Tag: Ruby on Rails Web Development

Benefits Of Ruby On Rails Application Development

Posted on by Jay

Ruby on rails has been one of the tops most popular and advanced server-side web frameworks for a few years.

But still, some investors ask why we suggest Ruby on rails to develop their web application since all other frameworks and languages are available.

And obviously, they do not have any clue about it, it’s sure.

When you think a bit about it, it does seem there right is to ask as he/she the person who is investing to build the object and is going to use it as well.

So before I embark on the discussion of the benefits of using Ruby on Rails, let me explain first what Ruby on Rails actually is.

What is Ruby on Rails:

Ruby is a dynamic; fully object-oriented scripting language created back in 1995. Using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS developers can build an architecturally clean, and high-quality web application.

During the building of Basecamp in 2005, David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) envisioned a controlling library over the Ruby programming language, thus originating the rails framework.

Later he made it extensible and flexible and uprooted with the open-source market.

And the framework was further improved and makes the breakthrough for web application development.

The Key principle of RoR development is “Convention over Configuration”.

It means the developer does not need to spend much time to configure the files in order to set up where are Rails comes with a set of convection that helps to speed up the development process.

From the management point of view, Ruby on rails community supports an iterative development method knows as Agile Development.

This Method encourages a collaborative and flexible approach which well appropriate for the web app development with fast-changing necessities.

Ruby on Rails Latest VersionsSource: Rubygems[.]org

Over the years Ruby on Rails has been upgrading its version (Currently: 6.0.0.beta3 – March 13, 2019) and gained a huge following.

I think this is enough for the introduction. Now Let’s see the advantages of using this framework on web application development.

Advantages of using RoR:

The RoR framework follows the 3 major designing ethics which endorse the simplicity in building a complex system.

  • MVC (Model View Controller) Architecture
  • Conventions over Configurations Model
  • DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself)

Along with, other benefits of ruby on rails are:

Simplicity:

With simple and readable syntax helps ruby programmers to execute more in less code. So, both developers and investors can view each development and quick learning progresses on the project.

The framework has the inbuilt solutions to the variety of problems that a web developer commonly faced. In case of any customized function that you need to employ, there is a gem available in the RubyGems.

If not, still the developer can find an expert from the Ruby community who can come up with the solution.

The set rules and prototypes of RoR facilitate further web application development. So, the developer does not need to waste his/her time on searching the appropriate structure for the application.

Faster development:

The experts quote Ruby on Rails minimize 20-40% website development time as compared to the other popular frameworks.

And it can be made possible due to the object-oriented nature of Ruby such as the bend code base, modular design, wide-ranging open-source code developed by the Rails community, and a wide range of pre-built plugin solutions for feature development.

Also, the developer can access the various pre-built modules which can take standard and non-standard components from a “garage’ and integrate them into the product.

The same components can be reused as well.

Moreover, the framework offers an option of integrated testing in the process of the coding which saves both time and efforts of the developer.

Easy to maintain and update:

Well, RoR is known for its predictability and stability. The programmer can modify or change the existing codes and can add new functionality with ease.

It means, if you want to upgrade your existing application, the rails convection will help to make it possible in lesser time without any complexity. This is more valuable for bigger projects.  

Also, the substitution of the development team would not be an issue if you use RoR for your application.

Cost-effective:

For investors, Ruby on Rails is the perfect saving prospects. As I already have mentioned above, the development process is up to 20-40% lesser developed under the Ruby platform. As a result, it will cut your cost.

As it is an open-source platform, it can be used by any individual or corporation. And supports open-source Linux and many free web servers. So, you do not need to buy any license.

And seeing as the entire development procedure and code updates are executed faster, investors lean to spend fewer budgets on the development of their web applications.

Quality product:

By the help of high-quality libraries, the developer built a hassle-free web application instead of writing boilerplate code each time.

It leads to concentrate on determining the application development and building a better product for you.

Same time, RoR also endorses testing automation, which helps to deliver better-performing software.

Being friendly to web designers in terms of structuring, RoR also facilitates web apps and sites more appealing.

Fit to every Industry:

From the years, the community of Ruby has been focusing on web development.

