Published by Addison-Wesley Professional (November 22, 2017) © 2018
Obie FernandezProduct Information
The “Bible” for Rails Development: Fully Updated for Rails 5
“When I read The Rails Way for the first time, I felt like I truly understood Rails for the first time.”
—Steve Klabnik, Rails contributor and mentor
The Rails™ 5 Way is the comprehensive, authoritative reference guide for professionals delivering production-quality code using modern Ruby on Rails. Obie Fernandez illuminates the entire Rails 5 API, its most powerful idioms, design approaches, and libraries. He presents new and updated content on Action Cable, RSpec 3.4, Turbolinks 5.0, the Attributes API, and many other enhancements, both major and subtle.
Through detailed code examples, you’ll dive deep into Ruby on Rails, discover why it’s designed as it is, and learn to make it do exactly what you want. Proven in thousands of production systems, the knowledge in this book will maximize your productivity and help you build more successful solutions.
- Build powerful, scalable, REST-compliant back-end services
- Program complex program flows using Action Controller
- Represent models, relationships, and operations in Active Record, and apply advanced Active Record techniques
- Smoothly evolve database schema via Migrations
- Craft front-ends with ActionView and the Asset Pipeline
- Optimize performance and scalability with caching and Turbolinks 5.0
- Improve your productivity using Haml HTML templating
- Secure your systems against attacks like SQL Injection, XSS, and XSRF
- Integrate email using Action Mailer
- Enable real-time, websockets-based browser behavior with Action Cable
- Improve responsiveness with background processing
- Build “API-only” back-end projects that speak JSON
- Leverage enhancements to Active Job, serialization, and Ajax support
Foreword by Giles Bowkett xlix
Foreword to the Previous Edition by Steve Klabnik liii
Foreword to the Previous Edition by David Heinemeier Hansson lv
Foreword to the Previous Edition by Yehuda Katz lvii
Introduction lix
Acknowledgments lxv
About the Author lxvii
Chapter 1: Rails Configuration and Environments 1
1.1 Bundler 2
1.2 Startup Scripts 10
1.3 Default Initializers 12
1.4 Other Common Initializers 19
1.5 Spring Application Preloader 21
1.6 Development Mode 22
1.7 Test Mode 27
1.8 Production Mode 29
1.9 Configuring a Database 32
1.10 Configuring Application Secrets 33
1.11 Logging 34
1.12 Conclusion 41
Chapter 2: Routing 43
2.1 The Two Purposes of Routing 44
2.2 The routes.rb File 45
2.3 Route Globbing 57
2.4 Named Routes 58
2.5 Scoping Routing Rules 63
2.6 Listing Routes 66
2.7 Conclusion 66
Chapter 3: REST, Resources, and Rails 69
3.1 REST in a Rather Small Nutshell 70
3.2 Resources and Representations 71
3.3 REST in Rails 71
3.4 Routing and CRUD 72
3.5 The Standard RESTful Controller Actions 76
3.6 Singular Resource Routes 80
3.7 Nested Resources 80
3.8 Routing Concerns 85
3.9 RESTful Route Customizations 86
3.10 Controller-Only Resources 91
3.11 Different Representations of Resources 93
3.12 The RESTful Rails Action Set 95
3.13 Conclusion 100
Chapter 4: Working with Controllers 101
4.1 Rack 102
4.2 Action Dispatch: Where It All Begins 105
4.3 Render unto View . . . 108
4.4 Additional Layout Options 120
4.5 Redirecting 121
4.6 Controller/View Communication 124
4.7 Action Callbacks 125
4.8 Streaming 131
4.9 Variants 138
4.10 Conclusion 139
Chapter 5: Working with Active Record 141
5.1 The Basics 142
5.2 Macro-Style Methods 143
5.3 Defining Attributes 146
5.4 CRUD: Creating, Reading, Updating, Deleting 149
5.5 Database Locking 162
5.6 Querying 166
5.7 Ignoring Columns 185
5.8 Connections to Multiple Databases in Different Models 186
5.9 Using the Database Connection Directly 187
5.10 Custom SQL Queries 191
5.11 Other Configuration Options 193
