RailsCasts
346 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 11 years ago - ★★★★★ - 213 ratingsEvery other week you will be treated to a new, free RailsCasts episode featuring tips and tricks with Ruby on Rails, the popular web development framework. These screencasts are short and focus on one technique so you can quickly move on to applying it to your own project. The topics are geared toward the intermediate Rails developer, but beginners and experts will get something out of it as well. A Pro option is also available containing more screencasts each week. This is the full resolution version, a lower reoslution for mobile devices is also available.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
#417 Foundation
June 16, 2013 07:00 - 11 minutes - 31.1 MB VideoZURB's Foundation is a front-end for quickly building applications and prototypes. It is similar to Twitter Bootstrap but uses Sass instead of LESS. Here you will learn the basics of the grid system, navigation, tooltips and more.
#415 Upgrading to Rails 4
May 06, 2013 07:00 - 12 minutes - 35.6 MB VideoWith the release of Rails 4.0.0.rc1 it's time to try it out and report any bugs. Here I walk you through the steps to upgrade a Rails 3.2 application to Rails 4.
#412 Fast Rails Commands
April 04, 2013 07:00 - 8 minutes - 21.7 MB VideoRails commands, such as generators, migrations, and tests, have a tendency to be slow because they need to load the Rails app each time. Here I show three tools to make this faster: Zeus, Spring, and Commands.
#409 Active Model Serializers
March 09, 2013 08:00 - 10 minutes - 20.7 MB VideoThe ActiveModel::Serializers gem can help you build JSON APIs through serializer objects. This provides a dedicated place to fully customize the JSON output.
#406 Public Activity
February 13, 2013 08:00 - 10 minutes - 22.1 MB VideoLearn how to easily add a user activity feed using the public_activity gem. Here I show both the default setup using model callbacks and a manual way to trigger activities.
#402 Better Errors & RailsPanel
January 25, 2013 08:00 - 8 minutes - 22.1 MB VideoHere we take a look at two tools to aid us in development: Better Errors which makes it easier than ever to debug exceptions, and RailsPanel, a Chrome extension to see Rails requests.
#400 What's New in Rails 4
January 04, 2013 08:00 - 20 minutes - 47.9 MB VideoRails 4.0 is still unfinished, but it is shaping up to become a great release. Here I show how to setup a new Rails 4.0 (edge) application and walk through many of its new features.
#396 Importing CSV and Excel
December 08, 2012 08:00 - 10 minutes - 24.6 MB VideoAllow users to import records into the database by uploading a CSV or Excel document. Here I show how to use Roo to parse these files and present a solution for validations.
#393 Guest User Record
November 21, 2012 08:00 - 9 minutes - 19.9 MB VideoInstead of presenting a sign up form to the user, consider creating a temporary guest record so the user can try out the application without filling in their information up front. They can then become a permanent member afterwards.
#390 Turbolinks
November 05, 2012 08:00 - 7 minutes - 21.5 MB VideoTurbolinks can make your Rails app feel faster by using JavaScript to replace the page content when clicking a link. It will be default in new Rails 4.0 applications, but here I show how to use it in Rails 3 and mention some of the gotchas.
#387 Cache Digests
October 20, 2012 07:00 - 7 minutes - 16.2 MB VideoThe cache_digests gem (also included in Rails 4) will automatically add a digest to the fragment cache key based on the template. If a template changes the cache will auto-expire. But watch out for the gotchas!
#384 Exploring RubyGems
October 07, 2012 07:00 - 7 minutes - 22.4 MB VideoRubyGems can make it easy to add a feature to a Rails application, but it can also cause headaches down the road. Here I give some tips on researching gems to decide which one to choose, or when to do it from scratch.
#382 Tagging
September 22, 2012 07:00 - 11 minutes - 27.5 MB VideoThere are several gems to help implement tags in a Rails app. Here I show you how to integrate acts-as-taggable-on and then show how to do it from scratch.
#378 FnordMetric
September 04, 2012 07:00 - 10 minutes - 25.5 MB VideoFnordMetric allows you to chart events in real time. This is great for keeping track of user activity in your Rails app as demonstrated in this episode.
#376 JRuby Basics
August 30, 2012 07:00 - 10 minutes - 28.6 MB VideoJRuby is a polished and stable Ruby implementation. Here I show the basics of setting it up and executing Java from within Ruby. I also see how it compares with MRI at running threads.
