Tag: Ruby on Rails Application

Introduction To Ruby On Rails Framework You Need To Know

Posted on by Jay

Ruby on Rails has become the leading choice of business owners when it comes to developing mobilized web application. It is flexible, well-supported, and cost-effective – what else you need?  So, in the programming world, ruby on rails framework is not only ideal for enterprise businesses, but it is perfect for the startup or local business as well.

In a web scene as where you must stand out to make something out of your project, Ruby on Rails lets your web application to break free from the consistency of the solutions at a cost that won’t move from your bottom line.

One of the major benefits of using the Ruby On Rails Application is that, for the most part, there are average spaces to put things (like configuration files, library files, etc.).

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It means that it is much easier for new developers to start a new from scratch or to work in an existing project, for the most part, be in its place.

And there are much more; why we’re head over heels in love with Ruby.  As a special token of our affection, we came up with the top reasons why we are absolutely fascinated with Ruby Rails.

A Re-Introduction to Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is not only concerning the technology, but it is also about the proficient workflow and capability to make truly amazing products, which makes Ruby on Rails a usually unique environment.

Let’s discuss more to develop your next project in Ruby on Rails!

Everything You Need To Know About Ruby On Rails

Posted on by Jay

Ruby on Rails has been the most popular open-source web application framework. It is developed with Ruby programming Language.

By using Ruby on Rails you can build applications, from simple one to a complex one, there are no limits to what can be achieved with Rails.

Ruby on Rails is improving and becoming popular amongst many popular technical communities as well as being implemented by Startup’s to Giants to build up their applications.

Ruby on Rails

 What is Ruby On Rails?

Ruby on Rails, is a web development framework, which provides the rails developers a method to save their time for writing code. Rails is one among the many web frameworks in app programming and web development.

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It  is a JavaScript framework, meaning all of the coding libraries it contains will be written in JavaScript), and the Rails framework, Sokolyk says, is simply a web framework written on top of the Ruby programming language (more on Ruby below).

These frameworks are the collection of code libraries that provides the app and web developers some ready-made solutions that help in saving their time and avoid repetitive tasks such as developing forms, tables and menus pon the website. 

In simple words, rather than writing each line of code in a program from the beginning, the web developers can use these frameworks and find the code for all the common functions that they will plug into the websites or applications that are developed by them. The ruby on rails web framework is mostly specific to a particular programming language.

 What Is A Single Page Application?

Single page application (SPA) is a website or an application which shows all information in a single page with dynamic actions, with an objective to provide great user experience to visitors and end users.

Ruby improves the performance of applications by reducing the loading time of HTML, CSS and JS files and that helps the end users to take more advantage of the app plus allows them to use it to the fullest.

There is huge demand of SPA and webmasters are moving their sophisticated and complex web applications from classic web architecture (CWA) to a single-page application (SPA). This will actually change the way people manage business with these applications.

Let me tell you the key differences between SPA and CWA,

First client request

    • CWA: The server returns a full HTML page
    • SPA: The server returns a set of templates and data which is then rendered to the full HTML page, by JavaScript, on the client side.

Subsequent requests

    • CWA: The server returns a full HTML page
    • SPA: The server returns only the data needed to display the request. Since all templates are already on the client side from the first request, no HTML/CSS/JS should be delivered.

(Source: railsadventures.wordpress.com)

Application developer can use various technologies to build SPA but with my experience I will prefer to go with Ruby on Rails as this is one of the useful frameworks to build single page application.

“Rails can easily serve HTML to web browsers and JSON to API requests from the same controller action, making it possible to power SPI web apps today right out of the box. The asset pipeline and Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) handling are a huge boon to developers that just want to build cool apps without a ton of yak shaving to get started.”

Pete Forde, Co-Founder of Unspace

 

At one point of time this questions came to my mind and I am sure it must be coming to you too – that, “How Rails help to develop and maintain applications, is it easier and robust?”

Well, by the time you reach to the end of this article, this question will be clear and answered.

Before moving your app to SPA you must know about the good and bad part of Ruby on Rails. The objective of this article is to let you know some of the most important-awesomest features Ruby on Rails nurses and bad parts while planning to build SPA with Rails.

