Notes on Railscasts #48 Console Tricks (revised)

Notes on Railscasts #48 Console Tricks

On the Terminal:

rails console         #open a terminal window
rails c --sandbox     #console session that is wrapped in a transaction and can be rolled back
rails c --production  #start the app in the production environment


Console methods:

> app
> app.products_path         # call URL helpers to see where a path routes to
> app.get app.products_path # make requests to the app and pass in a path
> app.cookies               # see which cookies are set 
> app.response.headers      # see the headers of the last response
> app.response.body         # see the body of the last response
> app.assigns(:products).size # inspect the instance variables in the last request

> helper                            
> helper.number_to_currency(12.34)  # gives access to the view context and we can execute helper methods
> helper.controller = controller    # returns a new ApplicationController instance


Gems That Work With irb:

Hirb              # displays ActiveRecord data in a table.
Awesome Print     # shows models’ attributes formatted and with colour
Clipboard gem     # allows interaction with the system’s clipboard 
MethodFinder      # context-based search for methods, for example: "abc".find_method("ABC")
FancyIrb          # displays results inline
Wirb              # displays outputs in color


Special note:

Pry               #replacement for irb with many extra features