#374 Image Manipulation
August 16, 2012 07:00 - 11 minutes - 30.4 MB VideoLearn how to do extensive image manipulation with the ImageMagick commands. Also learn how RMagick can be used in combination with CarrierWave to process uploaded images.
#372 Bullet
August 09, 2012 07:00 - 6 minutes - 17.4 MB VideoBullet will notify you of database queries that can potentially be improved through eager loading or counter cache column. A variety of notification alerts are supported.
#370 Ransack
August 03, 2012 07:00 - 10 minutes - 29 MB VideoRansack allows you to easily build complex search forms. It also helps in adding sortable links and building a dynamic advanced search page.
#368 MiniProfiler
July 24, 2012 07:00 - 9 minutes - 33 MB VideoMiniProfiler allows you to see the speed of a request conveniently on the page. It also shows the SQL queries performed and allows you to profile a specific block of code.
#366 Sidekiq
July 18, 2012 07:00 - 10 minutes - 30.6 MB VideoSidekiq allows you to move jobs into the background for asynchronous processing. It uses threads instead of forks so it is much more efficient with memory compared to Resque.
#364 Active Record Reputation System
July 09, 2012 07:00 - 10 minutes - 24.5 MB VideoIf you need to calculate an average user's rating or sum up a number of votes, consider using the activerecord-reputation-system gem. Here I will cover the basics and also briefly present a from-scratch solution.
#362 Exporting CSV and Excel
July 02, 2012 07:00 - 6 minutes - 21 MB VideoAs you will see it is easy to add a CSV export option to Rails. Here I also show how to export for Excel in a variety of formats.
#360 Facebook Authentication
June 25, 2012 07:00 - 12 minutes - 29.8 MB VideoThis will show how to create a new facebook application and configure it. Then add some authentication with the omniauth-facebook gem and top it off with a client-side authentication using the JavaScript SDK.
#358 Brakeman
June 15, 2012 07:00 - 8 minutes - 25.5 MB VideoThe Brakeman gem will scan the Ruby code of a Rails application and alert you to common security vulnerabilities.
#356 Dangers of Session Hijacking
June 08, 2012 07:00 - 6 minutes - 20.8 MB VideoIf a user's authentication cookie is sent over an insecure connection it is vulnerable to session hijacking, or more specifically, sidejacking. Learn how this is done, and how you can prevent it.
#354 Squeel
May 30, 2012 07:00 - 9 minutes - 34.1 MB VideoSqueel provides a comprehensive DSL for writing SQL queries in Ruby. It is built upon Arel giving you access to many of its powerful features.
#352 Securing an API
May 23, 2012 07:00 - 7 minutes - 20 MB VideoThere are many approaches to locking down an API. Here I start off with HTTP Basic authentication then move on to generating a unique token which can be passed through a URL parameter or HTTP header.
#350 REST API Versioning
May 16, 2012 07:00 - 10 minutes - 32.3 MB VideoAPIs should be consistent, but it is difficult to do this when returning a JSON response along side the HTML interface. Here I show how to add a versioned, RESTful API. The version can be determined from either the URL or HTTP headers.
#348 The Rails API Gem
May 09, 2012 07:00 - 9 minutes - 27.2 MB VideoIt is often asked: Is Rails a good fit if I only need to serve an API? In this episode I show how to use the Rails API gem to create a slimmer Rails application designed to respond with JSON.
#347 Rubber and Amazon EC2
May 03, 2012 07:00 - 17 minutes - 50.2 MB VideoDeploying to Amazon EC2 allows you to scale an application quickly. Learn how to use Rubber to deploy to the cloud with just a few commands and monitor the cluster with various web tools.
#346 Wizard Forms with Wicked
May 03, 2012 07:00 - 11 minutes - 34.1 MB VideoCreating a wizard form can be tricky in Rails. Learn how Wicked can help by turning a controller into a series of multiple steps.
#344 Queue Classic
April 24, 2012 07:00 - 8 minutes - 25.8 MB VideoPostgreSQL can act as a worker queue which can replace the need for a separate process to manage the background jobs. Here you will learn how to do this with the queue_classic gem.
#342 Migrating to PostgreSQL
April 17, 2012 07:00 - 8 minutes - 26.7 MB VideoPostgres is a feature-packed relational database that every Rails developer should consider using. Here you will learn how to install it, add it to a new application, and transition from an existing SQLite app using the "taps" gem.