Ruby on Rails web development framework is built with top Ruby Programming Language and it’s completely free as Opensource and runs in Linux server.

Lets Starts With The Good Part

  • The assets in Rails terminology handles static resources and integrates with Webpack.
  • Default safe HTTP headers and CSRF protection.
  • Default SQL injection protection with bundled ActiveRecord.
  • Traditional website optimizations through Turbolinks.
  • Default separate configuration for each environment like development, production and testing.
  • Jobs, e-mail integration and integrated database migrations.
  • Automatic and high capabilities to code reloading in the development environment.
  • Quick booting can be made possible compared to other frameworks.
  • Quick and massive community support of your questions.
  • Huge numbers of gems are available in community and for all kind of tasks.
  • Heavy security with specialized experts, quick solutions of issues and quick new releases made possible for leaks.
  • Quick solution of Github issues.
  • Huge numbers of generators, models, controllers including test are available.
  • Performance-related data are high in the application’s logs.
  • highly configurable, easy websockets API through ActionCable and flexible routing made possible
  • bundles with test runners solutions for both Ruby-land tests and full-feature tests through Capybara (it still lacks an integrated bundled JavaScript test runner though)

Let’s Look At The Bad Parts:

  • The individual part can’t be upgraded by RoR App developers and you will get actionable support by upgrading the framework.
  • It’s very difficult to follow code base at the time of debugging edge cases and the tasks debugging weird issues estimation also became very hard.
  • Lack of active support at the time of implicit auto loading and their problems. Full action_view is must require even if you only need action_view/helpers/number_helper.
  • Automatic or transparent params binding.
  • Its slow to boot as compared to other Ruby frameworks, spring is not perfect and shouldn’t be required in the first place.
  • At the time of individual test, the test load time increases.
  • The API documentation is incomplete and takes more time to look into, exclusively in all parts of the API.
  • Boot process and requests cycle are not clearly understandable.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

Winding Up…

Ruby on Rails is indeed a great framework to develop any type of web application and SPA. It’s very important to think how your application is and how that is performing with the end users.

No doubt you can develop single page application with Ruby on Rails in the easiest possible manner.

For a user-friendly Ruby on Rails single page application you need to gather some information like understanding the database, HTTP verbs and RESTful styles, use of Heroku or Engine Yard.

Do not get bogged down with the bad points listed above – the reason is, it’s very important to know the weaknesses (and I am sure the updated versions will be removing these loopholes gradually).

So start building wise.

Hope I have shared enough information about Ruby on Rails for single page application development. Share your thoughts with comments below, if anything I have missed out or if you think should be part of this article. Will be happy to add in.

Are you planning to build your Ruby on rails application, then we will be happy to help you. Contact us to develop your Ruby application today and enjoy all it’s features.

3 Ways To Keep Your Ruby On Rails Apps Healthy

Posted on by Jay

Ruby on Rails is an enormous framework for developing contemporary web applications and because of this, it is highly essential to make sure your apps are always running smooth plus healthy.

The world is moving very fast and custom application developers are playing with different types of technologies for creative and user-friendly application development.

Therefore, application development is not a big challenge for developers or for solution providers but choosing the right technology – does matter a lot.

Selecting the right technology-solution for your application completely depends upon you and your technical consultant. They help you in selecting the right one and how that will help to keep your application healthy for long-term future use.

Discover essential strategies to uphold the health and vitality of your Ruby on Rails applications with guidance from Andolasoft, a leading software development company.

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll uncover a range of actionable best practices designed to ensure the ongoing well-being of your Ruby on Rails apps.

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That brings me to tell you about Ruby on rails is the great framework, which supports agile development.

Ruby on Rails is both revolutionary as a language as well as a framework.

Klaus-Michael Vogelberg, CTO of Sage Software

Rails is the most well thought-out web development framework I’ve ever used. And that’s in a decade of doing web applications for a living. I’ve built my own frameworks, helped develop the Servlet API, and have created more than a few web servers from scratch. Nobody has done it like this before.

James Duncan Davidson, creator of the Tomcat web server

A supportive and user-friendly web application is always preferable by customers. And keeping the application smooth and healthy in factors like; slow pages, memory, security, third party APIs and server’s resources are always the first thing in precedence that will keep you one-step ahead of your competitors.

