MUBI has a long and bumpy history with ActiveResource, which eventually led to enough pain to migrate away. This talk explores the why and the how of this ongoing transition.
a solid, well-specified substrate to construct a DSL against. • ARes mimics ActiveRecord instead of engaging with its problem domain from first principles. • ActiveResource has a small user base and no visionary providing leadership.
of remote models • Guarantee correct serialization and typecasting • Normalize to rich Ruby objects early • Build for the future, but stay cognizant of YAGNI
by a standard such as JSON API, not ActiveResource • ActiveResource is a leaky abstraction • APIs are good places to be explicit rather than relying on Rails-style magic • ActiveResource's ruby API is nice enough when it works, but probably impossible to design for the general case