Ruby no Rails - Write Software, Well

Rails Middleware: (Almost) Everything You Need to Know

In this post, we'll learn almost everything about Rails middleware: what it is, why we need it, how it works, and why it's so important. We'll also learn how to create and test custom middleware in a Rails app. Finally, we'll extract logging functionality in its own middleware in a simple web app.

Ruby no Rails 11 min read

Using Zeitwerk Outside Rails

Did you know you can use Zeitwerk outside Rails? This article shows how to use the Zeitwerk gem to autoload classes and modules in a Ruby app that's not using Rails. We'll also learn how Rails configures Zeitwerk internally and introduce the concept of models in our no-rails Ruby web application.

Ruby no Rails 5 min read

Logging in Ruby: (Almost) Everything You Need to Know

Like backups, logging is one of those topics that seems unnecessary until something goes wrong! It's very frustrating to fix a bug that's only reproducible in production without having any logs to help you debug it. This post covers the basics of logging in Ruby and adds logging to our no-rails app.

Ruby no Rails 10 min read

How to Implement Rails-like Views in Ruby

In this article, we will learn 'one' way to implement the controller-to-view data handoff using instance variables, just like Rails, and following the same conventions as Rails. Although it's a highly simplified implementation to keep things simple, I hope you'll find it fun and learn something new.

Ruby no Rails 7 min read

Implementing Rails-like Controllers in a No-Rails App

In its essence, a controller class in Rails is a coordinator. It accepts the incoming HTTP request and builds the data required by the view using the domain models. This post shows a highly simplified implementation of the controller pattern for a better understanding of Rails controllers.

Ruby no Rails 7 min read

Build Your Own Router in Ruby

Have you always wondered what a Router is and how it works? I know I have. In the third article in the series on building a web application in Ruby without Rails, we'll build our own router to get a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Rails Router.

Ruby no Rails 10 min read

Let's Build a Webapp in Ruby without Rails: Serve Static Files and Render Dynamic Views

This is the second article in the series where we build a simple, yet complete web app in plain Ruby, without using Rails to better understand how Rails works. In this article, we'll learn how to serve static files and use the ERB gem to render dynamic views. All in plain Ruby, without using Rails.

Ruby no Rails 10 min read

Let's Build a Web Application in Ruby without Rails

Rails is great for building web apps. But it can be quite overwhelming if you don't know how web applications work. In this series of articles, we'll build a simple but complete app in plain Ruby without Rails, to get a deeper understanding and appreciation of everything Rails does for us.

Ruby no Rails 10 min read