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Foundation
Episode #417Jun 16, 2013333 comments

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. (11 minutes)
Form Objects
Episode #416Jun 03, 2013335 comments

Form Objects

Models have a tendency to become a complex mess as an application grows. In this episode you will learn a couple of techniques to extract form-behavior out into its own class. (18 minutes)
Model Caching (revised)
Episode #115May 13, 2013426 comments

Model Caching (revised)

Caching at a low level is a great option when the view is too dynamic to cache and you need something flexible that can work anywhere in the application. Here I show a variety of ways to use Rails.cache with Active Record. (12 minutes)
Upgrading to Rails 4
Episode #415May 06, 2013211 comments

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. (12 minutes)
Batch API Requests
Episode #414Apr 27, 2013215 comments

Batch API Requests

Here I demonstrate how to perform bulk API operations though a single request using Rack middleware. This is great if you need to trigger multiple actions at once such as if the user goes offline. (18 minutes)
Handling Exceptions (revised)
Episode #53Apr 20, 2013209 comments

Handling Exceptions (revised)

By default, Rails will render a static error file when an exception occurs in production. Here you will learn how to fully customize this behavior and render dynamic error pages. (11 minutes)
Fast Tests
Episode #413Apr 10, 2013200 comments

Fast Tests

A slow test suite can put a damper on test-driven development. In this episode I show a variety of ways to optimize specs including: selective testing, preloading Rails, and testing outside of Rails. (17 minutes)
Fast Rails Commands
Episode #412Apr 04, 2013179 comments

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. (8 minutes)
Performance Testing
Episode #411Mar 27, 2013219 comments

Performance Testing

Learn how to add performance tests that automate benchmark and profile reports. Here I show how to find the bottlenecks to optimize a page. I also show how to compile Ruby with gcdata to get information about memory usage. (16 minutes)
Eager Loading (revised)
Episode #22Mar 20, 2013223 comments

Eager Loading (revised)

One way to improve performance is to reduce the number of database queries through eager loading. Here I demonstrate this and compare the difference between the "includes" and "joins" methods. (7 minutes)