5.12 Conclusion 194
Chapter 6: Active Record Migrations 195
6.1 Creating Migrations 195
6.2 Defining Columns 207
6.3 Transactions 214
6.4 Data Migration 214
6.5 Database Schema 218
6.6 Database Seeding 219
6.7 Database-Related Tasks 220
6.8 Conclusion 224
Chapter 7: Active Record Associations 225
7.1 The Association Hierarchy 225
7.2 One-to-Many Relationships 226
7.3 Belongs to Associations 227
7.4 Has Many Associations 238
7.5 Many-to-Many Relationships 253
7.6 One-to-One Relationships 266
7.7 Working with Unsaved Objects and Associations 270
7.8 Association Extensions 272
7.9 The CollectionProxy Class 274
7.10 Conclusion 275
Chapter 8: Validations 277
8.1 Finding Errors 277
8.2 The Simple Declarative Validations 278
8.3 Common Validation Options 289
8.4 Conditional Validation 291
8.5 Short-Form Validation 293
8.6 Custom Validation Techniques 294
8.7 Skipping Validations 297
8.8 Working with the Errors Hash 298
8.9 Testing Validations with Shoulda 298
8.10 Conclusion 299
Chapter 9: Advanced Active Record 301
9.1 Scopes 302
9.2 Callbacks 306
9.3 Attributes API 317
9.4 Serialized Attributes 325
9.5 Enums 329
9.6 Generating Secure Tokens 331
9.7 Calculation Methods 333
9.8 Batch Operations 334
9.9 Single-Table Inheritance (STI) 344
9.10 Abstract Base Model Classes 351
9.11 Polymorphic has_many Relationships 352
9.12 Foreign-Key Constraints 355
9.13 Modules for Reusing Common Behavior 359
9.14 Value Objects 363
9.15 Non-persisted Models 366
9.16 Modifying Active Record Classes at Runtime 368
9.17 PostgreSQL 371
9.18 Conclusion 376
Chapter 10: Action View 377
10.1 Layouts and Templates 378
10.2 Partials 387
10.3 Conclusion 393
Chapter 11: All about Helpers 395
11.1 ActiveModelHelper 395
11.2 AssetTagHelper 396
11.3 AssetUrlHelper 400
11.4 AtomFeedHelper 406
11.5 CacheHelper 408
11.6 CaptureHelper 408
11.7 ControllerHelper 410
11.8 CsrfHelper 410
11.9 DateHelper 411
11.10 DebugHelper 418
11.11 FormHelper 418
11.12 FormOptionsHelper 438
11.13 FormTagHelper 446
11.14 JavaScriptHelper 452
11.15 NumberHelper 453
11.16 OutputSafetyHelper 457
11.17 RecordTagHelper 458
11.18 RenderingHelper 459
11.19 SanitizeHelper 459
11.20 TagHelper 461
11.21 TextHelper 463
11.22 TranslationHelper and the I18n API 467
11.23 UrlHelper 487
11.24 Writing Your Own View Helpers 492
11.25 Wrapping and Generalizing Partials 495
11.26 Conclusion 501
Chapter 12: Haml 503
12.1 Getting Started 504
12.2 The Basics 504
12.3 Doctype 509
12.4 Comments 509
12.5 Evaluating Ruby Code 510
12.6 Helpers 513
12.7 Filters 514
12.8 Haml and Content 515
12.9 Configuration Options 516
12.10 Conclusion 518
Chapter 13: Session Management 519
13.1 What to Store in the Session 520
13.2 Storage Mechanisms 521
13.3 Cookies 524
13.4 Conclusion 526
Chapter 14: Authentication and Authorization 527
14.1 Warden 527
14.2 Devise 531
14.3 has_secure_password 544
14.4 Pundit 549
14.5 Conclusion 555
Chapter 15: Security 557
15.1 Password Management 558
15.2 Log Masking 560
15.3 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) 560
15.4 Model Mass-Assignment Attributes Protection 561
15.5 SQL Injection 564
15.6 Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) 566
15.7 XSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) 569
15.8 Session Fixation Attacks 572
15.9 Keeping Secrets 572
15.10 Conclusion 574
Chapter 16: Action Mailer 575
16.1 Mailer Models 575
16.2 Previews 585
16.3 Receiving Emails 587
16.4 Testing Email Content 589
16.5 Sending via API 590
16.6 Configuration 591
16.7 Conclusion 592
Chapter 17: Caching and Performance 593
17.1 View Caching 593
17.2 Data Caching 610
17.3 Control of Web Caching 612
17.4 ETags 614
17.5 Conclusion 615
Chapter 18: Background Processing 617
18.1 Active Job 617
18.2 Queueing Backends 622
18.3 Rails Runner 634
18.4 Conclusion 636
