random thoughts

My Gems of 2013

· Rafał

I noticed that I ‘starred’ over 320 gems on rubygems.org. So I decided to do some cleanups there and while I’m at it - share with you few real gems that I like to use. So here it is - my tiny list that I called “My Gems of 2013”, mainly because it sounds catchy; a little bit of marketing didn’t killed anybody yet, I think.

I tried to avoid some, well, really obvious choices (like rspec, mocha, sidekiq, devise, resque, carrierwave, etc. - you get the idea) so maybe you fill find that one precious, very special thing that you will love ;-). Here we go.

  • active_link_to - one simple method for your views that will handle all the logic.

  • active_decorator - object-oriented view helper for Rails 3 and Rails 4. VERY useful when working with complex views.

  • annotate - annotate your models and specs, display columns&indexes right within your ruby class.

  • ambry - database and ORM replacement for static models / small datasets. I like to use it from time to time.

  • better_errors - essential dev gem for your rails environment.

  • brakeman - scan you Rails app for potential vulnerabilities.

  • bundler-audit - patch-level verification for Bundler, make sure your app’s dependencies are secure.

  • charlock_holmes - ask Holmes which encoding is used.

  • counter_culture - make some complex counters with ease.

  • devise-async - universal plug&play async backend for devise mailer.

  • email-spec - just a great addition to rspec for testing emails.

  • excon - my favorite HTTP library for Ruby. Fast & reliable, simply love it.

  • ffaker - fake your test data, but faster.

  • identity_cache - cache your Rails models with ease (but look out for gotchas, caching ain’t easy)

  • lol_dba - can I haz db indexes? Scan & see if you’re missing some indexes maybe?

  • merit - swiss army knife when it comes to points, badges & rankings. Gamify your whole app with just one gem.

  • paranoia - soft delete solution for Rails. Tiny & reliable.

  • redcarpet - one of the best Markdown parser I know.

  • rolify - roles solution for Rails. Plug & Play.

  • spring - shipped with Rails 4.1, basically no more need for guard, zeus or spork.

  • split - A/B testing? No problem.

  • slim - you probably know it. You may love or you may hate it. I chose <3.

  • thinking-sphinx - integrate Sphinx right way.

  • timecop - because testing time can be tricky, make it less tricky.

  • websocket-rails - use the power of HTML5 websockets! If you need it, of course.