wednesday, February 6, 13
12. Custom Software, Simplified guard Wednesday, February 6, 13
13. Custom Software, Simplified Why? • Don’t constantly have to run tests manually • Invokes tests for files that change • Extensible plugin architecture • Extensible notification architecture Wednesday, February 6, 13
14. Custom Software, Simplified Why Not? • Minor issue where guard plugins can lag behind on dependencies Wednesday, February 6, 13
15. Custom Software, Simplified Configatron Wednesday, February 6, 13
16. Custom Software, Simplified Why? • Easy, dynamic configuration for gems and applications • Configure via manual code, hash or YAML • Plays nicely with Rails Application configuration Wednesday, February 6, 13
17. Custom Software, Simplified Why Not? • nulls vs. blanks can be confusing Wednesday, February 6, 13
18. Custom Software, Simplified module  Facebook    def  self.secret_key=(key)        configatron.facebook.secret_key  =  key    end    def  self.secret_key        configatron.facebook.secret_key    end end Wednesday, February 6, 13
19. Custom Software, Simplified Bourbon Wednesday, February 6, 13
20. Custom Software, Simplified Why? • Handy shortcuts for common CSS idioms • Beautiful documentation • Exposes you to lots of great/creative CSS uses Wednesday, February 6, 13
21. Custom Software, Simplified Why Not? • Can be difficult to install/configure as part of the asset pipeline • You still need to be an informed consumer of experimental CSS features Wednesday, February 6, 13
22. Custom Software, Simplified http://bourbon.io Wednesday, February 6, 13
23. Custom Software, Simplified To Learn More... http://launchacademy.co The Fun Begins May 1st Wednesday, February 6, 13
24. Custom Software, Simplified For More Gems... • Ignition, our rails template is available • http://github.com/LaunchWare/ignition Wednesday, February 6, 13
25. Custom Software, Simplified Questions? Wednesday, February 6, 13