The RailsNotes Newsletter 🟥 ISSUE #26

🟥 ISSUE #26 (Awesome Rails blogs, RailsNotes UI Starter Kit and more!)

Author

Harrison Broadbent
February 10, 2024

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A bunch of Ruby heads writing their blogs — not far off what we’re covering in this newsletter!

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Welcome to The RailsNotes Newsletter — Issue #26!

Hello! It’s been an exciting two weeks in the Ruby on Rails world — Maybe (fintech startup) announced they’re switching from NextJS to Ruby on Rails, and other startups have started chiming in on Twitter about migrating too. Very exciting to see them moving across!

Turbo 8 also dropped a few days ago and included morphing, instaclick-style preloading and more (game-changer and huge leap forward for the Turbo!)

In this newsletter, we’re covering my favourite Ruby on Rails blogs. I asked you all on Twitter about your favourites, but there’s a bunch I didn’t see mentioned that also write some brilliant content, so here they are.

One last thing — I’m launching my next RailsNotes UI product soon — the RailsNotes UI Ruby on Rails Starter Kit!

The RailsNotes UI Ruby on Rails Starter Kit is launching soon! Save 16+ hours building your next app, SaaS or side-project with payments, authentication and more already setup.

I’ve built the template/starter kit that I wish existed. It’s affordable, and includes a core set of features that every single app needs! The headline features are Payments, Authentication, Deployment, Background Jobs and Tests, plus bonus extras and extensive documentation. More info coming soon, but I wanted you all to hear about it first!

With all that said, let’s dive in!

~ ✨ FEATURED ARTICLE ✨ ~

Not-so-boring rails 🚄😂 

I’ve been a huge fan of the Boring Rails blog for ages now — it’s what encouraged me to start my RailsNotes blog! Matt Swanson always writes excellent in-depth articles across a huge range of Rails topics like ActionMailer, Hotwire, Stimulus and Background Jobs.

What makes his articles great is the extensive experience he draws on (from building Arrows amongst other things) — each article is a goldmine for real-world, battle-tested tips and ideas.

I encourage you to have a browse and dive into whatever you find interesting — I’ve read most, if not all, of his articles, and they’re all packed with interesting ideas and techniques.

The SpeedShop blog is brilliant! The content is awesome — so many nitty-gritty tips and deep dives into optimizing 🧭 the performance of Ruby on Rails apps.

The blog itself is so much fun to read too! Each article has a bunch of side notes, GIFs, diagrams and links to spice them up — it’s a nice contrast between the pretty dense subject matter, and the lighter GIFs and comments. Here’s what I mean 😂 —

The DuckTypeLabs blog flies under the radar a bit, but it’s full of great in-depth articles mainly focussing on ActiveRecord, Database optimization and Turbo.

The author, Sid, really knows his stuff, and his writing style is easy to follow (even when the content starts to get technical!). In particular, I found their database indexing article and is a good litmus test of their style and content.

You probably already know this blog! It’s run by engineers at Shopify Engineering and covers developments in the Ruby language and tooling (think YJIT, Ruby 3.3, Sorbet etc).

It leans hard into the technical side of things, but the articles are always super interesting and a fun way to keep up with the bleeding-edge of Ruby development.

Here’s a bonus 4th article for the week (since I couldn’t just not include this blog!). Andy Croll has a bunch of cool articles and tips for Ruby on Rails on his One Ruby Thing blog — most of the articles are short and sweet, and focus on a single tip or idea.

My favourite article is Write One Test — it got me into writing tests for my Rails apps, and I think it’s a great philosophy to take with you.

~ ⚒️ HANDY TIP ~ 

→ Use #clamp to constrain numbers

Did you know that Ruby includes a #clamp method for restricting values to a given range?

Calling #clamp on a value constrains it to a given range. It’s a cute little method for dealing with numbers and ranges. Here’s an example —

Constrain a value to a given range with #clamp

Note: I found this tip while perusing One Ruby Thing for the above section 😉 Clamp for min/max values (andycroll.com).

~👀 BEHIND THE SCENES~ 

This is a private section 🔐 for readers with 2+ referrals!

I share behind-the-scenes updates on RailsNotes and RailsNotes UI (think traffic numbers, sales, upcoming updates etc.)

Want access? Learn about the ✨ referral program ✨ down below! 👇️ 

My Ruby on Rails template is nearing completion! I’m soft-announcing it in this newsletter, and hoping to launch it within the next week or two.

At this point, the template is feature-complete, and I’ve got a whole new version of the RailsNotes UI website ready to deploy to handle the new functionality. Really, the last thing left for me to do is fire up my webcam 🎥 and start recording some walkthrough videos!

Not much to report otherwise — stay tuned for details on the launch soon!

~ 🌯 WRAP UP ~ 

Thanks for reading! The quick wrap-up for this week is — 

  1. Rails is back baby! Actually, we never left. Some really cool startups have started shifting over to using it in the past few weeks, with (hopefully) many more to follow!

  2. There are a bunch of awesome Ruby on Rails blogs out there, and if you have a blog, I’d love to read it! Reply to this email and send it through 👍️ 

  3. I’m launching a Ruby on Rails starter kit! Keep your eyes out 👀 for the launch post over the next few weeks (and a special thank you discount code!). You can follow me on Twitter for the latest updates.

Finally, thanks 🙏 to andre.mellentin for referring someone to this newsletter!

Share the RailsNotes Newsletter!

Use your unique link below to refer new Ruby on Rails devs to this newsletter (and make me really happy!). I’ll reward you with coupon codes, access to a private section, and a free RailsNotes UI license key 👇️ 

  • [Refer 1] A small feature in the next newsletter (with a link to something you’re working on, or your socials)

  • [Refer 2] Permanent access to the behind-the-scenes section, above 👆️ 

  • [Refer 5] A $20 coupon for RailsNotes UI 📬️ 

  • [Refer 15] Free licence key for RailsNotes UI 🤑