Gems that Rock 2024 edition

Useful gems for your Ruby on Rails projects

Every so often I like to take stock of the dependencies we use regularly. I've been making production web apps using Ruby on Rails for over 14 years and in that time Gems have helped to speed up the development process but also enhance functionality, security, and scalability. Now in 2024 there are certain gems have repeatedly proven indispensable in the Ruby on Rails toolkit here at Add Jam. Let's take a dive into these gems that "rock".

Sorcery: Simplifying Authentication

Sorcery is our go-to Ruby gem for authentication. Its straightforward and flexible nature allows us to implement complex authentication systems with minimal fuss. Unlike other authentication gems that offer a one-size-fits-all solution, Sorcery provides us with the building blocks to customize authentication to fit our specific project needs. Its simplicity doesn't sacrifice power; Sorcery supports a range of features from basic sign-in/sign-out to more complex functionalities like OAuth, JWT, and multi-factor authentication. In 2024, Sorcery remains a gem that perfectly balances simplicity with versatility, ensuring our apps are secure and user-friendly.

Notified: Revolutionizing Notifications

Next up is Notified, a comprehensive notifications system designed for modern web applications. With Notified, creating and managing notifications across different channels (in-app notifications, email, SMS, and more) has never been easier. What sets Notified apart is its ability to seamlessly integrate with ActiveJob, providing a robust background processing capability that ensures notifications are delivered efficiently and on time. Its custom delivery methods and support for database encryption make it a gem that significantly enhances user engagement and app functionality in our projects.

Pay: Streamlining Payments

Handling payments is a critical component of many web applications, and Pay has been our ally in simplifying this complex task. Pay abstracts away the complexities of integrating with various payment processors like Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal. It provides a unified API that allows us to implement subscription services, one-time payments, and even marketplace functionality with ease. Pay's support for multiple payment processors means we're not locked into a single provider, offering flexibility and resilience to our payment systems. Pay continues to be a a real asset when making Ruby on Rails app using a range of business models - subscriptions, mobile payments, invoicing and ecommerce.

ViewComponent: Enhancing UI Reusability

ViewComponent has revolutionized the way we think about views in Rails. By allowing us to create reusable, testable, and encapsulated view components, it has significantly improved the maintainability and scalability of our user interfaces. ViewComponent's integration with Rails ensures a smooth development experience, and its compatibility with both server-rendered HTML and modern frontend frameworks aligns perfectly with our commitment to building responsive and dynamic user experiences. The gem's emphasis on testing ensures that each component we build is reliable and robust, making it an essential part of our UI development toolkit.

Pagy: The Ultimate Pagination Library

Last but certainly not least, Pagy is the gem we rely on for efficient and easy-to-use pagination. Pagy stands out for its performance and lightweight footprint, making it an ideal choice for optimizing the loading time of our applications. Its wide range of customization options allows us to tailor pagination behavior to the specific needs of our projects, while its straightforward implementation ensures that we can add pagination features quickly and without hassle. Whether we're dealing with large datasets or building high-performance APIs, Pagy is the gem that helps us deliver fast and user-friendly paginated experiences.

Conclusion

In the 2024 edition of Gems that Rock, these Ruby gems stand out for their ability to tackle specific challenges in web development with grace and efficiency. From simplifying authentication with Sorcery to enhancing user interfaces with ViewComponent, each gem plays a crucial role in our development process. Notified and Pay streamline complex functionalities like notifications and payments, while Pagy ensures our applications remain performant and accessible. Together, these gems embody the innovation and community spirit that make Ruby on Rails such a powerful framework for web development. As we continue to explore and integrate these gems into our projects, we're excited to see how they will evolve and further revolutionize the way we build web applications at Add Jam.