Hotwire
Hotwire
Hotwire is an alternative approach to building modern web applications without using much JavaScript by sending HTML instead of JSON over the wire. Official docs
Rails Startup Stack
At Evil Martians, we help dozens of fast-paced startups running on Ruby on Rails every year. We design, build, and iterate on products, working hand-in-hand with internal teams. In particular, Rails is our framework of choice for SaaS products, and we’ve contributed to the success of numerous teams including Fountain, Tines, Monograph, Mayhem, and many more, as they raised later stage rounds, turned into unicorns, or were acquired by giants like Niantic. Our work is crucial at the early stages, bringing laser-focused product decisions, speed of delivery, and maintainability together and fueling business growth.
The success of our work stems from our experience working closely with Ruby on Rails, contributing to the framework itself and projects within its ecosystem. Not to mention that we’ve built many of the key components of the Rails ecosystem ourselves.
We’ll be sharing our playbook for the fast-paced companies building with Ruby on Rails: the key services, gems, resources and materials we use and recommend. Here’s what you’ll find:
UI / UX
Today, the Rails ecosystem gives you the power to choose from different paradigms for crafting user interfaces:
- The Hotwire way: Completely avoid major JavaScript frameworks (like React or Vue) and go all-in with Hotwire.
- JavaScript-enhanced UI: Selectively sprinkle UIs with interactive React components, just where needed.
- Dual stack: Use Rails in API-only mode and integrate it with a React-powered Single-page Application (SPA).
The Hotwire way
- ViewComponent
ViewComponent
A framework for creating reusable, testable & encapsulated view components, built to integrate seamlessly with Ruby on Rails
- ViewComponent in the Wild I: building modern Rails frontends
ViewComponent in the Wild I: building modern Rails frontends
- Tailwind
Tailwind
Official Rails guide for Tailwind CSS, a utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building modern websites without ever leaving your HTML.
- Vite-lizing Rails: get live reload and hot replacement with Vite Ruby
Vite-lizing Rails: get live reload and hot replacement with Vite Ruby
JavaScript-enhanced UI
- Inertia.js
Inertia.js
Create modern single-page React, Vue, and Svelte apps using classic server-side routing. Works with any backend
- Superglue
Superglue
Use classic Rails to build rich React/Redux applications with no APIs and no client-side routing
Dual stack (Rails API & SPA)
- How to GraphQL with Ruby, Rails, Active Record, and no N+1
How to GraphQL with Ruby, Rails, Active Record, and no N+1
Scaling with Rails
Going big with Rails is absolutely possible and this has been proven by many successful products—like Shopify and GitHub! Here’s what to think about when scaling Rails applications:
- Optimizing for performance.
- Bringing observability.
- Designing code for maintainability.
Improving Rails performance
- AnyCable
AnyCable
A way to build lightning-fast and reliable real-time Ruby on Rails applications that scale fast and don't cost a fortune to run. It helps add real-time features without the need to switch to another platform or language
- imgproxy
imgproxy
imgproxy is a blazing fast and secure image processing tool. Built with a focus on developer productivity, imgproxy saves time and money on developing hand-rolled image processing pipelines.
- A Slice of Life: Table Partitioning in PostgreSQL Databases
A Slice of Life: Table Partitioning in PostgreSQL Databases
Observability for Rails
- Meet Yabeda: Modular Framework for Instrumenting Ruby Applications
Meet Yabeda: Modular Framework for Instrumenting Ruby Applications
Rails application design
- Layered Design for Ruby on Rails Applications
Layered Design for Ruby on Rails Applications
by Vladimir Dementyev, principal backend engineer at Evil Martians
Deployment
Rails applications could be deployed anywhere—from good old bare metal machines to Kubernetes clusters. And, of course, there are plenty of PaaS options.
Choose whatever better matches your team!
- Martian Kubernetes Kit: A smooth sailing toolkit from our SRE team
Martian Kubernetes Kit: A smooth sailing toolkit from our SRE team
- Kamal: hot deployment tool to watch—or a total game changer?
Kamal: hot deployment tool to watch—or a total game changer?
DX & testing
Ruby and Rails heavily focus on developer productivity—and so should you. Imagine having a reproducible, easy-to-set-up development environment, fast and reliable tests, and the ability to delegate repetitive routine tasks to robots!
- Ruby on Whales: Docker for Ruby and Rails development
Ruby on Whales: Docker for Ruby and Rails development
- TestProf
TestProf
A Ruby test profiling toolkit with a collection of different tools to analyze your test suite performance
- System of a test: Setting up end-to-end Rails testing
System of a test: Setting up end-to-end Rails testing
