Noel Rappin Writes Here

Modern Front-End Development for Rails

Webpacker, Stimulus, and React

Improve the user experience for your Rails app with rich, engaging client-side interactions. Learn to use the Rails 6 tools and simplify the complex JavaScript ecosystem. It’s easier than ever to build user interactions with the Webpacker gem and Stimulus. You can add great front-end flair without much extra complication. Add React to build an even more extensive set of client-side features. Structure your code for different levels of client-side needs with these powerful options. Add to your toolkit today!

Rails 5 Test Prescriptions

Build a Healthy Codebase

Does your Rails code suffer from bloat, brittleness, or inaccuracy? Cure these problems with the regular application of test-driven development. You’ll use Rails 5.1, Minitest 5, and RSpec 3.7, as well as popular testing libraries such as factory_bot and Cucumber. Updates include Rails 5.1 system tests and Webpack integration. Do what the doctor ordered to make your applications feel all better. Side effects may include better code, fewer bugs, and happier developers.

Trust-Driven Development

Trust Driven Development is about the profession of building successful software. about planning for change, about process, and above all, about trust. Process is what we do to make sure that everybody on a project has a shared sense of state and of goals. Trust is what happens when we match that shared state and meet those goals.

What I Like About Hotwire

January 9, 2021

Previously On Locally Sourced: I wrote about how to use Hotwire and Turbo. (My Mac keeps wanting to autocorrect that to “Hot-wire” for some unknown reason…). The update to Modern Front-End Development With Rails is ongoing, the book is available for beta purchase if you want the new stuff as soon as we can get it to you. After writing a post a couple of weeks ago explaining how the new Hotwire framework works I want to spend some time explaining what I like about it.

A Brief Hello to Hotwire and Turbo

December 24, 2020

This week, after some mysterious announcements about “New Magic”, Basecamp released Hotwire, their support tools for client-side development using HTML over the wire rather than JSON. These are the generic versions of the tools that power Hey. Hotwire consists of the already released StimulusJS, and Turbo, which is the successor to Turbolinks. This is also the tool release that has been holding up Modern Front-End Development With Rails, on sale now!

The Road To Legacy

December 8, 2020

It occurred to me recently that two of the conference talks that I consider the best I’ve ever written never really got a very wide audience, even by the admittedly low standards of my conference talks. And I also wanted to revisit them to see if I can improve the argument. This post comes from a talk called “The Road To Legacy is Paved With Good Intentions”, and here is the original talk video from WindyCityRails 2017.

Technical Writing

November 29, 2020

I recently gave a workshop about technical writing at Virtual RubyConf 2020. I enjoyed doing that tremendously, because, in case it’s not clear, I could yammer on forever about technical writing in much the same way as I normally yammer on about code, just to a smaller audience. I didn’t get to some of my outline in the workshop, so I’m being a little indulgent and writing it up here. I hope it’s helpful.

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Teaching Testing and Design

With Avdi Grimm, Betsy Haibel and Penelope Phippen

Episode 72, October 2019

Teaching and Learning

With Sandi Metz

Episode 69, August 2019

Pragmatic Programmer at 20

With Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas

Episode 68, August 2019