The document discusses 5 Ruby on Rails gems: Inherited Resources, Kaminari, Guard, Configatron, and Bourbon. It provides an overview of each gem, highlighting why they are useful tools and potential limitations. The presentation encourages attendees to learn more about custom software development and announces an upcoming coding course.

1. 5 Awesome Gems
...and some fun with MemeGenerator
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2. Hi!
• I’m Dan
• Co-Organizer @ BostonRB
• Principal Consultant @ LaunchWare
• Head of Instruction @ Launch
Academy
• dpickett on Twitter / GitHub/
everyHub
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3. Some Favorites
• inherited_resources
• kaminari
• guard
• configatron
• bourbon
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4. Inherited Resources
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5. Why?
• Makes writing boilerplate controllers
easier
• Easy internationalization of flash text
with the Responders gem
• Easy API generation for JSON and XML
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6. Why Not?
• Another DSL/Library to Learn
• Can sometimes get in your way for
nonstandard controller actions
• Not good for beginners - feel the pain
of repetition in your controllers, first
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Wednesday, February 6, 13

7. class
AccountsController
<
ApplicationController
respond_to
:json
inherit_resources
#gives
you
all
RESTful
actions
for
Account
end
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Wednesday, February 6, 13

8. Kaminari
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9. Why?
• Easily customizable/themed
• great configuration options
• awesome generators
• Scope-Based
• Doesn’t hack core objects
• I18n ready for localization
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10. Why Not?
• Other engines might express alternative
decisions (refinery, ie)
• Can be painful to paginate non-scope/
AREL collections
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11. #in
your
controller
@users
=
User.
page(params[:page]).
per(50)
#in your view
<%= paginate @users %>
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Wednesday, February 6, 13

12. guard
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13. Why?
• Don’t constantly have to run tests
manually
• Invokes tests for files that change
• Extensible plugin architecture
• Extensible notification architecture
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14. Why Not?
• Minor issue where guard plugins can
lag behind on dependencies
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15. Configatron
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16. Why?
• Easy, dynamic configuration for gems
and applications
• Configure via manual code, hash or
YAML
• Plays nicely with Rails Application
configuration
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Wednesday, February 6, 13

17. Why Not?
• nulls vs. blanks can be confusing
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Wednesday, February 6, 13

18. module
Facebook
def
self.secret_key=(key)
configatron.facebook.secret_key
=
key
end
def
self.secret_key
configatron.facebook.secret_key
end
end
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Wednesday, February 6, 13

19. Bourbon
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20. Why?
• Handy shortcuts for common CSS
idioms
• Beautiful documentation
• Exposes you to lots of great/creative
CSS uses
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Wednesday, February 6, 13

21. Why Not?
• Can be difficult to install/configure as
part of the asset pipeline
• You still need to be an informed
consumer of experimental CSS
features
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22. http://bourbon.io
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23. To Learn More...
http://launchacademy.co
The Fun Begins May 1st
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24. For More Gems...
• Ignition, our rails template is available
• http://github.com/LaunchWare/ignition
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25. Questions?
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