In the second post of our series covering LiteStack (an alternative way to build Rails applications entirely based on SQLite), we'll explore the database's concepts of flexible typing and type affinity. We'll not only discover how SQLite's data handling differs from other SQL databases, but also how we efficiently process and store binary data, like images, directly in a database column. Note: LiteDB is essentially SQLite, but fine-tuned for usage in Rails.

In part one of this series, we looked at some basic usages of Action Policy. Now we'll leverage Action Policy for more advanced authorization use cases. First up, let's explore applying pre-checks.

In the Ruby community, there's near-unanimous agreement on the importance of testing. Tests act as a safeguard, ensuring that the digital experiences we craft remain consistent, reliable, and of high quality. Many in the Ruby community claim that no code change is complete without tests. They are an integral part of the development workflow. Regular testing ensures that new features, refactors, or bug fixes do not introduce unforeseen issues or regressions.

To keep your app secure, you need to control who and what can access it. Access control can be categorized into authentication — "who" to allow — and authorization — "what" they can access. Authentication is a subject for another day, but when it comes to user authorization, you generally have two ways to go about it: using a role-based or resource-based strategy. In this two-part series, we'll take a deep dive into using the Action Policy gem for a Ruby on Rails blog application.

In this series of posts, we will look at LiteStack, a one-stop-shop solution that hosts and processes all your production data on a single machine. LiteStack (as the name suggests) makes use of SQLite to provide: In this first post, we'll introduce the basics of LiteStack and set up an example Rails application. Let's begin!

Sidekiq allows Ruby developers to maintain fast and responsive web applications by moving time-consuming tasks into the background. With multithreading at its core, Sidekiq can process many jobs at once. This makes Sidekiq an important part of Ruby or Rails applications that handle heavy loads or perform tasks like sending emails or processing files.

Uncover the inner workings of Ruby on Rails with our dive into the Params hash—an essential component for handling HTTP requests. From query params to avoiding injection, this article will elevate your understanding of Rails, providing you with the tools to create more secure and efficient web applications.

In part one of this series, we introduced Devise using an example app to explore modules, helpers, views, controllers, and routes. In this part, we'll explore more advanced usages of Devise, specifically the use of OmniAuth, API authentication, and Authtrail. Let's dive straight in!

With over 20,000 GitHub stars and lots of integrations, the Devise gem is one of the most popular gems in the Ruby landscape. So why would we term it one of Ruby's "hidden" gems? Well, as popular as it is, most developers only scratch the surface of the library's capabilities. In this two-part series, we'll take a deep dive into Devise. In this first part, we'll learn some of the basics, including: In part two, we'll look at more advanced usages of Devise, including: Let's get started!

Rails' date and time helpers are great. They save us from duplicating simple add-duration-to-time logic across our applications and make the code more readable. However, complex date manipulations are dangerous places full of edge-cases. This article discusses some of them.