Let us discuss the key points, which will keep your ruby on rails application smooth and healthy for all time;

1. Keep Your Code Clean:

Application coding must be clean and bug free. Duplicated blocks of code, or several levels of nested conditions creates bugs in the application.

You need to check the code smells (the deeper problems of your application in the code part) of application. Code smells are dangerous problem for application. Solutions for code smells reduces the risk of application and makes it easier for ruby on rails developer to modify and maintain it once the application is ready.

To know the bad practices and code smells of your application, you can use one of the useful tool we use known as: RubyCritic.

Andolasoft’s Expert Tip: You can use the below Gemfile for easy installation of RubyCritic.

[code language=”php”]
# Gemfile

gem ‘rubycritic’, require: false, groups: [:development, :test]
[/code]

Once that’s done, just bundle install and run RubyCritic against your app’s code:

[code language=”php”]
$ cd /path/to/your/app

$ bundle install

$ bundle exec rubycritic –format html
[/code]

After some time RubyCritic will generate the report of your application code quality and if that report will not open automatically, you need to collect that from your app’s tmp/rubycritic folder.

[code language=”php”]
$ open tmp/rubycritic/overview.html
[/code]

2. Security Check Up:

Rails have many security options for any type of security issues.

Brakeman is the tool through which you can easily check your applications security issues. Let us have a quick look at the installation processes of brakeman like a gem.

Jump into your app’s code and run the brakeman command:

[code language=”php”]
$ cd /path/to/your/app

$ gem  install brakeman

$ brakeman
[/code]

After that brakeman will generate a complete report with all your security issues (if any) – that will help you to resolve those issues quickly.

3. Set Up Monitoring

Once your application comes out of the development process, you need to very carefully check each part of it, so that nothing goes wrong for the end-users.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

There is always a slip between the ‘cup-and-the-lip’, and this tells us to be prepared for any possibilities of errors. Free tools like StatusCake, Sentry and Rollbar can be used to check for error while getting reports on the same whereas Skylight and New Relic for performance monitoring of your application.

The Final Tale

Keeping your productive Ruby on rails application healthy is an ongoing process. Consultation with specialized and experienced ruby on rails developers is much needed to stay away from those uncanny and strange surprising issues.

Got a Ruby on Rails App or Idea to discuss about? Consult Now

Effective Ways To Secure Your Ruby On Rails Application

Posted on by Jay

Security is one of the  important factors  that every developer considers during web application development. If your application is not secure, then it will result in losing your user’s trust and they’ll move away.

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In this article, we will mainly focus on the ruby on rails guide to “ secure your Rails application”. Therefore here you can see some important steps that you can follow for your ruby on rails security.

What Is Session?

In networking “Session” indicates the time of browsing a website by a user, a semi-permanent information exchange between a user and a computer. In a session, the user has to authenticate on every request for his identity. As Webpages are having no memories, sessions are helpful for users to be recognized within a website/application.

Rubyonrails(Source: rubyonrails.org)

Rails create a new session when a new user accesses the application and loads the existing session if the user has already used the same. In the Rails app a session usually consists of a hash of values and a session id. The session id is a 32-character string; it helps to identify the hash. It is possible to save and retrieve the values using the session method.

To set data:

def create
# …
session[:current_user_id] = @user.id
# …

end

To retrieve the data:

def index

current_user = User.find_by_id(session[:current_user_id])

# …

end

There are several ways in which hackers use sessions to exploit sensitive information, such as Session Hijacking, Replay Attack, Session Fixation and Session Expiry.

session-hijacking

It is the process of stealing a user’s session id so that the attacker can use the application in the user name. The session id in the cookie identifies the session. If someone sniffs the cookie in an insecure network may use the web application in the name of the user. It is prevented by providing a secure connection over SSL. In Rails 3.1 and later versions, it is done by forcing SSL connection in the “config. file”.

config.force_ssl = true

Replay Attacks For Cookie Store Sessions

A replay attack is a form of network attack in which valid data transmission is repeated or delayed maliciously using the CookieStore. To solve replay attacks include a nonce or random value in the sessions. Storing the nonce in a database table is the best solution. This will make the purpose of CookieStore entirely false.

session-fixation

Secure User Data:

New Rails developers get into the habits of displaying data using their ID. It has been a part of the  ActiveRecord methods that is drilled into the young developers  during the ruby on rails application development, they first learn to generate the RestFul Controllers by using CRUD actions. But by default this code doesn’t perform any kinds of authorization checks.