#340 DataTables
April 11, 2012 07:00 - 9 minutes - 30.1 MB VideoDataTables makes it easy to convert a plain HTML table into one with pagination, sorting, and searching - all done with JavaScript and jQuery. Here I show how to set this up and use a Rails application as the data source.
#338 Globalize3
April 04, 2012 07:00 - 5 minutes - 16.4 MB VideoRails has great internationalization (I18n) support making it easy to translate static text into other languages, but how do we translate database content? Learn how using Globalize 3 in this episode.
#336 Copycopter
March 27, 2012 07:00 - 6 minutes - 20.9 MB VideoCopycopter provides a nice interface that clients can use to edit the text in a Rails application. Learn how to deploy a Copycopter server using Heroku and integrate it in a Rails application through I18n.
#334 Compass & CSS Sprites
March 21, 2012 07:00 - 9 minutes - 33.2 MB VideoCompass improves the Sass experience by providing useful mixins, functions, and more. You will also learn how to make CSS sprites with it in this episode.
#332 Refinery CMS Basics
March 14, 2012 07:00 - 11 minutes - 37.2 MB VideoIf you need to quickly create an informational site that can be easily edited, consider using a content management system. Here I show how to build a site using Refinery CMS.
#330 Better Sass with Bourbon
March 07, 2012 08:00 - 7 minutes - 20.6 MB VideoIf you are tired of the browser vendor prefixes in CSS, check out Bourbon. It provides Sass mixins and functions to make CSS more convenient.
#328 Twitter Bootstrap Basics
February 28, 2012 08:00 - 10 minutes - 32.3 MB VideoTwitter Bootstrap can help make beautiful web apps quickly by providing you with useful CSS and JavaScript. Here you will learn how to include it into Rails with the twitter-bootstrap-rails gem.
#326 ActiveAttr
February 21, 2012 08:00 - 5 minutes - 15.8 MB VideoActiveAttr provides what Active Model left out. If you need to create a table-less model with features similar to Active Record, watch this episode.
#324 Passing Data to JavaScript
February 13, 2012 08:00 - 6 minutes - 14.6 MB VideoThere are a variety of ways to pass variables from a Rails application to JavaScript. Here I show three techniques: a script tag, a data attribute, and the Gon gem.
#322 RABL
February 08, 2012 08:00 - 8 minutes - 19.6 MB VideoRABL - Ruby API Builder Language - provides a DSL for generating JSON or XML responses in a Ruby application. Learn how to share and configure complex JSON data in this episode.
#320 Jbuilder
January 30, 2012 08:00 - 8 minutes - 20.9 MB VideoJbuilder provides a DSL for generating JSON. It includes a template engine which allows you to create complex responses with helpers and conditions.
#318 Upgrading to Rails 3.2
January 23, 2012 08:00 - 9 minutes - 22.2 MB VideoRails 3.2 sports many new features including automatic explain queries, tagged logging, key-value store in Active Record, improved migration generator and more. Learn all about these new features in this episode.
#316 Private Pub
January 16, 2012 08:00 - 7 minutes - 15.2 MB VideoPrivate Pub makes it easier than ever to publish and subscribe to real-time events in a Rails app. You can use publish_to with a block of JavaScript or supply a hash for use with JSON.
#314 Pretty URLs with FriendlyId
January 09, 2012 08:00 - 7 minutes - 18.8 MB VideoIf you are tired of model ids in the URL, overriding to_param can only get you so far. The friendly_id plugin can help by making it easy to generate a URL slug and maintain a history.
#312 Sending HTML Email
January 02, 2012 08:00 - 5 minutes - 16 MB VideoHTML email can be difficult to code because any CSS should be made inline. Here I present a few tools for doing this including the premailer-rails3 and roadie gems.
#310 Getting Started with Rails
December 26, 2011 08:00 - 7 minutes - 22.9 MB VideoLearning Ruby on Rails can be overwhelming, especially if you are new to programming. Here I will take you on a tour through various resources to help get started with Rails.
#308 Oh My ZSH
December 19, 2011 08:00 - 9 minutes - 25.9 MB VideoAs Rails developers, we frequently use the command line. Here I will show how to switch to Z Shell using Oh My ZSH including how to make your own theme and plugins.