However, the use of RoR for various purposes has grown like e-commerce, content management system, mobile application backend, Fintech, market place social networks, etc.

Industries are using RoR platform.Source: Valuecoders Image

While the framework is flexible and can easily configure to any form of business and products, the demand for use of RoR has also has been increased among business owners. You might be thinking about how you can hire a Ruby on Rail developer and how much it may cost.

Industries can use these benefits at most:

Ruby on Rails is the best option to choose for the long term and dynamic projects. If you plan to build a general-purpose app or you need a business-critical solution, Ruby programming is the better option for you too.

Here I have mentioned some other industries that can get the most benefit out of Ruby on Rails:

  •     Social Media and Networking
  •     Beauty & Fashion Website Design
  •     Blogs & Widgets
  •     eCommerce Application Development
  •     Real Estate
  •     Healthcare
  •     Sports & Fitness
  •     Retail
  •     CRM

Conclusion

The overall conclusion is, it is excellent over time and performance which can absorb the changes, easy to collaborate, and can produce the best quality product for you.

As a web development company, Andolasoft has been working on Ruby on Rails framework from the last 11+ years and more than 250+ Rails projects have been delivered successfully.

Want to build your application on Ruby on Rail?Let’s Discuss!

Closures In Ruby: Lambdas & Procs

Posted on by Jay

Ruby handles Closures in a rather unique way, with Lambdas & Procs being two of the most powerful features.

A Closure basically has the following properties:

  • Can be passed around like an object
  • Remembers values of all the variables that were in scope.
  • Accesses the variables when called, even if they may no longer be in scope.

In Ruby, Closures are supported through Procs and Lambdas.

How Are These Objects Different?

The basic difference is in terms of returning the objects and argument passing. Lambdas check the number of arguments, while Procs don’t.

Here’s the code snippet for Lambdas:

[code language=”html”]
myblock = lambda { |p| puts p }
$> myblock.call(5)
#output: 5
$> myblock.call
#output: ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (0 for 1)
[/code]

But, in case of Procs:

[code language=”html”]
proc= Proc.new { |p| puts p }
$> proc.call(5)
#output: 5
$> proc.call
#output: returns nil
$> proc.call(5,4,3)
#output: prints out 5 and forgets about the extra arguments
[/code]

Lambdas and procs treat the ‘return’ keyword differently. Here’s an example that uses Lambdas:

[code language=”html”]
def sample_method
lambda { return "Return me from the block here" }.call
return "Returning from the calling method"
end
$> puts sample_method
[/code]

Output: Returning from the calling method

Here’s another example using Proc.new:

[code language=”html”]
def my_method
Proc.new { return "Return me from the block here" }.call
return "Returning from the calling method"
end
$>puts my_method
[/code]

Output: Return me from the block here.

Did I miss anything out? Please share your thoughts at info@andolasoft.com.

I would also appreciate it, if you leave your suggestions/feedback below.

Module In Ruby And Its Usages In Rails

Posted on by Jay

Ruby is an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) language. This programming language based upon various components such as classes, object, variables etc. Ruby also provides a nice building block for applications, and which is known as module. A module is a collection of methods and constants. It defines a namespace in which other methods and constant can’t step on your methods and constants.

Purpose of a Module:

Ruby module is a component to regroup similar things. Ruby methods, classes and constants can be grouped by similarity with the help of modules.

Here is the Two benefits provide by the modules

  • Ruby provide ‘namespace’, and which basically helps to prevent name clashes.
  • Ruby’s ‘mixin’ facility is implemented with the help of modules.

The basic syntax of module is:

[code language=”html”]
module Identifier
statement1
statement2
………..
End
[/code]

Uses:

Ruby module mainly functions as a namespace. It lets us define various methods for the actions that will perform. When a method defined inside a module does not clash with other methods that are written anywhere else, though they’re having the same names.

Module constants are named like class constants with an initial uppercase letter. This are module methods, and also defined like class methods.

Here is an example.

[code language=”html”]
module MyModule
def method
puts “hello”
end
end
[/code]

To access the methods and constants inside a module in a class include key word is used.

