http://railscasts.com Every other week you will be treated to a new, free RailsCasts episode featuring tips and tricks with Ruby on Rails, the popular web development framework. These screencasts are short and focus on one technique so you can quickly move on to applying it to your own project. The topics are geared toward the intermediate Rails developer, but beginners and experts will get something out of it as well. A Pro option is also available containing more screencasts each week. This is the full resolution version, a lower reoslution for mobile devices is also available. en Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:00:00 +0200 Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:00:00 +0200 http://railscasts.com/episodes/417-foundation ZURB's Foundation is a front-end for quickly building applications and prototypes. It is similar to Twitter Bootstrap but uses Sass instead of LESS. Here you will learn the basics of the grid system, navigation, tooltips and more. Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:00:00 +0200 foundation http://railscasts.com/episodes/415-upgrading-to-rails-4 With the release of Rails 4.0.0.rc1 it's time to try it out and report any bugs. Here I walk you through the steps to upgrade a Rails 3.2 application to Rails 4. Mon, 06 May 2013 09:00:00 +0200 upgrading-to-rails-4 http://railscasts.com/episodes/412-fast-rails-commands Rails commands, such as generators, migrations, and tests, have a tendency to be slow because they need to load the Rails app each time. Here I show three tools to make this faster: Zeus, Spring, and Commands. Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0200 fast-rails-commands http://railscasts.com/episodes/409-active-model-serializers The ActiveModel::Serializers gem can help you build JSON APIs through serializer objects. This provides a dedicated place to fully customize the JSON output. Sat, 09 Mar 2013 09:00:00 +0100 active-model-serializers http://railscasts.com/episodes/406-public-activity Learn how to easily add a user activity feed using the public_activity gem. Here I show both the default setup using model callbacks and a manual way to trigger activities. Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:00:00 +0100 public-activity http://railscasts.com/episodes/402-better-errors-railspanel Here we take a look at two tools to aid us in development: Better Errors which makes it easier than ever to debug exceptions, and RailsPanel, a Chrome extension to see Rails requests. Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0100 better-errors-railspanel http://railscasts.com/episodes/400-what-s-new-in-rails-4 Rails 4.0 is still unfinished, but it is shaping up to become a great release. Here I show how to setup a new Rails 4.0 (edge) application and walk through many of its new features. Fri, 04 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0100 what-s-new-in-rails-4 http://railscasts.com/episodes/396-importing-csv-and-excel Allow users to import records into the database by uploading a CSV or Excel document. Here I show how to use Roo to parse these files and present a solution for validations. Sat, 08 Dec 2012 09:00:00 +0100 importing-csv-and-excel http://railscasts.com/episodes/393-guest-user-record Instead of presenting a sign up form to the user, consider creating a temporary guest record so the user can try out the application without filling in their information up front. They can then become a permanent member afterwards. Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:00:00 +0100 guest-user-record http://railscasts.com/episodes/390-turbolinks Turbolinks can make your Rails app feel faster by using JavaScript to replace the page content when clicking a link. It will be default in new Rails 4.0 applications, but here I show how to use it in Rails 3 and mention some of the gotchas. Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:00:00 +0100 turbolinks http://railscasts.com/episodes/387-cache-digests The cache_digests gem (also included in Rails 4) will automatically add a digest to the fragment cache key based on the template. If a template changes the cache will auto-expire. But watch out for the gotchas! Sat, 20 Oct 2012 09:00:00 +0200 cache-digests http://railscasts.com/episodes/384-exploring-rubygems RubyGems can make it easy to add a feature to a Rails application, but it can also cause headaches down the road. Here I give some tips on researching gems to decide which one to choose, or when to do it from scratch. Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:00:00 +0200 exploring-rubygems http://railscasts.com/episodes/382-tagging There are several gems to help implement tags in a Rails app. Here I show you how to integrate acts-as-taggable-on and then show how to do it from scratch. Sat, 22 Sep 2012 09:00:00 +0200 tagging http://railscasts.com/episodes/378-fnordmetric FnordMetric allows you to chart events in real time. This is great for keeping track of user activity in your Rails app as demonstrated in this episode. Tue, 04 Sep 2012 09:00:00 +0200 fnordmetric http://railscasts.com/episodes/376-jruby-basics JRuby is a polished and stable Ruby implementation. Here I show the basics of setting it up and executing Java from within Ruby. I also see how it compares with MRI at running threads. Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:00:00 +0200 jruby-basics http://railscasts.com/episodes/374-image-manipulation Learn how to do extensive image manipulation with the ImageMagick commands. Also learn how RMagick can be used in combination with CarrierWave to process uploaded images. Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:00:00 +0200 image-manipulation http://railscasts.com/episodes/372-bullet Bullet will notify you of database queries that can potentially be improved through eager loading or counter cache column. A variety of notification alerts are supported. Thu, 09 Aug 2012 09:00:00 +0200 bullet http://railscasts.com/episodes/370-ransack Ransack allows you to easily build complex search forms. It also helps in adding sortable links and building a dynamic advanced search page. Fri, 03 Aug 2012 09:00:00 +0200 ransack http://railscasts.com/episodes/368-miniprofiler MiniProfiler allows you to see the speed of a request conveniently on the page. It also shows the SQL queries performed and allows you to profile a specific block of code. Tue, 24 Jul 2012 09:00:00 +0200 miniprofiler http://railscasts.com/episodes/366-sidekiq Sidekiq allows you to move jobs into the background for asynchronous processing. It uses threads instead of forks so it is much more efficient with memory compared to Resque. Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:00:00 +0200 sidekiq http://railscasts.com/episodes/364-active-record-reputation-system If you need to calculate an average user's rating or sum up a number of votes, consider using the activerecord-reputation-system gem. Here I will cover the basics and also briefly present a from-scratch solution. Mon, 09 Jul 2012 09:00:00 +0200 active-record-reputation-system http://railscasts.com/episodes/362-exporting-csv-and-excel As you will see it is easy to add a CSV export option to Rails. Here I also show how to export for Excel in a variety of formats. Mon, 02 Jul 2012 09:00:00 +0200 exporting-csv-and-excel http://railscasts.com/episodes/360-facebook-authentication This will show how to create a new facebook application and configure it. Then add some authentication with the omniauth-facebook gem and top it off with a client-side authentication using the JavaScript SDK. Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:00:00 +0200 facebook-authentication http://railscasts.com/episodes/358-brakeman The Brakeman gem will scan the Ruby code of a Rails application and alert you to common security vulnerabilities. Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:00:00 +0200 brakeman http://railscasts.com/episodes/356-dangers-of-session-hijacking If a user's authentication cookie is sent over an insecure connection it is vulnerable to session hijacking, or more specifically, sidejacking. Learn how this is done, and how you can prevent it. Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:00:00 +0200 dangers-of-session-hijacking http://railscasts.com/episodes/354-squeel Squeel provides a comprehensive DSL for writing SQL queries in Ruby. It is built upon Arel giving you access to many of its powerful features. Wed, 30 May 2012 09:00:00 +0200 squeel http://railscasts.com/episodes/352-securing-an-api There are many approaches to locking down an API. Here I start off with HTTP Basic authentication then move on to generating a unique token which can be passed through a URL parameter or HTTP header. Wed, 23 May 2012 09:00:00 +0200 securing-an-api http://railscasts.com/episodes/350-rest-api-versioning APIs should be consistent, but it is difficult to do this when returning a JSON response along side the HTML interface. Here I show how to add a versioned, RESTful API. The version can be determined from either the URL or HTTP headers. Wed, 16 May 2012 09:00:00 +0200 rest-api-versioning http://railscasts.com/episodes/348-the-rails-api-gem It is often asked: Is Rails a good fit if I only need to serve an API? In this episode I show how to use the Rails API gem to create a slimmer Rails application designed to respond with JSON. Wed, 09 May 2012 09:00:00 +0200 the-rails-api-gem http://railscasts.com/episodes/347-rubber-and-amazon-ec2 Deploying to Amazon EC2 allows you to scale an application quickly. Learn how to use Rubber to deploy to the cloud with just a few commands and monitor the cluster with various web tools. Thu, 03 May 2012 09:00:00 +0200 rubber-and-amazon-ec2 http://railscasts.com/episodes/346-wizard-forms-with-wicked Creating a wizard form can be tricky in Rails. Learn how Wicked can help by turning a controller into a series of multiple steps. Thu, 03 May 2012 09:00:00 +0200 wizard-forms-with-wicked http://railscasts.com/episodes/344-queue-classic PostgreSQL can act as a worker queue which can replace the need for a separate process to manage the background jobs. Here you will learn how to do this with the queue_classic gem. Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:00:00 +0200 queue-classic http://railscasts.com/episodes/342-migrating-to-postgresql Postgres is a feature-packed relational database that every Rails developer should consider using. Here you will learn how to install it, add it to a new application, and transition from an existing SQLite app using the "taps" gem. Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:00:00 +0200 migrating-to-postgresql http://railscasts.com/episodes/340-datatables DataTables makes it easy to convert a plain HTML table into one with pagination, sorting, and searching - all done with JavaScript and jQuery. Here I show how to set this up and use a Rails application as the data source. Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:00:00 +0200 datatables http://railscasts.com/episodes/338-globalize3 Rails has great internationalization (I18n) support making it easy to translate static text into other languages, but how do we translate database content? Learn how using Globalize 3 in this episode. Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:00:00 +0200 globalize3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/336-copycopter Copycopter provides a nice interface that clients can use to edit the text in a Rails application. Learn how to deploy a Copycopter server using Heroku and integrate it in a Rails application through I18n. Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:00:00 +0200 copycopter http://railscasts.com/episodes/334-compass-css-sprites Compass improves the Sass experience by providing useful mixins, functions, and more. You will also learn how to make CSS sprites with it in this episode. Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:00:00 +0100 compass-css-sprites http://railscasts.com/episodes/332-refinery-cms-basics If you need to quickly create an informational site that can be easily edited, consider using a content management system. Here I show how to build a site using Refinery CMS. Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:00:00 +0100 refinery-cms-basics http://railscasts.com/episodes/330-better-sass-with-bourbon If you are tired of the browser vendor prefixes in CSS, check out Bourbon. It provides Sass mixins and functions to make CSS more convenient. Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:00:00 +0100 better-sass-with-bourbon http://railscasts.com/episodes/328-twitter-bootstrap-basics Twitter Bootstrap can help make beautiful web apps quickly by providing you with useful CSS and JavaScript. Here you will learn how to include it into Rails with the twitter-bootstrap-rails gem. Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0100 twitter-bootstrap-basics http://railscasts.com/episodes/326-activeattr ActiveAttr provides what Active Model left out. If you need to create a table-less model with features similar to Active Record, watch this episode. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0100 activeattr http://railscasts.com/episodes/324-passing-data-to-javascript There are a variety of ways to pass variables from a Rails application to JavaScript. Here I show three techniques: a script tag, a data attribute, and the Gon gem. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0100 passing-data-to-javascript http://railscasts.com/episodes/322-rabl RABL - Ruby API Builder Language - provides a DSL for generating JSON or XML responses in a Ruby application. Learn how to share and configure complex JSON data in this episode. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0100 rabl http://railscasts.com/episodes/320-jbuilder Jbuilder provides a DSL for generating JSON. It includes a template engine which allows you to create complex responses with helpers and conditions. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0100 jbuilder http://railscasts.com/episodes/318-upgrading-to-rails-3-2 Rails 3.2 sports many new features including automatic explain queries, tagged logging, key-value store in Active Record, improved migration generator and more. Learn all about these new features in this episode. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0100 upgrading-to-rails-3-2 http://railscasts.com/episodes/316-private-pub Private Pub makes it easier than ever to publish and subscribe to real-time events in a Rails app. You can use publish_to with a block of JavaScript or supply a hash for use with JSON. Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0100 private-pub http://railscasts.com/episodes/314-pretty-urls-with-friendlyid If you are tired of model ids in the URL, overriding to_param can only get you so far. The friendly_id plugin can help by making it easy to generate a URL slug and maintain a history. Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0100 pretty-urls-with-friendlyid http://railscasts.com/episodes/312-sending-html-email HTML email can be difficult to code because any CSS should be made inline. Here I present a few tools for doing this including the premailer-rails3 and roadie gems. Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0100 sending-html-email http://railscasts.com/episodes/310-getting-started-with-rails Learning Ruby on Rails can be overwhelming, especially if you are new to programming. Here I will take you on a tour through various resources to help get started with Rails. Mon, 26 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0100 getting-started-with-rails http://railscasts.com/episodes/308-oh-my-zsh As Rails developers, we frequently use the command line. Here I will show how to switch to Z Shell using Oh My ZSH including how to make your own theme and plugins. Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0100 oh-my-zsh http://railscasts.com/episodes/306-elasticsearch-part-1 Add full text searching using ElasticSearch and Tire. Here I will show the steps involved in adding this search to an existing application. This is the first part in a two part series. Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0100 elasticsearch-part-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/304-omniauth-identity With the release of OmniAuth 1.0 there is a new Identity strategy which allows users to register/login with a password if they don't want to use an external provider. Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0100 omniauth-identity http://railscasts.com/episodes/302-in-place-editing Edit an attribute in-place without leaving a page using the Best In Place gem. Learn how to add validations and support for various field types. Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +0100 in-place-editing http://railscasts.com/episodes/300-contributing-to-open-source GitHub makes it easier than ever to contribute to open source with pull requests. Here I show how to submit a pull request to the VCR project. Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +0100 contributing-to-open-source http://railscasts.com/episodes/298-getting-started-with-spree Spree allows you to quickly turn a Rails project into a full eCommerce application. Here I show how to set it up and configure the look and feel of the store. Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +0100 getting-started-with-spree http://railscasts.com/episodes/296-mercury-editor Mercury allows you to edit a section of HTML directly in the web browser through a WYSIWYG editor. Here I show how to integrate Mercury into a Rails app and save the changes back to the database. Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +0100 mercury-editor http://railscasts.com/episodes/294-playing-with-pjax PJAX allows you to quickly update a section of a page using AJAX with automatic pushState support. Here I show how to use both pjax_rails and rack-pjax gems. Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:00:00 +0100 playing-with-pjax http://railscasts.com/episodes/292-virtual-machines-with-vagrant Vagrant allows you to run your Rails application and all of its dependencies in a portable, sharable environment. Use for development, set it up as a staging server, or experiment with a production setup. Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:00:00 +0200 virtual-machines-with-vagrant http://railscasts.com/episodes/290-soap-with-savon Communicating with a SOAP API can be a daunting task. Savon makes this easier by presenting the SOAP API through a Ruby interface. Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:00:00 +0200 soap-with-savon http://railscasts.com/episodes/288-billing-with-stripe Stripe is a full-stack payment solution with very reasonable pricing and is easy to setup. See how to add it to a Rails application here. Currently only available in the US. Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:00:00 +0200 billing-with-stripe http://railscasts.com/episodes/286-draper Clean up complex view logic using Draper. This gem provides decorators (much like presenters) which bundles view logic in an object oriented fashion. In this episode I do a step-by-step refactoring of a complex template into a decorator. Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:00:00 +0200 draper http://railscasts.com/episodes/285-spork Spork improves the loading time of your test suite by starting up your Rails application once in the background. Use it with Guard for the ultimate combo in fast feedback while doing TDD. Mon, 26 Sep 2011 09:00:00 +0200 spork http://railscasts.com/episodes/284-active-admin Active Admin allows you to quickly build an admin interface with just a few commands. Not only does it look great, but it is very customizable as shown in this episode. Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:00:00 +0200 active-admin http://railscasts.com/episodes/283-authentication-with-sorcery Sorcery is a full-featured, modular solution to authentication which leaves the controller and view layers up to you. Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:00:00 +0200 authentication-with-sorcery http://railscasts.com/episodes/282-upgrading-to-rails-3-1 It is incredibly easy to upgrade to Rails 3.1, but if you want to take advantage of the asset pipeline you will need to put in some extra effort. Have no fear because I walk you through each of the necessary steps in this episode. Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:00:00 +0200 upgrading-to-rails-3-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/281-foreman Foreman can help manage multiple processes that your Rails app depends upon when running in development. It also provides an export command to move them into production. Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0200 foreman http://railscasts.com/episodes/280-pry-with-rails Pry is an alternative to IRB and sports many great features. Here I show how to integrate it into a Rails app, and how it can aid in debugging. Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0200 pry-with-rails http://railscasts.com/episodes/279-understanding-the-asset-pipeline The asset pipeline is probably the biggest feature in Rails 3.1, but it can seem like magic at first. Here I dive into exactly how the asset pipeline works. Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0200 understanding-the-asset-pipeline http://railscasts.com/episodes/278-search-with-sunspot Sunspot makes it easy to do full text searching through Solr. Here I show how to search on various attributes and add facets for filtering the search further. Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0200 search-with-sunspot http://railscasts.com/episodes/277-mountable-engines Engines are receiving a major update in Rails 3.1. You can mount them at any path, embed assets, run generators and more. See how in this episode. Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0200 mountable-engines http://railscasts.com/episodes/276-testing-time-web-requests It can be difficult to test code that deals with the current time or an external web request. Here I show you how to do both using the Timecop and FakeWeb gems. Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:00:00 +0200 testing-time-web-requests http://railscasts.com/episodes/275-how-i-test Here I show how I would add tests to the password reset feature created in the previous episode. I use RSpec, Capybara, Factory Girl, and Guard to make request, model, and mailer specs. Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:00:00 +0200 how-i-test http://railscasts.com/episodes/274-remember-me-reset-password It is easy to create authentication from scratch, but how do we extend it with more features? Here I add a "remember me" check box and a "forgotten password" link. Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:00:00 +0200 remember-me-reset-password http://railscasts.com/episodes/273-geocoder If you need to work with geographic data, Geocoder is an excellent gem for converting addresses and coordinates, finding nearby locations, determining distances, and more! Mon, 04 Jul 2011 09:00:00 +0200 geocoder http://railscasts.com/episodes/272-markdown-with-redcarpet Redcarpet is an easy-to-use gem which interprets Markdown. Here I show how to customize it and add syntax highlighting through Pygments and Albino. Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:00:00 +0200 markdown-with-redcarpet http://railscasts.com/episodes/271-resque Resque creates background jobs using Redis. It supports multiple queue and comes with an administration interface for monitoring and managing the queues. Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:00:00 +0200 resque http://railscasts.com/episodes/270-authentication-in-rails-3-1 Here I show off three new features in Rails 3.1 that will help with authentication: easier HTTP Basic, SecurePassword in the database, and forcing SSL. Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:00:00 +0200 authentication-in-rails-3-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/269-template-inheritance In Rails 3.1 the controller inheritance also applies to the view layer. Here I show how to add an application template which is shared by all views, and a lookup path for overriding templates based on the subdomain. Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:00:00 +0200 template-inheritance http://railscasts.com/episodes/268-sass-basics Sass extends CSS with variables, nesting, mixins and more. Here I show how to convert plain CSS to SCSS in a Rails 3.1 app. Mon, 30 May 2011 09:00:00 +0200 sass-basics http://railscasts.com/episodes/267-coffeescript-basics CoffeeScript allows you to write JavaScript in a concise, elegant fashion. Here I convert JavaScript code to CoffeeScript in a Rails 3.1 app. Mon, 23 May 2011 09:00:00 +0200 coffeescript-basics http://railscasts.com/episodes/266-http-streaming HTTP Streaming allows the browser to start processing the HTML response while the Rails app is still processing the rest of the request. Mon, 16 May 2011 09:00:00 +0200 http-streaming http://railscasts.com/episodes/265-rails-3-1-overview This is the first episode in a series covering Rails 3.1. Here I show how to install the beta and show some of the new features. Mon, 09 May 2011 09:00:00 +0200 rails-3-1-overview http://railscasts.com/episodes/264-guard Guard watches files and runs a command after a file is modified. This allows you to automatically run tests in the background, restart your development server, reload the browser, and more. Mon, 02 May 2011 09:00:00 +0200 guard http://railscasts.com/episodes/263-client-side-validations Showing validation errors inline as the user is filling out the form can lead to a better use experience. Learn how to do this using the Client Side Validations gem. Mon, 25 Apr 2011 09:00:00 +0200 client-side-validations http://railscasts.com/episodes/262-trees-with-ancestry The Ancestry gem works like a tree but also allows us to fetch deeply nested messages in a single query. It provides a method to arrange them after fetching. Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:00:00 +0200 trees-with-ancestry http://railscasts.com/episodes/261-testing-javascript-with-jasmine Are you testing your JavaScript? Learn how to add specs using Jasmine. This episode also covers jQuery integration with jasmine-jquery. Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:00:00 +0200 testing-javascript-with-jasmine http://railscasts.com/episodes/260-messaging-with-faye Faye is a subscription/publishing server which makes it easy to do push notifications within a Rails app. Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:00:00 +0200 messaging-with-faye http://railscasts.com/episodes/259-decent-exposure The decent_exposure gem makes it convenient to share controller data with the view through methods instead of instance variables. Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:00:00 +0200 decent-exposure http://railscasts.com/episodes/258-token-fields With the jQuery Tokeninput plugin it is easy to add an autocompleting list of entries for a many-to-many association. Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0100 token-fields http://railscasts.com/episodes/257-request-specs-and-capybara Request specs in RSpec are a great way to ensure the entire application stack is working properly. Here I also show how to use capybara with integrated JavaScript testing using Selenium. Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0100 request-specs-and-capybara http://railscasts.com/episodes/256-i18n-backends Internationalization is easy to add in Rails, but the YAML files can be difficult to manage. In this episode I show how to use Redis for managing the translations through a web interface. Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:00:00 +0100 i18n-backends http://railscasts.com/episodes/255-undo-with-paper-trail Undo and redo behavior is easy to add with a versioning gem such as Paper Trail. Learn how to add an undo link to any model's flash message. Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:00:00 +0100 undo-with-paper-trail http://railscasts.com/episodes/254-pagination-with-kaminari If you need pagination in Rails 3 try out Kaminari. It is a clean, flexible solution which uses scopes to flow nicely with Active Record queries. Did I mention it also works with Mongoid? Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:00:00 +0100 pagination-with-kaminari http://railscasts.com/episodes/253-carrierwave-file-uploads CarrierWave makes it easy and clean to add file uploads to your application. It supports a variety of ORMs, frameworks and image processors. Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:00:00 +0100 carrierwave-file-uploads http://railscasts.com/episodes/252-metrics-metrics-metrics Metric Fu, Metrical, SimpleCov, Rails Best Practices, and more are covered in this episode on metrics. Mon, 07 Feb 2011 09:00:00 +0100 metrics-metrics-metrics http://railscasts.com/episodes/251-metawhere-metasearch MetaWhere provides a way to do complex find conditions without SQL in Active Record. MetaSearch makes it easy to create search forms with many find options. Mon, 31 Jan 2011 09:00:00 +0100 metawhere-metasearch http://railscasts.com/episodes/250-authentication-from-scratch Password authentication is not too complicated to make from scratch, it will also help to get a better understanding of how it works. Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:00:00 +0100 authentication-from-scratch http://railscasts.com/episodes/249-notifications-in-rails-3 Rails 3 comes with instrument support through the ActiveSupport::Notifications class. Call "subscribe" to listen to notifications, and "instrument" to send them. Mon, 17 Jan 2011 09:00:00 +0100 notifications-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/248-offline-apps-part-2 Learn how to make a site usable offline with HTML 5 localStorage. This last part of the series covers jquery-tmpl and jquery-offline. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 09:00:00 +0100 offline-apps-part-2 http://railscasts.com/episodes/247-offline-apps-part-1 Learn how to make a site usable offline through an HTML 5 cache manifest. This first part of the series covers rack-offline and problems you may run into. Mon, 03 Jan 2011 09:00:00 +0100 offline-apps-part-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/246-ajax-history-state The new pushState function in JavaScript allows us to change the full URL with AJAX. This means the back button, reloading, and bookmark support can be easily added. Mon, 27 Dec 2010 09:00:00 +0100 ajax-history-state http://railscasts.com/episodes/245-new-gem-with-bundler Creating new gems is easy with the `bundle gem` command. In this episode I will walk you through how this works. Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:00:00 +0100 new-gem-with-bundler http://railscasts.com/episodes/244-gravatar Gravatar is a service for providing user avatars. See how easy it is to use in Rails in this episode. Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:00:00 +0100 gravatar http://railscasts.com/episodes/243-beanstalkd-and-stalker Beanstalk is a fast and easy way to queue background tasks. Stalker provides a nice wrapper interface for creating these jobs. Mon, 06 Dec 2010 09:00:00 +0100 beanstalkd-and-stalker http://railscasts.com/episodes/242-thor Thor is an alternative to Rake. It has better support for command line arguments and provides a way to add global scripts. Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:00:00 +0100 thor http://railscasts.com/episodes/241-simple-omniauth Authentication is incredibly simple to add with just OmniAuth if you don't need username/password or multiple authentications per user. Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:00:00 +0100 simple-omniauth http://railscasts.com/episodes/240-search-sort-paginate-with-ajax Many administration pages have search, sorting, and pagination on the index page. See how to add all of this including AJAX. Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:00:00 +0100 search-sort-paginate-with-ajax http://railscasts.com/episodes/239-activerecord-relation-walkthrough The new Active Record query methods in Rails 3 might seem like magic at first. But in this episode I unravel how it works by browsing the Rails 3 source code. Sun, 07 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0100 activerecord-relation-walkthrough http://railscasts.com/episodes/238-mongoid Mongoid is a polished, high-level Ruby gem for accessing MongoDB. Here I cover installation, adding fields, validations, associations, and keys. Mon, 01 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0100 mongoid http://railscasts.com/episodes/237-dynamic-attr-accessible It is important to use attr_accessible for security with mass assignment, but what if you need it to be dynamic based on user permissions? See how in this episode. Mon, 25 Oct 2010 09:00:00 +0200 dynamic-attr-accessible http://railscasts.com/episodes/236-omniauth-part-2 In this episode we continue our look at integrating OmniAuth with devise. Here I show how to set up new users with validations. Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:00:00 +0200 omniauth-part-2 http://railscasts.com/episodes/235-omniauth-part-1 OmniAuth is an easy way to add many different authentication services to your app. In this episode we start integrating it with Devise. Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:00:00 +0200 omniauth-part-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/234-simple-form Simple Form is a convenient way to generate forms with many options to customize the generated markup. Mon, 04 Oct 2010 09:00:00 +0200 simple-form http://railscasts.com/episodes/233-engage-with-devise Janrain Engage (aka RPX) makes it easy to support many authentication solutions through their one service. Mon, 27 Sep 2010 09:00:00 +0200 engage-with-devise http://railscasts.com/episodes/232-routing-walkthrough-part-2 In this episode we continue our look into the Rails 3 router by exploring the Mapper class. Sun, 19 Sep 2010 09:00:00 +0200 routing-walkthrough-part-2 http://railscasts.com/episodes/231-routing-walkthrough How does routing work internally in Rails 3? In this episode I'll walk you through the Rails code that makes routing possible. Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:00:00 +0200 routing-walkthrough http://railscasts.com/episodes/230-inherited-resources Inherited Resource simplifies RESTful controllers by providing default actions which can be customized through inheritance. Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:00:00 +0200 inherited-resources http://railscasts.com/episodes/229-polling-for-changes If you have frequently changing data on the server side, it's helpful to automatically display this to the user as well. Here I show how to accomplish this with polling in jQuery. Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:00:00 +0200 polling-for-changes http://railscasts.com/episodes/228-sortable-table-columns Here I walk you through adding the ability to sort table columns in ascending or descending order by clicking the header. Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:00:00 +0200 sortable-table-columns http://railscasts.com/episodes/227-upgrading-to-rails-3-part-3 Here we finish up this upgrade series by removing all deprecation warnings and fixing some problems in the view. Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:00:00 +0200 upgrading-to-rails-3-part-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/226-upgrading-to-rails-3-part-2 Here we continue upgrading an application to Rails 3 by getting our specs up and running and going through the rails_upgrade plugin. Mon, 09 Aug 2010 09:00:00 +0200 upgrading-to-rails-3-part-2 http://railscasts.com/episodes/225-upgrading-to-rails-3-part-1 In the first part of this series on upgrading a Rails 2 application to Rails 3, we'll start off by setting up Rails 3.0 Release Candidate in a clean environment. The rails_upgrade plugin will then help us determine what needs upgrading. Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:00:00 +0200 upgrading-to-rails-3-part-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/224-controllers-in-rails-3 Embedded flash notices, permanent cookies, and the details of respond_with are in this episode. Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0200 controllers-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/223-charts There are a number of libraries to help create graphs. Here I show how to integrate Highcharts into a Rails app. Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0200 charts http://railscasts.com/episodes/222-rack-in-rails-3 The router in Rails 3 is fully compatible with Rack. Learn how to embed Sinatra into an app, handle redirects, and improve on Rails Metal. Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0200 rack-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/221-subdomains-in-rails-3 It is now possible to add subdomains to Rails 3 without the use of additional plugins. Learn how in this episode. Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0200 subdomains-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/220-pdfkit Generating PDFs in plain Ruby can be a lot of work. Instead, consider generating PDFs from HTML using PDFKit. Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:00:00 +0200 pdfkit http://railscasts.com/episodes/219-active-model In Rails 3 the non-database functionality of Active Record is extracted out into Active Model. This allows you to cleanly add validations and other features to tableless models. Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:00:00 +0200 active-model http://railscasts.com/episodes/218-making-generators-in-rails-3 Generators in Rails 3 have been rewritten to use Thor which means the code used to create a generator is quite different. Here you will learn the new way to make generators in Rails 3. Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:00:00 +0200 making-generators-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/217-multistep-forms See how to create a multi-step (wizard) form from scratch in this episode. Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:00:00 +0200 multistep-forms http://railscasts.com/episodes/216-generators-in-rails-3 Generators in Rails 3 have been completely rewritten to be more modular. This allows you to customize any generator to fit your specific preferences. Mon, 31 May 2010 09:00:00 +0200 generators-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/215-advanced-queries-in-rails-3 Learn some advanced techniques regarding named scopes and get an introduction to Arel in this episode. Mon, 24 May 2010 09:00:00 +0200 advanced-queries-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/214-a-b-testing-with-a-bingo A/B Testing (or Split Testing) is a way to experiment with variations in an application to see the most effective option. Mon, 17 May 2010 09:00:00 +0200 a-b-testing-with-a-bingo http://railscasts.com/episodes/213-calendars If dates play an important role in your application, consider adding a date picker or calendar view as shown in this episode. Mon, 10 May 2010 09:00:00 +0200 calendars http://railscasts.com/episodes/212-refactoring-dynamic-delegator Learn how to refactor a set of conditional Active Record queries using a Dynamic Delegator. Mon, 03 May 2010 09:00:00 +0200 refactoring-dynamic-delegator http://railscasts.com/episodes/211-validations-in-rails-3 Rails 3 offers several new additions to validations. Here learn how to make a custom error_messages partial, reflect on validations, and clean up complex validations in a model. Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:00:00 +0200 validations-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/210-customizing-devise Here we dive deeper into Devise by customizing how the views, routing, validations, and authentication works. Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:00:00 +0200 customizing-devise http://railscasts.com/episodes/209-introducing-devise Devise is a full-featured authentication solution which handles all of the controller logic and form views for you. Learn how to set it up in this episode. Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:00:00 +0200 introducing-devise http://railscasts.com/episodes/208-erb-blocks-in-rails-3 Blocks in ERB templates are handled differently in Rails 3.0 Beta 2. Learn all about it in this episode. Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:00:00 +0200 erb-blocks-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/207-syntax-highlighting Here I talk about three popular choices for syntax highlighting in Rails: CodeRay, Ultraviolet and Pygments. Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0200 syntax-highlighting http://railscasts.com/episodes/206-action-mailer-in-rails-3 Action Mailer has been rewritten for Rails 3 providing a much cleaner API with its use of the Mail gem. Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0100 action-mailer-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/205-unobtrusive-javascript Keep JavaScript out of your HTML content with unobtrusive JavaScript. Here I show how Rails 3 works with this best practice. Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0100 unobtrusive-javascript http://railscasts.com/episodes/204-xss-protection-in-rails-3 It is easy to be vulnerable to cross site scripting attacks in earlier versions of Rails, but Rails 3 solves this by automatically escaping unsafe input. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0100 xss-protection-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/203-routing-in-rails-3 Rails 3 sports a new routing interface. In this episode I show how to translate the old interface into the new one and show off a few new features. Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0100 routing-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/202-active-record-queries-in-rails-3 Rails 3 introduces a new query interface for performing finds in Active Record. See how it works along with the changes in named scopes. Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0100 active-record-queries-in-rails-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/201-bundler Bundler is the way to manage gem dependencies in Rails 3.0. Learn how to install gems and lock them down in this episode. Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0100 bundler http://railscasts.com/episodes/200-rails-3-beta-and-rvm Get started with Rails 3.0 Beta and install Ruby 1.9.1 using RVM: Ruby Version Manager. Stay tuned to the end for a challenge on giving back to open source. Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0100 rails-3-beta-and-rvm http://railscasts.com/episodes/199-mobile-devices Change the look and behavior of a Rails app on mobile devices. Also use jQTouch to build a native-looking interface. Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0100 mobile-devices http://railscasts.com/episodes/198-edit-multiple-individually Use checkboxes to edit multiple records in one form, where each one has an individual set of form fields. Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +0100 edit-multiple-individually http://railscasts.com/episodes/197-nested-model-form-part-2 Add and remove nested model fields dynamically through JavaScript using either Prototype or jQuery. Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +0100 nested-model-form-part-2 http://railscasts.com/episodes/196-nested-model-form-part-1 Handling multiple models in a single form is much easier with the accepts_nested_attributes_for method. See how to use this method to handle nested model fields. Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +0100 nested-model-form-part-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/195-my-favorite-web-apps-in-2009 Here I show several of my favorite web applications which I found most helpful as a Ruby developer over the past year. Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +0100 my-favorite-web-apps-in-2009 http://railscasts.com/episodes/194-mongodb-and-mongomapper MongoDB is a document based database engine. Learn how to access it through MongoMapper in this episode. Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0100 mongodb-and-mongomapper http://railscasts.com/episodes/193-tableless-model If you want to create a model without a database backend, you simply need to define a couple methods in the model like I show in this episode. Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0100 tableless-model http://railscasts.com/episodes/192-authorization-with-cancan CanCan is a simple authorization plugin that offers a lot of flexibility. See how to use it in this episode. Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0100 authorization-with-cancan http://railscasts.com/episodes/191-mechanize Mechanize extends the power of Nokogiri allowing you to interact with multiple pages on the site: click links, submit forms, etc. Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0100 mechanize http://railscasts.com/episodes/190-screen-scraping-with-nokogiri Screen scraping is easy with Nokogiri and SelectorGadget. Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0100 screen-scraping-with-nokogiri http://railscasts.com/episodes/189-embedded-association Learn how to set up a one-to-many or many-to-many association which is entirely embedded into a single column through a string or bitmask. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0100 embedded-association http://railscasts.com/episodes/188-declarative-authorization Declarative authorization provides an advanced and powerful solution for role based authorization. Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0100 declarative-authorization http://railscasts.com/episodes/187-testing-exceptions Sometimes bad code slips into production and triggers a 500 error. Learn how to be notified of this and resolve it through integration tests. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0100 testing-exceptions http://railscasts.com/episodes/186-pickle-with-cucumber Pickle adds many convenient Cucumber steps for generating models. Also learn about table diffs in this episode. Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0100 pickle-with-cucumber http://railscasts.com/episodes/185-formtastic-part-2 Learn about some of the more advanced functionality of Formtastic including handling many-to-many associations, required fields, and styling. Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:00:00 +0100 formtastic-part-2 http://railscasts.com/episodes/184-formtastic-part-1 Formtastic is a concise way to generate form views. In this episode (part 1 of 2) I show how to generate both a simple form and a more complex one which is customized with options. Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0200 formtastic-part-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/183-gemcutter-jeweler Gemcutter is a new service for hosting RubyGems, and Jeweler provides an automated way to release versions of a gem. Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0200 gemcutter-jeweler http://railscasts.com/episodes/182-cropping-images Present a slick user interface for cropping image attachments using Jcrop and Paperclip. Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0200 cropping-images http://railscasts.com/episodes/181-include-vs-joins The :include and :joins options for the find method can be a little confusing because they are so similar. In this episode I show specifically when to use which option. Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +0200 include-vs-joins http://railscasts.com/episodes/180-finding-unused-css Over time a CSS file can become large and filled with unused selectors. In this episode I show how to use the Deadweight gem to determine which CSS selects you can remove. Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +0200 finding-unused-css http://railscasts.com/episodes/179-seed-data Rails 2.3.4 includes a conventional way to add seed data to your application - no more including it in the migration files. Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +0200 seed-data http://railscasts.com/episodes/178-seven-security-tips Security is important! Here I show seven different security flaws which are common to Rails applications ranging from mass assignment to CSRF protection. Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +0200 seven-security-tips http://railscasts.com/episodes/177-model-versioning If you need to keep track of a model's history of changes and switch between versions, consider using the vestal_versions gem like I show in this episode. Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:00:00 +0200 model-versioning http://railscasts.com/episodes/176-searchlogic Searchlogic makes searching models easier than ever with its assortment of named scopes. In this episode I show you how to create simple and advanced searches. Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:00:00 +0200 searchlogic http://railscasts.com/episodes/175-ajax-history-and-bookmarks Browser page history and bookmarks do not usually work with AJAX requests, but in this episode I show you how to remedy this problem using a simple jQuery plugin. Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:00:00 +0200 ajax-history-and-bookmarks http://railscasts.com/episodes/174-pagination-with-ajax Learn an easy, unobtrusive way to add AJAX functionality to an existing set of pagination links using jQuery. Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:00:00 +0200 pagination-with-ajax http://railscasts.com/episodes/173-screen-scraping-with-scrapi Screen scraping is not pretty, but sometimes it's your only option to extract content from an external site. In this episode I show you how to fetch product prices using ScrAPI. Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:00:00 +0200 screen-scraping-with-scrapi http://railscasts.com/episodes/172-touch-and-cache Rails 2.3.3 brings us a new feature called "touch". See how to use this to auto-expire associated caches in this episode. Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0200 touch-and-cache http://railscasts.com/episodes/171-delayed-job Is there a long running task which should be handled in the background? One of the best ways is using the delayed_job plugin like I show in this episode. Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0200 delayed-job http://railscasts.com/episodes/170-openid-with-authlogic Learn how to apply OpenID to an existing Authlogic setup as I show in this episode. This builds upon the app from episode 160. Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0200 openid-with-authlogic http://railscasts.com/episodes/169-dynamic-page-caching Use JavaScript to allow dynamic content in a page cache. In this episode I show you how to insert the user-specific content into a page through JavaScript. Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:00:00 +0200 dynamic-page-caching http://railscasts.com/episodes/168-feed-parsing Learn two different techniques for parsing an RSS feed using Feedzirra in this episode! Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:00:00 +0200 feed-parsing http://railscasts.com/episodes/167-more-on-virtual-attributes Use a virtual attribute to implement a simple tagging feature. In this episode I show you how to assign virtual attributes through a callback instead of a setter method. Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:00:00 +0200 more-on-virtual-attributes http://railscasts.com/episodes/166-metric-fu Metric Fu is a compilation of several tools to help find areas of code that could be improved. In this episode I show you how to setup this tool on the railscasts.com source code. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:00:00 +0200 metric-fu http://railscasts.com/episodes/165-edit-multiple Use checkboxes to select multiple records and edit them all in one form as shown in this episode. With virtual attributes you can even edit values relatively! Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:00:00 +0200 edit-multiple http://railscasts.com/episodes/164-cron-in-ruby Cron is great for handling recurring tasks, but it is an external dependency with a crazy syntax. In this episode I show you how to use Whenever to create cron jobs with Ruby. Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:00:00 +0200 cron-in-ruby http://railscasts.com/episodes/163-self-referential-association Creating a social networking site often requires a self-referential association on the User model to define friends/followers. In this episode I show how to do exactly that. Mon, 25 May 2009 09:00:00 +0200 self-referential-association http://railscasts.com/episodes/162-tree-based-navigation The acts_as_tree plugin provides many methods for handling a tree based association. In this episode I show how to build a navigation system with tabs, subpages, and breadcrumbs. Mon, 18 May 2009 09:00:00 +0200 tree-based-navigation http://railscasts.com/episodes/161-three-profiling-tools Ever want to know what Rails is doing under the hood during a request? In this episode I show three different profiling tools: New Relic RPM, FiveRuns TuneUp, and Rack::Bug. Mon, 11 May 2009 09:00:00 +0200 three-profiling-tools http://railscasts.com/episodes/160-authlogic Authentication can get very complex. In this episode I show how Authlogic can handle this complexity while you stay in control of how it is presented to the user. Mon, 04 May 2009 09:00:00 +0200 authlogic http://railscasts.com/episodes/159-more-on-cucumber There is a lot more to Cucumber than I showed in an earlier episode. See how to refactor complex scenarios in this episode. Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:00:00 +0200 more-on-cucumber http://railscasts.com/episodes/158-factories-not-fixtures Fixtures are external dependencies which can make tests brittle and difficult to read. In this episode I show a better alternative using factories to generate the needed records. Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:00:00 +0200 factories-not-fixtures http://railscasts.com/episodes/157-rspec-matchers-macros You can improve the readability and remove duplication in RSpec by adding matchers and macros. Learn how in this episode. Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:00:00 +0200 rspec-matchers-macros http://railscasts.com/episodes/156-webrat If you prefer writing integration tests in ruby instead of Cucumber's plain english, consider interacting with Webrat directly as I show in this episode. Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:00:00 +0200 webrat http://railscasts.com/episodes/155-beginning-with-cucumber Cucumber is a high-level testing framework. In this episode we will create a new Rails application from scratch using behavior driven development. Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:00:00 +0200 beginning-with-cucumber http://railscasts.com/episodes/154-polymorphic-association Polymorphic associations can be perplexing. In this episode I show you how to set it up in Active Record and then move to the controller and view layer. Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0100 polymorphic-association http://railscasts.com/episodes/153-pdfs-with-prawn Prawn is an excellent Ruby library for generating PDF documents. Learn how to use it along with the Prawnto plugin in this episode. Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0100 pdfs-with-prawn http://railscasts.com/episodes/152-rails-2-3-extras This episode finishes up this series on Rails 2.3. Here you will learn about several smaller additions in 2.3. Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0100 rails-2-3-extras http://railscasts.com/episodes/151-rack-middleware Rack middleware is a way to filter a request and response coming into your application. In this episode I show how to modify the response body using middleware. Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:00:00 +0100 rack-middleware http://railscasts.com/episodes/150-rails-metal Rails Metal is a way to bypass the standard Rails request process for a performance boost. In this episode you will learn how to shave off a few milliseconds using Metal. Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:00:00 +0100 rails-metal http://railscasts.com/episodes/149-rails-engines Rails 2.3 brings us much of the same functionality as the Rails Engines plugin. Learn how to embed one application into another in this episode. Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:00:00 +0100 rails-engines http://railscasts.com/episodes/148-app-templates-in-rails-2-3 In Rails 2.3 you can provide a template when generating a new Rails application. See how in this episode. Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:00:00 +0100 app-templates-in-rails-2-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/147-sortable-lists Creating drag & drop sortable lists is fairly easy using Prototype and the built in helper methods. See how in this episode. Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:00:00 +0100 sortable-lists http://railscasts.com/episodes/146-paypal-express-checkout PayPal Express Checkout is easy to add to an existing ordering system. See how in this episode. Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0100 paypal-express-checkout http://railscasts.com/episodes/145-integrating-active-merchant In this episode I show how to add Active Merchant's functionality to a Rails application to make a fully-functional checkout process. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0100 integrating-active-merchant http://railscasts.com/episodes/144-active-merchant-basics Active Merchant is a great library for handling credit card transactions. In this episode I will show you the basics of using it to communicate with PayPal's gateway. Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0100 active-merchant-basics http://railscasts.com/episodes/143-paypal-security This episode shows how to encrypt the variables passed to PayPal and verify the authenticity of the payment notifications (IPN). Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0100 paypal-security http://railscasts.com/episodes/142-paypal-notifications PayPal's IPN (Instant Payment Notification) service allows your app to get confirmation when an order is processed. In this episode I use IPN to mark a cart as purchased. Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:00:00 +0100 paypal-notifications http://railscasts.com/episodes/141-paypal-basics This episode is the first in a series on handling the checkout process for orders. Here we show how to complete purchases through PayPal's Website Payments Standard service. Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:00:00 +0100 paypal-basics http://railscasts.com/episodes/140-rails-2-2-extras This episode finishes up the Rails 2.2 series by showing a few miscellaneous additions that I find useful. Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:00:00 +0100 rails-2-2-extras http://railscasts.com/episodes/139-nested-resources In this episode I show how to nest resources through routing and go into some new additions in Rails 2.2. Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:00:00 +0100 nested-resources http://railscasts.com/episodes/138-i18n Internationalization is one of the biggest additions in Rails 2.2. See how the basics work in this episode. Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:00:00 +0100 i18n http://railscasts.com/episodes/137-memoization Rails 2.2 is out! In this episode I show how to upgrade Rails and then demonstrate one of the new additions: Memoization. Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:00:00 +0100 memoization http://railscasts.com/episodes/136-jquery How do you use jQuery with Rails? In this episode I redo episode #43 using jQuery instead of Prototype/RJS. Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:00:00 +0100 jquery http://railscasts.com/episodes/135-making-a-gem Want to create a Ruby Gem instead of a Rails plugin? In this episode I will walk you through creating a gem to extend Rails. Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:00:00 +0100 making-a-gem http://railscasts.com/episodes/134-paperclip Need to add image attachments to a model? See how with paperclip in this episode. Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:00:00 +0100 paperclip http://railscasts.com/episodes/133-capistrano-tasks Do you know how to make Capistrano tasks? See how to change default deployment behavior with custom tasks in this episode. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:00:00 +0100 capistrano-tasks http://railscasts.com/episodes/132-helpers-outside-views Have you ever wanted to access helper methods outside of the view layer? In this episode I show you a couple ways to do just that. Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0200 helpers-outside-views http://railscasts.com/episodes/131-going-back This episode demonstrates a couple ways to redirect the user back to a previous page. Applying this to your site can help minimize the user's need to press the back button. Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0200 going-back http://railscasts.com/episodes/130-monitoring-with-god Need to ensure your background processes stay up and running and don't use too many resources? Check out the god gem as shown in this episode. Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0200 monitoring-with-god http://railscasts.com/episodes/129-custom-daemon Creating a custom daemon to handle background tasks is surprisingly simple. In this episode I will make a daemon to handle dynamically scheduled tasks. Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:00:00 +0200 custom-daemon http://railscasts.com/episodes/128-starling-and-workling Need to run a task frequently in the background? Starling and Workling is a killer combination for doing just that. See how in this episode. Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:00:00 +0200 starling-and-workling http://railscasts.com/episodes/127-rake-in-background In need of a background process? You may be able to accomplish this with a simple Rake task. See how in this episode. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:00:00 +0200 rake-in-background http://railscasts.com/episodes/126-populating-a-database Have you ever wanted to fill up a database with a lot of test data? See how to do that in this episode using the populator and faker gems. Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:00:00 +0200 populating-a-database http://railscasts.com/episodes/125-dynamic-layouts Discover how to dynamically change the layout using content in the database. Check out this episode for details. Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:00:00 +0200 dynamic-layouts http://railscasts.com/episodes/124-beta-invitations You know those invitation systems where a given user can invite a number of other people to join? That's what I show you how to make in this episode. Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:00:00 +0200 beta-invitations http://railscasts.com/episodes/123-subdomains Learn how to unleash the full potential of subdomains with the subdomain-fu Rails plugin in this episode. Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:00:00 +0200 subdomains http://railscasts.com/episodes/122-passenger-in-development Tired of juggling multiple Rails apps around with script/server? See how to set up Passenger in development so each one has its own local domain name. Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:00:00 +0200 passenger-in-development http://railscasts.com/episodes/121-non-active-record-model This episode will show you how to make a model which isn't based on Active Record. You may want to do this if a resource isn't backed by the database. Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:00:00 +0200 non-active-record-model http://railscasts.com/episodes/120-thinking-sphinx If you need a full text search engine, Thinking Sphinx is a great solution. See why in this episode. Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:00:00 +0200 thinking-sphinx http://railscasts.com/episodes/119-session-based-model If you have a lot of logic associated with the data inside a session, you'll need some central location to put this logic. See how to create a session based model in this episode. Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:00:00 +0200 session-based-model http://railscasts.com/episodes/118-liquid Liquid is a safe way to provide a powerful template language to the site's users. See how in this episode. Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:00:00 +0200 liquid http://railscasts.com/episodes/117-semi-static-pages Static pages can sometimes be a little awkward to add to a Rails app. See a couple different solutions to this problem in this episode. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:00:00 +0200 semi-static-pages http://railscasts.com/episodes/116-selenium Selenium is a great way to test your app automatically through a browser. See how it works in this episode. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:00:00 +0200 selenium http://railscasts.com/episodes/115-caching-in-rails-2-1 Rails 2.1 brings some new caching features which makes it very easy to cache any values including models. See how in this episode. Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:00:00 +0200 caching-in-rails-2-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/114-endless-page Ever wondered how some sites seem to have endless scrolling page with no pagination? Find out how easy it is to do this in Rails in this episode. Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:00:00 +0200 endless-page http://railscasts.com/episodes/113-contributing-to-rails-with-git If you want Rails to behave a certain way, try changing it and submitting a patch. This episode will show how to do exactly this using Git. Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:00:00 +0200 contributing-to-rails-with-git http://railscasts.com/episodes/112-anonymous-scopes The scoped method allows you to generate named scopes on the fly. In this episode I show how to use anonymous scopes to improve the conditional logic which was used in the previous episode on advanced search form. Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:00:00 +0200 anonymous-scopes http://railscasts.com/episodes/111-advanced-search-form If you need to create an advanced search with a lot of fields, it may not be ideal to use a GET request as I showed in episode 37. In this episode I will show you how to handle this by creating a Search resource. Mon, 26 May 2008 09:00:00 +0200 advanced-search-form http://railscasts.com/episodes/110-gem-dependencies In Rails 2.1 we now have the ability to set gem dependencies. Now it's easier than ever to specify which ruby gems our rails app relies on. Fri, 23 May 2008 09:00:00 +0200 gem-dependencies http://railscasts.com/episodes/109-tracking-attribute-changes Rails 2.1 keeps track of the changes you make to a model's attributes. It also allows you to see what the previous value was. But watch out for the gotcha! See this episode for details. Wed, 21 May 2008 09:00:00 +0200 tracking-attribute-changes http://railscasts.com/episodes/108-named-scope The named_scope method in Rails 2.1 makes performing finds on models very elegant and convenient. See how in this episode. Mon, 19 May 2008 09:00:00 +0200 named-scope http://railscasts.com/episodes/107-migrations-in-rails-2-1 Migrations now have a timestamp as their version number in Rails 2.1. In this episode I will explain this change as well as show you some other cool additions. Fri, 16 May 2008 09:00:00 +0200 migrations-in-rails-2-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/106-time-zones-in-rails-2-1 In the past, time zones have been very difficult to work with, but no longer! Rails 2.1 brings with it great time zone support as you can see in this episode. Wed, 14 May 2008 09:00:00 +0200 time-zones-in-rails-2-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/105-gitting-rails-2-1-rc1 Rails 2.1 Release Candidate 1 was just released! In this episode I will show you how to install it into your Rails project. Mon, 12 May 2008 09:00:00 +0200 gitting-rails-2-1-rc1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/104-exception-notifications If you're running a production site, it's a good idea to record all exceptions which occur. See how to set up a notification system which does that in this episode. Mon, 05 May 2008 09:00:00 +0200 exception-notifications http://railscasts.com/episodes/103-site-wide-announcements Sometimes you need to display an administrative announcement to every page on the site and give the users the ability to hide the announcement. See how in this episode. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:00:00 +0200 site-wide-announcements http://railscasts.com/episodes/102-auto-complete-association Usually a select menu is used for setting a belongs_to association, but in this episode I will show you how to use a text field with auto completion. Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:00:00 +0200 auto-complete-association http://railscasts.com/episodes/101-refactoring-out-helper-object If you have complex view logic, this can easily lead to helper methods which call each other. See how to refactor this out into another object in this episode. This is also known as the presenter pattern. Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:00:00 +0200 refactoring-out-helper-object http://railscasts.com/episodes/100-5-view-tips Here's five quick tips to use in views. Be sure to catch the end of the episode where I reveal an exciting contest! Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:00:00 +0200 5-view-tips http://railscasts.com/episodes/99-complex-partials How do you handle partials which have differences depending on the action which is rendering them? Here's three suggestions for this problem. Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:00:00 +0200 complex-partials http://railscasts.com/episodes/98-request-profiling You can use profiling to determine where the performance bottlenecks are in specific Rails actions. Watch this episode for details. Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:00:00 +0100 request-profiling http://railscasts.com/episodes/97-analyzing-the-production-log In order to improve performance of your Rails application you need to find the bottlenecks. A great starting point is your production log. In this episode you will see how to use RAWK to analyze your log file and determine which controller actions take up the most processing time. Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:00:00 +0100 analyzing-the-production-log http://railscasts.com/episodes/96-git-on-rails Git has been getting a lot of buzz lately, and for good reason. It's an excellent SCM which in many ways is more simple and powerful than subversion. See how to set up a Rails project with Git in this episode. Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:00:00 +0100 git-on-rails http://railscasts.com/episodes/95-more-on-activeresource See how to handle authentication and custom actions using ActiveResource in this episode. Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:00:00 +0100 more-on-activeresource http://railscasts.com/episodes/94-activeresource-basics ActiveResource allows you to easily communicate between multiple Rails applications. See how in this episode. Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:00:00 +0100 activeresource-basics http://railscasts.com/episodes/93-action-caching Action caching behaves much like page caching except it processes the controller filters. You can also make it conditional as seen in this episode. Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:00:00 +0100 action-caching http://railscasts.com/episodes/92-make-resourceful The make_resourceful plugin is a great way to DRY up the 7 RESTful actions common in most controllers. Learn how to use it in this episode. Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:00:00 +0100 make-resourceful http://railscasts.com/episodes/91-refactoring-long-methods In this episode I walk you through an exercise in refactoring by taking a long method and making it more concise. Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:00:00 +0100 refactoring-long-methods http://railscasts.com/episodes/90-fragment-caching Sometimes you only want to cache a section of a page instead of the entire page. Fragment caching is the answer as shown in this episode. Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:00:00 +0100 fragment-caching http://railscasts.com/episodes/89-page-caching Page caching is an efficient way to cache stateless content. In this episode I will show you how to cache the dynamic javascript we created last week. Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:00:00 +0100 page-caching http://railscasts.com/episodes/88-dynamic-select-menus See how to dynamically change a select menu based on another select menu using Javascript. In this episode everything is kept client side which leads to a more responsive user interface. Sun, 13 Jan 2008 09:00:00 +0100 dynamic-select-menus http://railscasts.com/episodes/87-generating-rss-feeds See how to easily generate and link to an RSS feed using new features in Rails 2.0. Watch this episode or details. Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:00:00 +0100 generating-rss-feeds http://railscasts.com/episodes/86-logging-variables Have you ever wanted to easily log all variables? Now you can by using some advanced Ruby concepts as shown in this episode. Mon, 31 Dec 2007 08:00:00 +0100 logging-variables http://railscasts.com/episodes/85-yaml-configuration-file Application configuration shouldn't be spread throughout your code base. Instead a much better place to put it is an external YAML file. See how to do that in this episode. Mon, 24 Dec 2007 08:00:00 +0100 yaml-configuration-file http://railscasts.com/episodes/84-cookie-based-session-store In Rails 1.2 the default session store is file based. This is inefficient and difficult to maintain. In Rails 2.0 the default is now cookie based which has several benefits as you will see in this episode. Sun, 16 Dec 2007 09:00:00 +0100 cookie-based-session-store http://railscasts.com/episodes/83-migrations-in-rails-2-0 Migrations are now sexy in Rails 2.0! In this episode we will take a look at these improvements and the related rake tasks. Mon, 10 Dec 2007 08:00:00 +0100 migrations-in-rails-2-0 http://railscasts.com/episodes/82-http-basic-authentication Rails 2.0 offers an extremely easy way to do HTTP basic authentication. See how in this episode. Sun, 02 Dec 2007 09:00:00 +0100 http-basic-authentication http://railscasts.com/episodes/81-fixtures-in-rails-2-0 In Rails 2.0, fixtures see many improvements which makes them much easier to manage. Watch this episode for details. Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:00:00 +0100 fixtures-in-rails-2-0 http://railscasts.com/episodes/80-simplify-views-with-rails-2-0 Rails 2.0 is almost here. One of the many features in this release is the smarter helper methods which can make your views much cleaner. Learn all about it in this Episode. Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:00:00 +0100 simplify-views-with-rails-2-0 http://railscasts.com/episodes/79-generate-named-routes This more advanced episode will show you how to dynamically generate named routes by adding a method to the map object. Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:00:00 +0100 generate-named-routes http://railscasts.com/episodes/78-generating-pdf-documents In this episode I will show you how to create PDF documents using the excellent PDF::Writer gem. Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:00:00 +0100 generating-pdf-documents http://railscasts.com/episodes/77-destroy-without-javascript If the user has JavaScript disabled, the "Destroy" link might not work properly. In this episode I will explore a number of ways to work around this issue. Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:00:00 +0100 destroy-without-javascript http://railscasts.com/episodes/76-scope-out The scope_out plugin will generate several helpful find methods for you automatically! It's the best way to move the find conditions into your model. Watch this episode for details. Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:00:00 +0200 scope-out http://railscasts.com/episodes/75-complex-forms-part-3 In this third and final episode on complex forms I will show you how to edit a project and multiple tasks all in one form. This includes removing and adding tasks dynamically as well. See the show notes for updated code. Mon, 15 Oct 2007 09:00:00 +0200 complex-forms-part-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/74-complex-forms-part-2 See how to use Javascript and RJS to add and remove form fields dynamically. This episode will build upon the previous episode allowing you to create any number of tasks in one form the same time a project is created. Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:00:00 +0200 complex-forms-part-2 http://railscasts.com/episodes/73-complex-forms-part-1 Complex forms often lead to complex controllers, but that doesn't have to be the case. In this episode see how you can create multiple models through a single form while keeping the controller clean. Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:00:00 +0200 complex-forms-part-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/72-adding-an-environment Rails comes with three environments: development, test, and production. But, you aren't restricted to just these. You can add your own! See how in this episode. Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:00:00 +0200 adding-an-environment http://railscasts.com/episodes/71-testing-controllers-with-rspec Controllers are tricky to test, and there's no perfect way to do it. In this episode you will see how I test controllers, and my reasoning behind it. Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:00:00 +0200 testing-controllers-with-rspec http://railscasts.com/episodes/70-custom-routes In this episode you will learn how to add custom routes, make some parameters optional, and add requirements for other parameters. Mon, 10 Sep 2007 09:00:00 +0200 custom-routes http://railscasts.com/episodes/69-markaby-in-helper Do you ever need to generate HTML code in a helper method? Placing it directly in Ruby strings is not very pretty. Learn a great way to generate HTML through Markaby in this episode. Mon, 03 Sep 2007 09:00:00 +0200 markaby-in-helper http://railscasts.com/episodes/68-openid-authentication Ever wonder how to implement OpenID authentication in your Rails app? This episode will show you how to add it to a site with an existing authentication system. Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:00:00 +0200 openid-authentication http://railscasts.com/episodes/67-restful-authentication Need multiple user authentication? If so, the restful_authentication plugin is a great way to go. It will generate some basic authentication code for you which is good starting point to your authentication system. Watch this episode for details. Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:00:00 +0200 restful-authentication http://railscasts.com/episodes/66-custom-rake-tasks Rake is one of those tools that you don't realize how powerful it is until you start using it. In this episode you will learn how to create custom rake tasks and improve them by using rake features. Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:00:00 +0200 custom-rake-tasks http://railscasts.com/episodes/65-stopping-spam-with-akismet The Railscasts site has been getting a lot of comment spam in the past, but no longer. In this episode I will show you how I solved this problem by using the Akismet web service. Mon, 06 Aug 2007 09:00:00 +0200 stopping-spam-with-akismet http://railscasts.com/episodes/64-custom-helper-modules Rails designates one helper module per controller, but that shouldn't stop you from making custom helper modules to help structure the code. Learn how in this episode. Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 custom-helper-modules http://railscasts.com/episodes/63-model-name-in-url By default, Rails uses the model's id in the URL. What if you want to use the name of the model instead? You can change this behavior by overriding the to_param method in the model. Watch this episode for details. Fri, 27 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 model-name-in-url http://railscasts.com/episodes/62-hacking-activerecord Have you ever wanted to temporarily disable all validations? Well, ActiveRecord doesn't support this, but that doesn't mean we can't add it. This episode will show you how to open up an existing class and change its behavior. Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 hacking-activerecord http://railscasts.com/episodes/61-sending-email This is a brief guide to sending email in Rails. See how to configure the environment, generate a mailer, create a template, and deliver the mail. Mon, 23 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 sending-email http://railscasts.com/episodes/60-testing-without-fixtures Tests which rely heavily on fixtures are brittle and can be difficult to maintain. This episode will show a couple techniques for creating tests which don't use fixtures. Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 testing-without-fixtures http://railscasts.com/episodes/59-optimistic-locking When two people attempt to update the same record near the same time, one of the updates will likely be overwritten. You can solve this problem with optimistic locking. Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 optimistic-locking http://railscasts.com/episodes/58-how-to-make-a-generator Rails comes with many built-in generators, but what if you want to customize them or make your own? Rails gives you a great way to do this which you will learn in this episode. Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 how-to-make-a-generator http://railscasts.com/episodes/57-create-model-through-text-field Let's say you provide a select menu for setting which category a given product belongs to, but you also want the option of creating a new category by typing the name in a text field. See a great way to do that in this episode. Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 create-model-through-text-field http://railscasts.com/episodes/56-the-logger Learn all about the logger in this episode. See how to send messages to the log and how to customize it. Wed, 11 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 the-logger http://railscasts.com/episodes/55-cleaning-up-the-view This episode starts off with a big, messy template. Watch as this code shrinks and becomes more readable while the interface stays the same. Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 cleaning-up-the-view http://railscasts.com/episodes/54-debugging-with-ruby-debug This episode will show you how to debug a rails app using ruby-debug: set a breakpoint, inspect variables, change the code and more. Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 debugging-with-ruby-debug http://railscasts.com/episodes/53-handling-exceptions When an exception is raised in development you get the full error along with the stack trace. In production, only a simple message is displayed. Learn why this is and how to customize the handling of exceptions. Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 handling-exceptions http://railscasts.com/episodes/52-update-through-checkboxes See how to select multiple items using checkboxes and perform an action on the selected items in this episode. Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:00:00 +0200 update-through-checkboxes http://railscasts.com/episodes/51-will-paginate In edge rails (soon to be Rails 2.0), the built-in pagination has been moved into a plugin: classic_pagination. I recommend jumping over to the will_paginate plugin as shown in this episode. Fri, 29 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 will-paginate http://railscasts.com/episodes/50-contributing-to-rails The best way to contribute to the Rails project is to submit a patch. This episode shows how to do exactly that. There's also a surprise at the end that you don't want to miss! Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 contributing-to-rails http://railscasts.com/episodes/49-reading-the-api The Rails API docs are very useful but can be difficult to read. This episode will give some tips on reading the docs and mention a few alternative sites for accessing the API. Update: sorry about the broken movie, it should work now. Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 reading-the-api http://railscasts.com/episodes/48-console-tricks The Rails console is one of my favorite tools. This episode is packed with tips and tricks on how to get the most out of the console. Fri, 22 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 console-tricks http://railscasts.com/episodes/47-two-many-to-many There are two different ways to set up a many-to-many association in Rails. In this episode you will see how to implement both ways along with some tips on choosing the right one for your project. Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 two-many-to-many http://railscasts.com/episodes/46-catch-all-route Sometimes you need to add complex/dynamic routes. This is often impossible to do in routes.rb, but do not worry. It can be accomplished with a catch-all route. See how in this episode. Mon, 18 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 catch-all-route http://railscasts.com/episodes/45-rjs-tips This episode is packed with little RJS goodies. Learn the different ways to access an element, how to add "if" conditions and how to apply an effect to multiple elements. Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 rjs-tips http://railscasts.com/episodes/44-debugging-rjs RJS and AJAX can be difficult to debug. Many times you don't get any error message in the browser. Learn different techniques for solving these tricky problems in this episode. Wed, 13 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 debugging-rjs http://railscasts.com/episodes/43-ajax-with-rjs This episode will walk you through adding AJAX functionality to a form using RJS. See how to easily update multiple elements on a page. Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 ajax-with-rjs http://railscasts.com/episodes/42-with-options Several methods in rails take a hash of options as the last argument. If you are passing the same options to several methods, you can remove this duplication by using with_options. Learn all about it in this episode. Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 with-options http://railscasts.com/episodes/41-conditional-validations By default, validations will take place every time the model is saved. Sometimes you only want a validation to happen when certain conditions are met. See how to do that in this episode. Wed, 06 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 conditional-validations http://railscasts.com/episodes/40-blocks-in-view If you try to create a helper method which accepts a block, you will run into a few gotchas. Learn the secrets of blocks in views in this episode. Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 blocks-in-view http://railscasts.com/episodes/39-customize-field-error When a validation error occurs, Rails helpfully wraps the field in a div tag so you can style it. But sometimes you don't want this behavior. In this episode you will see how to customize it. Fri, 01 Jun 2007 09:00:00 +0200 customize-field-error http://railscasts.com/episodes/38-multibutton-form If you have a form with multiple buttons, you can detect which button was clicked by checking the passed parameters. Learn how in this episode. Wed, 30 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 multibutton-form http://railscasts.com/episodes/37-simple-search-form A search form is quite different than other forms, this is because it does not deal with model's attributes. See a good way to add a simple search form in this episode. Mon, 28 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 simple-search-form http://railscasts.com/episodes/36-subversion-on-rails This episode will walk you through setting up a Rails project on subversion. It covers some helpful tips and gotchas you may experience along the way. Fri, 25 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 subversion-on-rails http://railscasts.com/episodes/35-custom-rest-actions REST adds many constraints. It restricts your controllers to seven actions. Normally this is okay, but sometimes you need to add your own custom actions. Learn how in this episode. Wed, 23 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 custom-rest-actions http://railscasts.com/episodes/34-named-routes When you add a custom route, make it a named route so you have url helper methods to easily link to that new route. See episode for details. Mon, 21 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 named-routes http://railscasts.com/episodes/33-making-a-plugin You can sometimes remove a lot of duplication by generating methods dynamic. In this episode I will show you how to create a plugin which does exactly that. Fri, 18 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 making-a-plugin http://railscasts.com/episodes/32-time-in-text-field Although Rails does allow you to edit time attributes with text fields, it's not very flexible. In this episode you will learn how to use a virtual attribute to format the time to your liking. Wed, 16 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 time-in-text-field http://railscasts.com/episodes/31-formatting-time Learn how to use the trusty strftime method to format a time, and see how Rails allows you to save this format for later use. Mon, 14 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 formatting-time http://railscasts.com/episodes/30-pretty-page-title If you are like me, you avoid creating page titles because it is kind of a pain. But in this episode I will show you a clean way to add titles to your pages. Fri, 11 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 pretty-page-title http://railscasts.com/episodes/29-group-by-month Learn how to use the very useful group_by method to group an array by anything you want! In this episode I group an array of tasks by month then sort it properly. Wed, 09 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 group-by-month http://railscasts.com/episodes/28-in-groups-of Have you ever wanted to visually line up items in rows and columns? The in_groups_of method makes this a cinch. Just watch out for the gotcha. Mon, 07 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 in-groups-of http://railscasts.com/episodes/27-cross-site-scripting Another common security issue is cross site scripting. In this episode you will see why it is so important to escape any HTML a user may submit. Fri, 04 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 cross-site-scripting http://railscasts.com/episodes/26-hackers-love-mass-assignment Your site may be at risk! When using mass assignment, you are giving the user complete control over that model and its associations. See how a hacker might use this vulnerability and learn how to stop it in this episode. Wed, 02 May 2007 09:00:00 +0200 hackers-love-mass-assignment http://railscasts.com/episodes/25-sql-injection One of the most common security problems for dynamic sites is SQL Injection. Thankfully Rails does everything it can in solving this issue, but you still need to be aware of it. Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 sql-injection http://railscasts.com/episodes/24-the-stack-trace The stack trace can be a very useful tool when it comes to debugging. Learn the ins and outs of how the stack trace works in this episode. Note: I am using an older version of the Rails bundle here so it might be a little different than yours. The command in the newer version is called Install Plugin and requires you to type textmate_footnotes in the search. Fri, 27 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 the-stack-trace http://railscasts.com/episodes/23-counter-cache-column If you need to display the record count for a has_many association, you can improve performance by caching that number in a column. Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 counter-cache-column http://railscasts.com/episodes/22-eager-loading One way to improve performance is to cut down on the number of SQL queries. You can do this through eager loading. Learn all about it in this episode! Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 eager-loading http://railscasts.com/episodes/21-super-simple-authentication The final piece of the administration puzzle: authentication. There are many different approaches which is why I saved this step for last. This episode will cover a few techniques including the simple solution used for this site. Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 super-simple-authentication http://railscasts.com/episodes/20-restricting-access In this second part of the series on administration, you will learn how to lock down the site to keep the public from accessing the administration features. Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 restricting-access http://railscasts.com/episodes/19-where-administration-goes This is the first part of a three part series on building an administration system. Many developers choose to separate it completely from the public side of the site by placing it into an admin subdirectory. This episode will show you an alternative and often better solution. Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 where-administration-goes http://railscasts.com/episodes/18-looping-through-flash Displaying flash messages in the layout can be a pain at times. In this episode you will learn an easy way to display any kind of flash message by looping through the hash. Fri, 13 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 looping-through-flash http://railscasts.com/episodes/17-habtm-checkboxes It is often asked: how do I create a list of checkboxes for managing a HABTM association? Ask no more because this episode will show you how to do exactly that. Wed, 11 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 habtm-checkboxes http://railscasts.com/episodes/16-virtual-attributes Keep your controllers clean and forms flexible by adding virtual attributes to your model. This very powerful technique allows you to create form fields which may not directly relate to the database. Mon, 09 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 virtual-attributes http://railscasts.com/episodes/15-fun-with-find-conditions You can pass more than simple strings to find conditions. Arrays, ranges, and nil values can be passed as well. In this episode you will see the tricks involved with passing these odd objects to find conditions. (Update: audio fixed). Fri, 06 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 fun-with-find-conditions http://railscasts.com/episodes/14-performing-calculations-on-models Did you know ActiveRecord provides class methods for performing calculations on models? You can even use these methods through associations. Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 performing-calculations-on-models http://railscasts.com/episodes/13-dangers-of-model-in-session Be careful when storing a model in a session. It will behave differently than you expect and can easily get out of sync with the database. Instead of storing the model directly in the session, store the id to the model and use that to fetch it from the database. Mon, 02 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0200 dangers-of-model-in-session http://railscasts.com/episodes/12-refactoring-user-name-part-3 In the final part of this series you will see how to refactor your tests. Keeping tests clean is important because it will make testing easier to do in the future. Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:00:00 +0200 refactoring-user-name-part-3 http://railscasts.com/episodes/11-refactoring-user-name-part-2 Testing and refactoring go hand in hand. Refactoring is all about improving code without changing its behavior. Testing is all about making sure you don't change the behavior while you are improving the code. Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:00:00 +0200 refactoring-user-name-part-2 http://railscasts.com/episodes/10-refactoring-user-name-part-1 Learn how to clean up your code through refactoring. This episode will show you how to move code from the view into the model to remove duplication and simplify the view. Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:00:00 +0200 refactoring-user-name-part-1 http://railscasts.com/episodes/9-filtering-sensitive-logs Are you accepting sensitive user data? Passwords, credit card numbers, etc. By default, Rails stores all submitted parameters in plain text in the logs. This episode will show you how to filter this sensitive input so it doesn't show up in the log file. Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:00:00 +0100 filtering-sensitive-logs http://railscasts.com/episodes/8-layouts-and-content-for If you want to change something in the layout on a per-template basis, content_for is your answer! This allows templates to specify view code that can be placed anywhere in a layout. Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:00:00 +0100 layouts-and-content-for http://railscasts.com/episodes/7-all-about-layouts Everything you wanted to know about layouts: global layouts, controller layouts, shared layouts, dynamic layouts and action layouts. Yes, there really are that many ways to specify a layout. Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:00:00 +0100 all-about-layouts http://railscasts.com/episodes/6-shortcut-blocks-with-symbol-to-proc It may have a goofy syntax, but the Symbol#to_proc feature Rails adds allows you to do simple blocks very quickly and easily. Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:00:00 +0100 shortcut-blocks-with-symbol-to-proc http://railscasts.com/episodes/5-using-with-scope Learn how to use with_scope - a very powerful method which will allow your custom find methods to accept any find options. Just like magic! Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:00:00 +0100 using-with-scope http://railscasts.com/episodes/4-move-find-into-model Move a find into the model to clean up the controllers and remove duplication. Also see how you can call these custom find methods through an association. Mon, 12 Mar 2007 08:00:00 +0100 move-find-into-model http://railscasts.com/episodes/3-find-through-association No need to pass foreign keys in find conditions, just do the find through a has_many association. Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:00:00 +0100 find-through-association http://railscasts.com/episodes/2-dynamic-find-by-methods Shorten simple finds considerably and improve readability by using the dynamic find_all_by and find_by methods. Wed, 07 Mar 2007 08:00:00 +0100 dynamic-find-by-methods http://railscasts.com/episodes/1-caching-with-instance-variables Learn a quick way to improve performance. Just store the end result of an expensive command in an instance variable! Sun, 04 Mar 2007 09:00:00 +0100 caching-with-instance-variables