⚡️ Hotwire dev newsletter - April 2023 edition

Welcome back to the ⚡️ Hotwire dev newsletter!

If you haven’t heard much from me since last month it’s because I’ve been off Twitter for a bit. The site has become increasingly triggering and is taking a toll on my mental health.

The good news is that even such a short break has renewed my creative energy. And given me time to work on a really exciting project I’ve been dragging my feet on for a while.

I’m proud to announce that the next Turbo Native workshop is officially on sale! This is a great opportunity to learn how to build hybrid iOS apps in a small group setting. I hope to see you there.

📣 Announcements

Rails World is coming

The Rails Foundation announced a new conference, Rails World, taking place on October 5 & 6 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Only 650 tickets will be available, early bird at €199 and general admission at €299. A full website with venue and hotel information, speaker CFP, and sponsorship info is coming soon.

I’m excited to see another Rails conference pop up. Especially one as official as coming from the Rails Foundation. I wasn’t able to make Rails Conf this year so I’m considering Rails World as a very welcome alternative!

Attention junior devs: Want to build the Rails World website?

Speaking of Rails World, the foundation is looking to hire a junior developer and more experienced developer to help build their website. Both contributors will be paid and their names will appear in the footer of the website.

It’s great to see the foundation start making moves! And I’ll never complain when a job is targeted directly to junior developers. I can’t wait to read how this goes and to see more junior/senior pairing hires in the future.

👩‍🎓 Tutorials

Hotwire Handbook - Part 3

by Phil Reynolds @PurpleRiver_Dev

Part 3 of Phil’s in-depth guide is here! I love the format of this series because the code is extracted from a real world app. No contrived examples or “let’s assume” here. This part covers broadcasting updates, inline editing, modals, and tabbed content. A great read if you’re looking for a Hotwire tutorial that goes a few steps beyond the basics.

Turbo Broadcasts CRUD Demystified

by Yaroslav Shmarov @yarotheslav

Ever wonder how broadcast_append_to works? DHH first revealed this helper in the demo video on Hotwire’s homepage. In this video tutorial, Yaro pulls back the curtain to recreate a few common Hotwire broadcast helpers from scratch. No more magic here!

📱 Turbo Native

Native apps are dead, long live native apps

by Ayush Newatia @ayushn21

Ayush gave a talk on Turbo Native at lrug (London Ruby User Group) on building hybrid iOS and Android apps with Turbo Native. He busts a few myths on hybrid apps and explains how the native libraries work. There’s also a nice overview of using the JavaScript bridge to “click” web buttons directly from native code.

How to debug Turbo Native apps with Safari

by Joe Masilotti @joemasilotti

Xcode doesn’t relay error messages from JavaScript. So when something goes wrong it’s hard to track down where the error occurred.

Safari’s Developer Mode lets us attach a debug session directly to the embedded web view from the simulator. Granting us the full web dev experience we are used to: an interactive console, HTML/CSS debugging, local storage spelunking, and more.

🎙 Podcasts

Amanda Perino - The Rails Foundation

by Remote Ruby @remote_ruby

Amanda, Executive Director of The Rails Foundation, joins the crew this week. She shares her thoughts on improving documentation, organizing Rails World, and how individuals can support the foundation. It wraps up with a heartwarming conversation about the supportive and friendly nature of the Ruby and Rails community.

The Rails Foundation with Amanda Perino

by The Ruby on Rails Podcast @therubyonrails

More from the Executive Director! In this episode Amanda and host Brittany dive into all the initiates planned for the Rails Foundation. They also call out a few community members who are helping with the efforts and advice coming from other software communities.

Amanda is still looking for more suggestions for The Rails Foundation. If you have ideas please fill out this form.

📰 Articles

What’s the point of tech conferences?

by Chelsea Troy @HeyChelseaTroy

Chelsea, a past RailsConf committee member, offers some food for thought on conferences. Especially how tech conferences are unique in the space.

One thing that really resonates with me is the idea that “cons are conversation catalysts”. At last year’s RailsConf, I met another developer who has since become a close friend. We now meet weekly to share our struggles and offer advice, which is more than I can say for some of my other friendships.

I truly believe that our friendship wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t connected at the conference. Conferences have a unique ability to bring people together and kickstart relationships that might not have formed otherwise.

Ruby’s Switch Statement is More Flexible Than You Thought

by Akshay Khot

This article is filled with TILs! Akshay dives into switch with tons of examples, covering how to match types, custom expressions, regular expressions, patterns, and more. There are also a few gotchas to watch out for with each, neatly outlined.