[code language=”html”]
class Customer < ActiveRecord::Base
include MyModule
end
[/code]

To use the method that is defined inside a module, specify the module name followed by a dot and then the method name.

Ruby Mixins and Ruby Modules:

Ruby is purely an OOP language. But it does not support multiple inheritances directly, which is handled beautifully by Modules. They provide a facility called ‘mixin’ that eliminates the requirement of multiple inheritance. In Ruby when ‘mixins’ are called and used in proper manner they provide high degree of versatility functionality.

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A module ‘mixin’ generally consists of several lines of codes to set up conditions where the module can mix in with a class or classes to improve the functionality of the class or itself too. Here is an example of a module ‘mixin’.

[code language=”html”]
module A
def a1
end
def a2
end
end

module B
def b1
end
def b2
end
end

class MyClass
include A
include B
def s1
end
end

obj = Objet.new
obj.a1
obj.a2
obj.b1
obj.b2
obj.s1
[/code]

Here module A and B consist of two methods individually. They are included in the classMyClass. Now MyClass can access all the four methods a1, a2, b1, b2. So it can be said that Myclass inherits from multiple modules. Thus multiple inheritances are implemented with the help of module’s ‘mixin’ facility.

Conclusion:

Modules don’t have any direct analogy in any mainstream programming language. They are used mostly in Ruby language. They are one of the key features making Ruby’s design beautiful. With the facility of ‘namespacing’ and ‘mixin’ modules make Ruby more flexible Object Oriented Programming language. They also make the application highly secure as classes and their objects inherit from modules and modules are having ‘mixins’.

Planning something with RoR? We would love to get in touch with you.

Rails Or Django – Which One To Choose?

Posted on by Srikant M.

Rails or Django - which one to choose?

Python and Ruby are the most popular dynamic programming languages. Developers are using these two languages for high-level application development. Python and Ruby are popular among web developers because of their rapid development cycle.

Here, I have discussed the most important difference between Python and Ruby:

Philosophy

Python has been designed to emphasize the programmer’s productivity and code readability. The philosophy of Python requires almost everything explicitly defined by a programmer, whereas Ruby allows programmers to reuse the in-built components in development.

The philosophy behind Ruby is that programmers should have the flexibility and privilege to write concise and compact code.

Functional Programming

Both Rails and Django use object-relational mapping to link the application to the underlying database. In Django, the developer is required to explicitly specify each attribute of every class.

But, In rails, all module attributes are not defined in the class definition. A developer can retrieve all the information from the database based on the class name.

In Rails database migrations is very easy and in-built compared to Django, as it uses third party library like South.

Convention over Configuration

Ruby on Rails defines certain features that make web programming more effective and user-friendly. Convention over configuration (CoC) is one of the important features of Rails.

“Convention over Configuration” means a developer only needs to specify unconventional aspects of the application. There are some predefined layout and sensible defaults available in rails projects.

All components such as models, controllers, and static CSS and JavaScript files are located in standard sub-directories and you just need to drop your implementation files into those directories.

CoC saves a lot of time of developers because in rails you don’t need to write the same code again and again.

While in Django, you have to specify the path where the component files are located. So the development cycles in Rails are shorter as compared to it’s counterparts.

Model-View-Controller and REST

Ruby on Rails is unique because it supports the REST protocol. It helps you to organize your application. In Rails, all model objects are accessed and handled in a uniform manner using the standard HTTP verbs like getting, PUT, DELETE, and POST.

CSS, JavaScript and images

Rails have an in-built asset pipeline. Rails’ asset pipeline is having feature of minifying, concatenating and compressing JavaScript and CSS files. Not only that, it also supports other languages such as Coffeescript, Sass and ERB.

Django’s support of assets it very amateurish compared to Rails and leaves everything to the developer. Django offers static files, which basically collects all static files from each application to a single location.

URL mapping

Both Rails and Django allow for the use of regular expressions to customize the mapping of URLs to controller actions. Both are flexible enough to allow you to create pretty much any mapping scheme you wish.
But, Rails does automatic URL mapping based on the class and function names within controllers by default.

Testing

Testing is very easy in Rails and there’s a much stronger emphasis on it in Rails than in Django.

