How to Implement Rails-like Dynamic Views in Ruby

In this article, we will learn 'one' way to implement the controller-to-view data handoff using instance variables, just like Rails, and following the same conventions as Rails. Although it's a highly simplified implementation to keep things simple, I hope you'll find it fun and learn something new.

This article is for Members only

Rails Companion 8 min read

Implementing Rails-like Controllers in a No-Rails App

In its essence, a controller class in Rails is a coordinator. It accepts the incoming HTTP request and builds the data required by the view using the domain models. This post shows a highly simplified implementation of the controller pattern for a better understanding of Rails controllers.

This article is for Members only

Rails Companion 9 min read

Understanding the Concept of Binding in Ruby

Binding is an elegant way to access the current scope (variables, methods, and self) in Ruby. Typically, you use it for building view templates and executing strings of Ruby code. The Ruby REPL also makes abundant use of binding. In this post, we'll learn what binding is and how it works.

4 min read

Serving Static Files in Ruby

This is the fourth article in the series where we build a simple, yet complete web app in plain Ruby, without using Rails to better understand how Rails works. In this article, we'll learn how to serve static files in plain Ruby, without using Rails.

This article is for Members only

Rails Companion 7 min read

How to Split a List into N Equal Parts in Ruby (and Rails)

This article shows you can split (or chunk) a list of items into n-equally sized parts using the `each_slice` method in Ruby and `in_groups_of` method in Rails.

2 min read

Blocks, Procs, and Lambdas: A Beginner's Guide to Closures and Anonymous Functions in Ruby

Closures and anonymous functions are very useful concepts, especially in functional programming. Ruby makes working with them a pleasure via its flavors like blocks, procs, and lambdas. This post provides an in-depth tutorial and shows the subtle differences between them.

10 min read

How Module Autoloading Works in Ruby and Rails

Autoloading allows you to speed up the initialization of your library by lazily loading the code only when you need it. This post explains how the autoload method works in Ruby and how Rails overrides this method to provide its own implementation that follows the Rails naming conventions.

Rails Internals 4 min read

Practical Stimulus: How to Toggle CSS Classes

This second article in the 'Stimulus in Practice' series shows how you can work with HTML classes using Stimulus. Specifically, we'll learn how to toggle classes on an element. This is useful when you want to show or hide certain elements or update the design in response to user interaction.

Practical Stimulus 5 min read

Practical Stimulus: Capture User Input

Stimulus is a JavaScript library that works really well with the HTML-over-the-wire approach of building web applications. In this series of articles, we'll learn how to accomplish common front-end tasks using Stimulus. This post shows how to capture user input and display it on the screen.

Practical Stimulus 6 min read

Unix: A History and a Memoir

I recently read Brian Kernighan’s Unix: A History and a Memoir. If his name sounds familiar, Brian is also the author of The C

1 min read

How to Create a Form with Multiple Submit Buttons to Different URL Endpoints

I came upon an interesting problem at work yesterday. A 'search filters' form needed to have two endpoints to which it could submit:

2 min read

Generating Secure Tokens on Your ActiveRecord Models

You must have used the `has_secure_password` macro in Rails. Did you know Rails also provides a `has_secure_token` macro to generate unique tokens on your models? In this article, we'll learn how it works and we'll also see how Rails implements it behind the scenes.

Rails Internals 3 min read