5.0 out of 5 stars Elevate Your Rails Craft: The Go-To Guide for Advanced Design Patterns

D.P. · September 4, 2023

As someone who has been writing Ruby on Rails code for over 15 years, I can honestly say that this book by Vladimir Dementyev is a treasure trove of insights for seasoned developers. This book delves deep into the intricate layers of Rails, offering a sophisticated understanding that goes beyond the basics. Whether it's tackling the nuances of Active Record or discussing complex layered architectures, the book makes you rethink and refine your approach to Rails development. One of my favorite parts was the chapter on authorization models; it provided me with a comprehensive look at something so essential, yet often overlooked. But the book doesn't stop at just offering advice; it also encourages you to experiment and find your own best practices. For those of us dealing with mature, more complex systems, this book is a godsend. It's not just another Rails book; it's an investment in mastering your craft.

5.0 out of 5 stars Arrived in good time, Christmas present for son

L.D. · December 23, 2024

Books are what I ordered

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read for career Rails devs

J.S. · August 31, 2023

I loved this book, and found it very timely given the many questions and opinions I've seen in the community over the past couple years, about how to grow Rails applications beyond what the framework gives you out-of-the-box.As an overarching concept, Vladimir lays out a compelling vision for an "Extended Rails Way" that first guides us on how to use the baked-in abstractions well, and then helps us imagine how we could extract new abstraction layers that really feel like they could be Rails.The book helped me see how I could turn design patterns into new, cohesive abstractions that rhyme with Rails, creating more harmonious codebases with reduced cognitive burden.Vladimir provides clear perspective and helpful recommendations around some of Rails' most contentious features, including callbacks and concerns.Throughout the book, there's a repeated pattern of showing less-than-ideal examples, and then reasoning our way into one or more improved solutions. I found observing his thinking here to be really informative and helpful.I was impressed by how comprehensive the book is, covering all the topics you'd expect, like Active Record and Active Storage, plus those you might not expect, like filter objects, notifications, view components, and even configuration and logging.Long story short, this is now one of two Rails books I'll be recommending that all Rails devs read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic resource for intermediate and above Rails developers

K.C. · September 6, 2023

This isn't a book for beginning Rails developers, but for those who already know the framework and have worked in with it for awhile, this book is a great resource for leveling up. It covers not only the Rails way, but it also describes how to grow large applications sensibly once the basic Rails abstractions are no longer enough. It gives examples of different patterns and abstractions as well as how to evaluate whether or not they are a good fit for your application. I appreciate this nuanced approach, because every application is different and there are tradeoffs to everything.The book also covers several Rails antipatterns and discusses common Rails concepts such as thin controller/fat model and where those ideas can lead to problems in large applications. Additionally every chapter ends with thoughtful questions for the reader and exercises to illustrate the points raised in the chapter. Many also include a list of resources for further reading on the topic. To get the most out of the book you'll want to clone the associated repository and work through the questions and exercises.This is an incredible resource for those looking to take their Rails development practices to the next level, with great advice on dealing with the complexities that come with larger applications.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource to level-up your Rails-fu

M.G. · September 12, 2023

This book is mostly geared towards intermediate to senior-level Rails engineers, but more junior-level folks can still benefit from the information contained therein.The first several chapters are an overview of how Rails works which are essential for any engineer who wants to get the most out of Rails. The rest of the book are a collection of different design patterns that someone could employ to make an existing application easy to reason about.I wouldn't recommend starting with these advanced design patterns or else you run the risk of over-engineering and introducing too much complexity unnecessarily, but if you've got an existing app that's starting to look a little crufty, these patterns can help you to abstract away the cruft in more convention-y way.The content of the book is great. It's easy to read and follow. A bit dry at times (but what technical resource isn't dry?).

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ruby on Rails book we've been missing

J.C. · September 5, 2023

I love building Ruby on Rails applications. I try hard to build them "The Rails Way™," but at a certain point an application presents a problem that you don't know how to solve with The Rails Way. This book offers solutions and provides ways to think about problems using what Vladimir presents as "The Extended Rails Way" which is EXACTLY what I've been looking for, for years.I was thrilled to hear Vladimir was writing a book. His deep technical knowledge, Ruby on Rails chops, work on open source, and conferences talks are always high quality- and this book is no different! It's an excellent resource for Rails developers who want to hone their craft building ever-growing Rails applications.I legitimately cannot wait to take the patterns and ideas from this book and apply them to the applications I work on.

A solid Rails book

L.M. · October 15, 2023

I just love reading an up to date rails book with valuable insight from a seasoned dev. I’ve really enjoyed this one. Layered design should be the new rails way.