Popularity

Python is generally more widely used than Ruby. Due to the rising popularity of the Ruby on Rails Web application development framework, Ruby’s popularity to has seen rapid growth.

Both Rails and Django are effective web frameworks powered by efficient programming languages. However, Rails is the best platform for rapid web app development.

Andolasoft offers quality rails development service. We specialize in developing database-driven web applications in an efficient and hassle-free way.

Recommended Blog: Steps to add ‘Elasticsearch’ to Rails App

Have something to add to this topic? Share it in the comments

5 Reasons Why Web Development is Faster With Ruby On Rails

Posted on by Jay

Ruby on Rails aka “RoR” is an open-source MVC framework built using the Ruby programming language.

It is considered as the epitome of the latest generation of high-productivity, open source web development tool. The growing demand for Ruby on Rails has been driven by successful RoR development companies like Andolasoft, who benefit from the speed and agility of building applications in Rails, which results in increased productivity and company growth.

1. Framework Built on Agile Methodology

RoR is faster because the framework was built based on Agile development methodology, best practices are emulated so web development is done with high quality and speed.

RoR framework includes support programs, compilers, code libraries, tool sets, and application programming interfaces (APIs) that bring together the different components to enable development of a project or solution.

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It’s possible to build sites that used to take 12 weeks in just 6 weeks using Ruby on Rails. It means you can save 50% on your development expenses.

2. Less Code Writing

Rails creates a skeleton for an application or module by executing all the code libraries. You must write some commands to accomplish this. This is what makes the process of web development faster.

Rails makes database deployments simpler than any open, or proprietary solution by allowing for migrations.

  • Adopting principle of DRY

    It also adopts the principle of “Don’t Repeat Yourself”. So all information can be retrieved from a single unambiguous database which tends to easier development.

  • Easy Configuration

    A key principle of Ruby on Rails development is convention over configuration. This means that the programmer does not have to spend a lot of time configuring files in order to get setup, Rails comes with a set of conventions which help speeding up development.

  • Modular Design

    Ruby code is very readable and mostly self-documenting. This increases productivity, as there is little need to write out separate documentation, making it easier for other developers to pick up existing projects.

  • Designer Friendly Templates

    HTML templates is a core feature of Rails. It allow templates to be composed of a base template that defines the overall layout of the page,the base template is called a “layout” while the individual page templates are “views”. The Rails application retrieves the list of tags from the database and makes it available to the view.The section of the view that renders these category is:

    <%= render :partial => 'category' %>

    This refers to a Ruby partial, a fragment of a page, which is contained in _category.html.erb. That file’s content is:

<h3>categories</h3>
<p class="categorylist">
<%= render :partial => 'categorylist', :collection => @category %>
</p>
  • This generates the heading then refers to another partial, which will be used once for each object in the collection named “categorylist”.

3. Third Party Plugin/Gem Support

Mature plugin architecture, well used by the growing community. Rails plugins allows developer to extend or override nearly any part of the Rails framework, and share these modifications with others in an encapsulated and reusable manner.

Rails community provides a wealth of plugins as Ruby Gems that you simply add to your project Gem-file and install. This significantly accelerates development and maintenance time as you’re not trying to integrate disparate libraries, it’s already done for you.

4. Automated Testing

Rails has developed a strong focus on testing, and has good testing suit in-built within the frameworks.

Rails makes it super easy to write your tests. It starts by producing skeleton test code while you are creating your models and controllers.

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

Rails ships with a built-in test suite. There are many tools available in the market for testing Rails application as mentioned below with other web apps from many different aspects.

  • Rspec
  • Cucumber
  • Test Unit
  • Shoulda
  • Selenium (not really a ruby thing but more of a web thing)

But if you are new to testing we highly recommend you start with learning Rails own testing suite before start using other tools

5. Easier Maintenance

Once site launches, future modifications to your site (e.g., adding new features, making changes to the data model) can be made more quickly, for the same reasons noted above.
New features can be added quickly and maintaining applications over time can also be more cost-effective.

If you like this one, you might also like Why Rails framework popular among Ruby developers and The Best practices for Rails App Development .

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!