Postings for Rails developers. From Daniel Kehoe and the RailsApps project.
I’ve updated the website at railsapps.org to announce the project is no longer maintained. See the website for details. The project was popular from 2012 to 2018. Tens of thousands of developers worldwide got started with Rails using the Railsapps project and my accompanying books and tutorials. Interest in Rails began to decline in 2018 and I moved on to other work. Rails remains a popular…
I’m offering all the Capstone Rails Tutorials , plus the Learn Ruby on Rails books, for free. Until now, the combination of the books, the advanced tutorials and the videos were available for a one-time purchase of $95. Over 800 developers have purchased the RailsApps Tutorials in the previous four years. But Rails moves fast with major releases every two years. Rails 6.0 will soon be…
I’ve completed the Rails 5.1 update for Book Two of my book series Learn Ruby on Rails . It’s important to have an accurate and up-to-date tutorial for beginners getting started with Rails. I’ve updated all the code examples in the book for Rails 5.1. The book shows how to integrate Bootstrap with Rails for layout and styling. Rails 5.1 drops jQuery which is required by Bootstrap…
On June 5, 2017 we successfully concluded a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to update Rails Composer for Rails 5.1. 122 backers pledged $6,963. I’m always awed at the community support for the project. Thank you! With support from the community, I will work on a new version of Rails Composer and update the RailsApps example applications for Rails 5.1. Rails 5.1 requires extensive changes…
At the end of April I was invited to speak about Rails Composer at the RubyHACK conference in Salt Lake City. Half the audience already knew about Rails Composer and everyone was very enthusiastic. Judging from the response, Rails Composer has become a popular tool for Rails developers. After the conference, RubyHACK participant Ian Mercaldi wrote a great blog post on “Starting New Apps With…
Today I finished updating the RailsApps example applications for Rails 5.0. I currently maintain eleven example applications on GitHub, ranging from simple to moderately complex. The Rails Composer tool will generate any of the example applications. You can use the example applications as starter applications. Or use the example applications as reference implementations so you can see how basic…
Today I’ve released the Rails 5.0 version of Book Two of the book set Learn Ruby on Rails . A big thank you to the Kickstarter backers who made the revision possible! To get your own copy of the Rails 5.0 book, use the invitation code you’ll find on the welcome page at learn-rails.com If you’ve got access to the advanced Capstone Rails Tutorials , you’ll find you’ve…
I’ve begun updating the RailsApps example applications. So far, I’ve updated all the example applications to Ruby 2.3.1 and Rails 4.2.7 with the goal of eventually updating all the example applications to Rails 5.0. Several of the example applications use Devise for authentication and Devise 4 introduced a new syntax for handling parameters submitted in registration and sign-in forms.…
Bootstrap 4, the frontend framework, is in alpha release now. Many developers are already using it, so I’ve added it as an option to Rails Composer. Now, when you generate a starter application with Rails Composer, you can choose Bootstrap 4. You’ll get the bootstrap-rubygem with proper configuration of assets plus a navigation bar and flash messages styled for Bootstrap 4. Rails…
For those who are following my digital nomad progress, I’m currently in Sydney, Australia with plans to return to SE Asia soon (it’s getting cold here in Australia). I’ve spent several months performing consulting work on a stealth project in Bali and now in Australia. I’m keeping the RailsApps project going, though, and I’ve recently updated Rails Composer . Rails 5…
It’s been a year of transition for RailsApps . I wanted to find a way to support the open source project, working on it full time, without relying on corporate subsidies or consulting work. The initial plan was to sell subscriptions to support the project. Some people signed up to support the project; others signed up just to read the tutorials. That worked for the first two years but the…
The folks at Thoughtbot released a new gem for administrative dashboards. It’s named Administrate and though it’s new, it’s well-designed and useful. Developers often use the ActiveAdmin or RailsAdmin gems to build admin dashboards, but I’ve never added them to Rails Composer. The Upmin gem has been a better alternative and it’s an option in Rails Composer when…
Rails Composer is a quick way to build Rails starter applications. Now I’ve released Rails Composer with a collection of Bootstrap page templates . Give it a try! Generate a Rails application with Rails Composer and select Bootstrap as your front-end framework. You’ll get an option to install any of 23 different Bootstrap page templates. Here’s how to run Rails Composer: $ rails…
All the RailsApps example applications add either the Bootstrap or Foundation front-end frameworks using a file framework_and_overrides.css.scss . Files in the folder app/assets/stylesheets are loaded in alphabetical order unless the manifest in application.css.scss specifies the files by name. Today I added a custom CSS file to a project with filename that preceded…
I wrapped up the Kickstarter campaign for Rails Composer. It was a success! 152 backers pledged $8,505. I’m grateful for the outpouring of support. It helped that I had great rewards for contributors, with free trial memberships from Learneroo, GoRails, RailsClips, and the Hero Pro Rails tutorial from Code4Startup, as well as my own Capstone Rails Tutorials . By now, all contributors have…
If you’d like to hear about my digital nomad life and the backstory of the RailsApps project, you can listen to an interview on Ruby Rogues with me that was released today. We talked about Rails Composer, who uses it and why, and if it’s suitable for people learning Rails. Ruby Rogues always asks guests for “picks” for products and services, and mine were the Pinegrow web…
I’ve updated the book Learn Ruby on Rails and replaced the versions on the sites learn-rails.com and tutorials.railsapps.org . I’ve submitted a new version to Amazon as well. This is book version 2.2.1. The tutorial application has a mailing list feature that shows readers how to use Rails to connect to an external service. We connect to MailChimp using the Gibbon gem . MailChimp recently updated…
Launched! Kickstarter Campaign for Rails Composer When the campaign finishes on October 6, I’ll add the much-anticipated “breakthrough missing feature” to Rails Composer . You can watch the video to learn more. Spoiler alert: It’s several dozen Bootstrap page templates to make Rails Composer even more powerful. Kickstarter is a “give something, get something”…
Not a big deal, but I’ve updated the RailsApps Example Applications for Rails 4.2.4. I keep them up to date with the current release. Many new Rails developers don’t know about these example applications. They are good reference applications if you want to create an application with common gems such as Devise or OmniAuth, add authorization or a front-end framework, or add Stripe for…
Last month I wrote about My Attempt to Save the RailsApps Project . I’m no longer selling subscriptions at $19/month to fund the project. Instead, I’m offering all the Capstone Rails Tutorials , plus the Learn Ruby on Rails book, for a one-time purchase of $95. So far, revenue hasn’t returned to the previous level. However, I’m hopeful and I’ve been working on new…