Ruby on Rails 5 Cheatsheet

RAILS_5_CHEATSHEET.md

Ruby on Rails Cheatsheet (5.1)

Architecture

RVM

$ rvm list - show currently installed Rubies

$ rvm install 2.3.1

$ rvm use --default 2.3.1 - use most recent

Create a new application

Install the Rails gem if you haven't done so before

$ gem install rails

Generate a new Rails app w/ Postgres support

$ bin/rails new my_app --database=postgresql

Initialize the database

$ bin/rails db:create

Start the Rails server

$ bin/rails s

Console/debugging

Add this to any view to enable a Rails console in the browser:

<% console %>

Use the interactive Rails console in your terminal application to run Rails code, inspect your database etc.

$ bin/rails console

E.g. try out the pluralize helper:

> helper.pluralize(3, 'mouse')

> helper.number_to_currency(1.50)

> helper.truncate("Iron Man", length: 7)

All Rails Helpers available here

Open the DB Console, from which you can interact with your database using your database's regular commands:

$ bin/rails dbconsole

Show environment variables:

$ env

Routes

Create a route that maps a URL to the controller action

# config/routes.rb
get 'welcome' => 'pages#home'

Shorthand for connecting a route to a controller/action

# config/routes.rb
get 'photos/show'

# The above is the same as: 
get 'photos/show', :to 'photos#show'
get 'photos/show' => 'photos#show'

Automagically create all the routes for a RESTful resource

# config/routes.rb
resources :photos 

HTTP Verb	Path	Controller#Action	Used for
GET	/photos	photos#index	display a list of all photos
GET	/photos_new	photos#new	return an HTML form for creating a new photo
POST	/photos	photos#create	create a new photo
GET	/photos/:id	photos#show	display a specific photo
GET	/photos/:id/edit	photos#edit	return an HTML form for editing a photo
PATCH/PUT	/photos/:id	photos#update	update a specific photo
DELETE	/photos/:id	photos#destroy	delete a specific photo

Create resources for only certain actions

# config/routes.rb
resources :photos, :only => [:index]

# On the flip side, you can create a resource with exceptions 
resources :photos, :except => [:new, :create, :edit, :update, :show, :destroy]

Create a route to a static view, without an action in the controller

# config/routes.rb
# If there's a file called 'about.html.erb' in 'app/views/photos', this file will be 
#   automatically rendered when you call localhost:3000/photos/about
get 'photos/about', to: 'photos#about'

Reference: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html

Controllers

Generate a new controller

Note: Name controllers in Pascal case and pluralize

$ bin/rails g controller Photos

Generate a new controller with default actions, routes and views

$ bin/rails g controller Photos index show

Database Querying

Active Record Finder Methods

Active Record Querying

Rails code	Returns
User.all	[array of all users]
User.find(1)	User with primary key of 1
User.find([1, 10])	Users 1 and 10

Reference: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/action_controller_overview.html

Models

Generate a model and create a migration for the table

Note: Name models in Pascal case and singular

$ rails g model Photo

Generate a model and create a migration with table columns

$ rails g model Photo path:string caption:text

The migration automatically created for the above command:

class CreatePhotos < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :photos do |t|
      t.string :path
      t.text :caption
 
      t.timestamps null: false
    end
  end
end

Reference: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_model_basics.html

Migrations

Migration Data Types

• :boolean
• :date
• :datetime
• :decimal
• :float
• :integer
• :primary_key
• :references
• :string
• :text
• :time
• :timestamp

When the name of the migration follows the format AddXXXToYYY followed by a list of columns, it will add those columns to the existing table

$ rails g migration AddDateTakenToPhotos date_taken:datetime

The above creates the following migration:

class AddDateTakenToPhotos < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.0]
  def change
    add_column :photos, :date_taken, :datetime
  end
end

You can also add a new column to a table with an index

$ rails g migration AddDateTakenToPhotos date_taken:datetime:index

The above command generates the following migration:

class AddDateTakenToPhotos < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.0]
  def change
    add_column :photos, :date_taken, :datetime
    add_index :photos, :date_taken
  end
end

The opposite goes for migration names following the format: RemoveXXXFromYYY

$ rails g migration RemoveDateTakenFromPhotos date_taken:datetime

The above generates the following migration:

class RemoveDateTakenFromPhotos < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.0]
  def change
    remove_column :photos, :date_taken, :datetime
  end
end

Scaffolding

Scaffolding is great for prototypes but don't rely too heavily on it: http://stackoverflow.com/a/25140503

$ rails g scaffold Photo path:string caption:text
$ rake db:migrate

Associations

Rails Association Basics

has_many & belongs_to

One book belongs to an author. An author has many books.

belongs_to creates an author_id column in the table.

# Models:

class Author < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :books, dependent: :destroy
end
 
class Book < ApplicationRecord
  belongs_to :author
end

The corresponding migration might look like this:

class CreateBooks < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.0]
  def change
    create_table :authors do |t|
      t.string :name
      t.timestamps
    end
 
    create_table :books do |t|
      t.belongs_to :author, index: true
      t.datetime :published_at
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

has_one

One CEO has one company. There is no need to declare that the company belongs_to the Ceo - this is obvious.