Chapter 19: Asset Pipeline 637
19.1 Introduction to Asset Management 638
19.2 Organization. Where Does Everything Go? 639
19.3 Manifest Files 640
19.4 Custom Format Handlers 645
19.5 Post-Processing 646
19.6 Helpers 647
19.7 Fingerprinting 649
19.8 Serving the Files 650
19.9 Rake Tasks 653
19.10 Yarn 654
19.11 Webpack 656
19.12 Conclusion 660
Chapter 20: Ajax on Rails 661
20.1 Unobtrusive JavaScript 662
20.2 Ajax and JSON 666
20.3 Ajax and HTML 668
20.4 JSONP Requests 669
20.5 Conclusion 671
Chapter 21: Turbolinks 673
21.1 Turbolinks Usage 674
21.2 Building Your Turbolinks Application 676
21.3 Understanding Turbolinks Caching 677
21.4 Making Transformations Idempotent 679
21.5 Responding to Page Updates 679
21.6 Persisting Elements across Page Loads 680
21.7 Advanced Turbolinks 681
21.8 Turbolinks API Reference 683
21.9 Turbolinks Events 684
21.10 Conclusion 685
Chapter 22: Action Cable 687
22.1 Web Sockets 687
22.2 Publish-Subscribe Pattern 688
22.3 Connections 688
22.4 Channels 689
22.5 Subscriptions 690
22.6 Streams 691
22.7 Subscriptions Revisited (Browser-Side) 691
22.8 Rebroadcasting 691
22.9 Channel Actions 692
22.10 Configuration 694
22.11 Running Stand-Alone Cable Servers 696
22.12 Generator 696
22.13 Conclusion 697
Chapter 23: RSpec 699
23.1 Introduction 699
23.2 Behavior-Driven Development 700
23.3 Basic Syntax and API 702
23.4 Custom Expectation Matchers 716
23.5 Helper Methods 719
23.6 Shared Behaviors 720
23.7 Shared Context 721
23.8 Mocks and Stubs 721
23.9 Running Specs 724
23.9.2 Filtering 726
23.10 Factory Girl 726
23.11 RSpec and Rails 738
23.12 Feature Specs with Capybara 752
23.13 Working with Files in Your Specs 754
23.14 RSpec Tools 755
23.15 Conclusion 758
Appendix A: Active Model API Reference 761
A.1 AttributeAssignment 761
A.2 AttributeMethods 762
A.3 Callbacks 764
A.4 Conversion 766
A.5 Dirty 766
A.6 Errors 769
A.7 ForbiddenAttributesError 774
A.8 Lint::Tests 775
A.9 MissingAttributeError 776
A.10 Model 776
A.11 Name 778
A.12 Naming 780
A.13 SecurePassword 781
A.14 Serialization 781
A.15 Serializers::JSON 782
A.16 Translation 784
A.17 Type 785
A.18 ValidationError 786
A.19 Validations 786
A.20 Validator 792
Appendix B: Active Support API Reference 795
B.1 Array 796
B.2 Autoload 803
B.3 BacktraceCleaner 805
B.4 Benchmark 806
B.5 Benchmarkable 806
B.6 BigDecimal 807
B.7 Cache::FileStore 807
B.8 Cache::MemCacheStore 808
B.9 Cache::MemoryStore 808
B.10 Cache::NullStore 809
B.11 Cache::Store 809
B.12 CachingKeyGenerator 814
B.13 Callbacks 815
B.14 Class 817
B.15 Concern 820
B.16 Configurable 821
B.17 Date 821
B.18 DateAndTime 831
B.19 DateTime 834
B.20 Dependencies 838
B.21 DescendantsTracker 843
B.22 Digest::UUID 843
B.23 Duration 844
B.24 Enumerable 846
B.25 ERB::Util 847
B.26 EventedFileUpdateChecker 848
B.27 FalseClass 849
B.28 File 849
B.29 FileUpdateChecker 849
B.30 Gzip 851
B.31 Hash 851
B.32 HashWithIndifferentAccess 857
B.33 Inflector 858
B.34 Inflector::Inflections 858
B.35 Integer 862
B.36 JSON 863
B.37 Kernel 863
B.38 KeyGenerator 864
B.39 LazyLoadHooks 865
B.40 Locale 866
B.41 LogSubscriber 869
B.42 Logger 870
B.43 MessageEncryptor 871
B.44 MessageVerifier 872
B.45 Module 872
B.46 Module::Concerning 879
B.47 Multibyte::Chars 880
B.48 Multibyte::Unicode 883
B.49 NameError 884
B.50 NilClass 885
B.51 Notifications 886
B.52 NumberHelper 889
B.53 Numeric 890
B.54 Object 898
B.55 OrderedOptions 904
B.56 ProxyObject 904
B.57 Railtie 905
B.58 Range 906
B.59 Regexp 907
B.60 Rescuable 907
B.61 SecureRandom 909
B.62 SecurityUtils 909
B.63 String 909
B.64 StringInquirer 918
B.65 Subscriber 919
B.66 TaggedLogging 919
B.67 TestCase 919
B.68 Testing::Assertions 921
B.69 Thread 924
B.70 Time 925
B.71 TimeWithZone 935
B.72 TimeZone 936
B.73 TrueClass 940
B.74 XmlMini 940
Appendix C: Rails API 943
C.1 Rails API Mode 944
C.2 JSON 945
Index 951