All the users of this application can see every record by changing the URL ID. To properly manage the roles and permissions, Rails has authorization to gems like CanCanCan or Pundit. 

The simple way to make sure the user cannot access other’s data is by performing the  query on the objects which belong to them (it also reduces the load of the query to speed up your rails application)

What Is Session Fixation?

When the attackers fix a user’s session id known to them, this is known as session fixation. They force the user’s browser to use the fixed id. Therefore, after this the attackers do not need to steal the sessions. It can be dangerous because the victim and the attacker will co-use the application, as the session is valid and the victim cannot even notice it.

To prevent Session Fixation, issue a new session identifier and make the previous one invalid after a successful login. This is how a new session is created in Rails:

reset_session

session-expire

How To Expire A Session!

There are cases in which sessions never expires. This extends the period for attacks. It can be prevented by setting expiry time-stamp of the cookie with the session id.

Here is an example – how to expire a session in a database:

class Session < ActiveRecord::Base

def self.sweep(time = 1.hour)

if time.is_a?(String)

time = time.split.inject { |count, unit| count.to_i.send(unit) }

end

delete_all “updated_at < ‘#{time.ago.to_s(:db)}'”

end

end

The SSL is the only way to prevent sniffing attacks that are done with sessions. Large objects and critical data shouldn’t be stored in sessions. They should be stored in the database and save their id in session.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

The SSL is the only way to prevent sniffing attacks that are done with sessions. Still there are some additional guidelines in Rails to secure the sessions. Large objects should not be stored in sessions. They should be stored in the database and save their id in session. In addition, critical data must not be saved in session. Many storage mechanisms are provided in Rails for session hashes, the most important of them is ActionDispacth::Session::CookieStore. Rails 2 also has introduced a default session storage called, “CookieStore”. This is helpful in preventing tampering.

Conclusion:

Worried!

Then start taking your Ruby on rails Security seriously. As it’s a part of your job whether you like it or not.

Despite implementing several security measures to your Ruby on Rails application, an experienced ROR developer is important, especially when implementing any solutions to the problems that contain any sensitive data.

@Andolasoft. We use Ruby on Rails as a core technology for delivering high quality secured web apps. We develop and maintain code base, use various technologies to protect you from hackers.

Do you have something to add up? Please drop in your comments below or talk to us.

4 Simple Steps To Implement “Delayed Job” In Rails

Posted on by Jay

Here in this article, I going to tell you the best way to implement “delayed job” in rails

“delayed_job” is a ruby gem used to execute tasks as a background process in Rails environment, increasing page rendering speed.

Delayed::Job (or DJ) allows you to move jobs into the background for asynchronous processing.

Why you need a background process and is it really that important!

Let’s consider a scenario where a mailing application needs to send emails to a huge list of recipients. In such cases it is obvious that the processing time is too long, annoying the users.

Here are some of key points to consider:

  • Incredibly quick & easy to get rolling
  • No addition to your “stack”, runs just fine with Active Record
  • Good choice for beginners while migrating code from foreground to the background

Hence, it’s only wise to move the long running tasks as a background process by using “delayed_job” gem.

Detailed steps to integrate delayed job in a Rails application

Step# 1

  • Add gem to the Gemfile
  • “delayed_job” supports multiple back-ends for storing the job queue
  • To use “delayed_job” with Active Record, use gem ‘delayed_job_active_record’
  • To use “delayed_job” with Mongoid, use gem ‘delayed_job_mongoid’

Example

/Gemfile.rb

  • gem ‘delayed_job_active_record’, ‘4.0.3’
  • Run “bundle install” to install the “delayed_job” gem

Step# 2

  • Generate the related file for the Job run
  • Generate related files required to run the background job by running the following command
    • rails g delayed_job:active_record

It adds following files to the application

  • A Script named “delayed_job” inside “/bin” folder to run the jobs which are in queue.
  • Migration file to create a table to store the job with other information such as priority, attempts, handler, last_error, run_at, locked_at, failed_at, locked_by, queue.