In this case, has_one creates a foreign key of ceo_id on on the company model (as though the company has been declared to belong_to a Ceo)

# Model

class Ceo < ApplicationRecord
  has_one :company
end

# Migration

class CreateCeo < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.0]
  def change
    create_table :ceos do |t|
      t.string :name
      t.timestamps
    end
 
    create_table :company do |t|
      t.belongs_to :ceo, index: true
      t.string :name
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

Seeding

Seeding can be done in seed.rb or on the Rails console.

Delete record to avoid duplication:

Gallery.delete_all

Creating records that have relationships:

area_show = Gallery.create(title: 'Area Show, May 2016')

Images belong to a gallery:

area_show.images << Image.new(path: "gallery_photos/pic1.jpg")

All DB Commands

e.g.

$ bin/rails db:create

from jacopretorius.net

• db:create Creates the database for the current RAILS_ENV environment. If RAILS_ENV is not specified it defaults to the development and test databases.

• db:create:all Creates the database for all environments.

• db:drop Drops the database for the current RAILS_ENV environment. If RAILS_ENV is not specified it defaults to the development and test databases.

• db:drop:all Drops the database for all environments.

• db:migrate Runs migrations for the current environment that have not run yet. By default it will run migrations only in the development environment.

• db:migrate:redo Runs db:migrate:down and db:migrate:up or db:migrate:rollback and db:migrate:migrate depending on the specified migration. I usually run this after creating and running a new migration to ensure the migration is reversable.

• db:migrate:up Runs the up for the given migration VERSION.

• db:migrate:down Runs the down for the given migration VERSION.

• db:migrate:status Displays the current migration status.

• db:migrate:rollback Rolls back the last migration.

• db:version Prints the current schema version.

• db:forward Pushes the schema to the next version.

• db:seed Runs the db/seeds.rb file.

• db:schema:load Loads the schema into the current environment’s database.

• db:schema:dump Dumps the current environment’s schema to db/schema.rb.

• db:setup Runs db:create, db:schema:load and db:seed.

• db:reset Runs db:drop and db:setup.

• db:migrate:reset Runs db:drop, db:create and db:migrate.

• db:test:prepare Check for pending migrations and load the test schema. (If you run rake without any arguments it will do this by default.)

• db:test:clone Recreate the test database from the current environment’s database schema.

• db:test:clone_structure Similar to db:test:clone, but it will ensure that your test database has the same structure, including charsets and collations, as your current environment’s database.

Path Helpers

Creating a path helper for a route

# Creating a path helper for a route
get '/photos/:id', to: 'photos#show', as: 'photo'

# app/controllers/photos_controller.rb
@photo = Photo.find(17)

# View for the action
<%= link_to 'Photo Record', photo_path(@photo) %>

Path helpers are automatically created when specifying a resource in config/routes.rb

# config/routes.rb
resources :photos

HTTP Verb	Path	Controller#Action	Named Helper
GET	/photos	photos#index	photos_path
GET	/photos/new	photos#new	new_photo_path
POST	/photos	photos#create	photos_path
GET	/photos/:id	photos#show	photo_path(:id)
GET	/photos/:id/edit	photos#edit	edit_photo_path(:id)
PATCH/PUT	/photos/:id	photos#update	photo_path(:id)
DELETE	/photos/:id	photos#destroy	photo_path(:id)

Asset Pipeline

Access images in the app/assets/images directory like this:

<%= image_tag "rails.png" %>

Access images stored in the public folder: (e.e. public/gallery_photos/haf1.jpg)

<%= image_tag("/gallery_photos/haf1.jpg") %>

Within views, link to JavaScript and CSS assets

<%= stylesheet_link_tag "application" %> 
<%= javascript_include_tag "application" %>

<!-- Filenames are fingerprinted for cache busting -->
<link href="/assets/application-4dd5b109ee3439da54f5bdfd78a80473.css" media="screen"
rel="stylesheet" />
<script src="/assets/application-908e25f4bf641868d8683022a5b62f54.js"></script>

Reference: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/asset_pipeline.html

Form Helpers

Bind a form to a model for creating/updating a resource

Use this method if you're using strong params to protect against mass assignment

# app/controllers/photos_controller.rb
def new
  @photo = Photo.new
end

# ERB view
<%= form_for @photo, url: {action: "create"}, html: {class: "nifty_form"} do |f| %>
  <%= f.text_field :path %>
  <%= f.text_area :caption, size: "60x12" %>
  <%= f.submit "Create" %>
<% end %>

<!-- HTML output -->
<form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/photos/create" method="post" class="nifty_form">
  <input id="photos_path" name="photo[path]" type="text" />
  <textarea id="photos_caption" name="photo[caption]" cols="60" rows="12"></textarea>
  <input name="commit" type="submit" value="Create" />
</form>

Create a form with a custom action and method

<%= form_tag("/search", method: "get") do %>
  <%= label_tag(:q, "Search for:") %>
  <%= text_field_tag(:q) %>
  <%= submit_tag("Search") %>
<% end %>

<form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="/search" method="get">
  <input name="utf8" type="hidden" value="&#x2713;" />
  <label for="q">Search for:</label>
  <input id="q" name="q" type="text" />
  <input name="commit" type="submit" value="Search" />
</form>

ERB

#### Translate Ruby data to a JavaScript variable for use in a script:

<script> var chartData = <%= raw @chart_data.to_json %>; </script>

Show the console: <% console %>

Reference: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/form_helpers.html