Articles

2016

• Setting up Sublime Text 3 for Rails Development Revised
  I’ve been a satisfied Sublime user for the past three years, using it primarily for Rails development. Here are the packages, preferences, and tips I recommend for getting the most out of this excellent editor.
• Rails OS X Setup Guide Revised
  Installing an rbenv-based Rails stack on El Capitan, Yosemite, or Mavericks
• Build and Deploy a Rails VPS, Part 1 Revised
  Start by provisioning an Ubuntu 14.04 VPS, then install Ruby with rbenv.
• Dynamic Rails Error Pages Revised
  Build custom 404 and 500 error pages utilizing ERB and your existing layouts and stylesheets.
• ActiveRecord Strict Validations, Minitest, and Shoulda Revised
  Are you using thoughtbot’s Shoulda gems with Minitest? How about strict validations in ActiveRecord? Here’s why I think these are great things to add to your Rails backpack of tools, and how to set them up.
• Use Minitest for Your Next Rails Project Revised
  Minitest is a fast, easy to read alternative to RSpec for writing Rails tests, but it can be confusing at first. Here’s how I set up Minitest with Rails, and the gotchas I encountered along the way.

2015

• Accelerated Rails Downloads with NGINX
  Rails has an option to enable X-Accel-Redirect, but that is not the whole story. To get it working, NGINX has to be configured as well, and it is a bit tricky. Here is what I figured out.
• Applying SMACSS to Rails Projects Revised
  How to organize your stylesheets in the asset pipeline.
• Lightning-Fast Sass Reloading in Rails Revised
  How to configure a Rails project with LiveReload and speed up your front-end workflow.
• Running and Destroying Rails
  Did you know that you can undo a Rails generator with the “destroy” command? Or execute arbitrary code in a Rails app from a cronjob using “runner”? Here’s a quick introduction to “running” and “destroying” with Rails!
• A Recipe for Rails Continuous Integration
  At its most basic, continuous integration (CI) is just a process that checks out the latest code commit and runs a script. What that script does is up to you. In this article I’ll share the script I use for my own Rails projects, and the reasoning behind it.
• Easier Nested Layouts in Rails Revised
  Clean up your views with this simple idiom for writing and declaring nested layouts.
• Generating Gzipped Assets for Nginx in Rails 4.2
  Nginx has the ability to serve static .gz files instead of compressing assets on the fly, which is great for performance. Unfortunately, Rails recently dropped its support of this feature. Here’s how to restore it.
• The Best of RailsConf 2015
  It’s been a few months since this year’s RailsConf, but the videos are now all posted online and there is plenty of great content to digest. Here’s a short list of my favorite talks and what I took away from each one.
• How to Test Ruby Projects on Windows
  AppVeyor is a continuous integration service like Travis CI, except that AppVeyor runs on Windows servers. I’ve found that it can be an easy way to test that a Ruby project works in a Windows environment. Here's how to set it up.
• Building a Ruby Gem in 2015 Revised
  I recently released “chandler”, a small Ruby gem for managing GitHub release notes. It started as an idea to scratch an itch, turned into a weekend project, and then into a full-blown open source Ruby gem. Here’s what I learned along the way.
• A Better Way to Purchase and Install SSL Certificates
  Did you know it’s possible to purchase new SSL certificates from the command line, and automatically renew those certificates with a simple cronjob? In this tutorial I’ll walk you through using the sslmate command-line tool, plus show you how to configure Nginx to earn an “A+” HTTPS security rating.
• Speed up Rails with Nginx’s Reverse Proxy Cache
  Nginx is a great web server for Rails apps, but did you know it also has powerful caching abilities? Here’s how to turn on reverse proxy caching in Nginx for an impressive performance boost.
• Managing Complex Tasks in Trello
  Trello tasks are great for simple to-do lists. But what about managing more complex tasks or interdependent tasks? Part 3 of my series on managing software projects in Trello.
• Using Trello Labels to Track Software Estimates
  How I use labels to track estimates, measure capacity, and keep scope creep under control. Part 2 of my series on managing software projects in Trello.
• A Closer Look at Airbrussh
  How I applied a UI and UX mindset to improve the format of Capistrano’s logging output.
• Estimating Software Projects with the ••• System
  Or: how I trick my brain into making more accurate estimates.
• Using Trello Boards to Organize Software Projects
  An introduction to how I use Trello boards and lists to organize my freelance projects. Part 1 of a series.
• The Registry Pattern
  Using a Registry to look up collaborators in Rails, like external APIs.
• Build and Deploy a Rails VPS, Part 2
  “Capify” a new Rails app and deploy it to your VPS using Capistrano and Puma.
• Running capybara-webkit Specs with Jenkins CI Revised
  How to get WebKit-driven integration tests working in a headless Linux environment.

2014

• Upgrading PostgreSQL 9.2 to 9.3 with Homebrew Revised
  What to do when PostgreSQL fails to start after a brew upgrade.
• Upgrading to Rails 4 with Capistrano
  What to watch out for when doing your first deploy after upgrading from Rails 3.

2013

• Invoke Rails and Rake Faster! Revised
  A handy shell function for running rails and rake commands with fewer mistakes.

2012

• TLS Error with Ruby Client and Tomcat Server
  Temporarily work around the problem with a simple client-side hack.
• Faster Capybara Specs
  How to use the database_cleaner gem without slowing everything down.
• Untangling the Rails Asset Pipeline, Part 4
  Troubleshooting
• Untangling the Rails Asset Pipeline, Part 3
  Making sense of the configuration options.
• Untangling the Rails Asset Pipeline, Part 2
  Making it work in production.
• Untangling the Rails Asset Pipeline, Part 1
  Dealing with caches, and: do you really need Compass?