Run the migration file by using the following command

  • rails db:migrate

Set the queue_adapter in config/application.rb

  • config.active_job.queue_adapter = :delayed_job

If you are using the protected_attributes gem, it must appear before delayed_job in your gemfile. If your jobs are failing with:

  • Setup Delayed::Job config in an initializer (config/initializers/delayed_job_config.rb)
    • Delayed::Worker.destroy_failed_jobs = false
    • Delayed::Worker.sleep_delay = 60
    • Delayed::Worker.max_attempts = 3
    • Delayed::Worker.max_run_time = 5.minutes
    • Delayed::Worker.read_ahead = 10
    • Delayed::Worker.default_queue_name = ‘default’
    • Delayed::Worker.delay_jobs = !Rails.env.test?
    • Delayed::Worker.raise_signal_exceptions = :term
    • Delayed::Worker.logger = Logger.new(File.join(Rails.root, ‘log’, ‘delayed_job.log’))

Step# 3

  • Replace script/delayed_job with bin/delayed_job
  • Start up the jobs process

There are two ways to do this.

  • If application is in development mode, we would use the below rake task instead.
    • rake jobs:work
  • If application is in production mode, then it is preferred to use the “delayed_job” script. This demonizes the job process and allows multiple background processes to be spawned.

To use this, pursue the following steps

  • Add gem “daemons” to your Gemfile
  • Run bundle install
  • Make sure you’ve run rails generate delayed_job
  • If you want to just run all available jobs and exit you can use rake jobs:workoff
  • Work off queues by setting the QUEUE or QUEUES environment variable.
    • QUEUE=tracking rake jobs:work
    • QUEUES=mailers,tasks rake jobs:work

Step# 4

  • Add task to run in background
  • In Controller just call .delay.method(params) on any object and it will be processed in the background.

Example:

UsersController before adding to background job

[code language=”html”]
class UsersController < ApplicationController
def send_email
User.find_each(is_subscribed: true) do |user|
NewsMailer.newsletter_mail(user).deliver
flash[:notice] = "Mail delivered"
redirect_to root_path
end
end
end
[/code]

 
UsersController after adding to background job

[code language=”html”]
class UsersController < ApplicationController
def send_email
User.find_each(is_subscribed: true) do |user|
# add .delay method to add it to background process. In case of mail sending remove the .deliver method to make it work.
NewsMailer.delay.newsletter_mail(user)
flash[:notice] = "Mail delivered"
redirect_to root_path
end
end
end
[/code]

Advantages of implementing above steps:

  • No more waiting for a response, after clicking a link to do a big stuff.
  • Just call .delay.method(params) on any object and it processes in the background.
  • Job objects are serialized to yaml and stored in the delayed_jobs table, so they can be restored by the job runner later.
  • It automatically retries on failure. If a method throws an exception it’s caught and the method reruns later. The method retries up to 25 times at increasingly longer intervals until it passes.
  • “delayed_job” gem maintains log by creating a log file “/log/delayed_job.log”

I am sure this article will give you a clear idea about the way to implement “delayed job” in rails. You can share your thoughts with comments if I have missed anything or if you want to know more.

Do you work on or use Ruby on Rails? Let’s Discuss!

How to Generate SEO Friendly URL in Rails 3.x

Posted on by Jay

Rails3SEO friendly URLs are more important to make a page popular & search engines to crawl.

FriendlyId is the slugging and permalink plug-in for Ruby on Rails. It allows you to create pretty URLs and work with human-friendly strings.

The URLs created by slug are very useful for SEO. It is designed for generation of URL slug and history maintenance.

Steps to create Pretty URLs:

Step#1

Include gem in your Gem file:

gem 'friendly_id'

Then run bundle install.

Step#2

Modify your model on which you want the pretty URL:

extend FriendlyId
 
friendly_id :title, use: :slugged

Step#3

Add the slug column in your migration file to add it on the table

add_column :articles, :slug, :string

Then run

rake db:migrate

Now if you create an article with Title like “This is a demo title for testing”,
it will create a SEO friendly URL like “this-is-a-demo-title-for-testing” and will
save into the articles table under slug column.