Lakhveer Singh Rajput

10 Unique Ruby on Rails Gems You Should Be Aware Of

Ruby on Rails (RoR) is known for its rich ecosystem of gems that extend its functionality. Whether you’re building a complex web application or a simple website, gems make your job easier by providing solutions to common problems. While Rails ships with many built-in features, there are some unique gems that can significantly enhance your development process. In this blog, we’ll explore 10 unique Ruby on Rails gems that you should definitely be aware of.

1. Trailblazer 🛤️ – High-Level Abstraction for Complex Apps

Trailblazer provides high-level architectural patterns to help you build complex Rails applications. It offers layers such as Operations, Cells, Contracts, and Forms, separating concerns and reducing complexity.

Features:

• Operations for encapsulating business logic.
• Cells for building reusable view components.
• Contracts for form objects and validation.
• Nested workflows for long-running processes.

Why use it:

• If you’re struggling with maintaining fat models and controllers, Trailblazer provides a clear structure to organize business logic, reducing code complexity.

gem 'trailblazer'

2. Rom-RB 🔄 – Data Mapping & Persistence Layer

ROM-RB (Ruby Object Mapper) provides a highly flexible data mapping and persistence layer that helps decouple the business logic from the database. Unlike ActiveRecord, it doesn’t tightly couple models with the database, offering more freedom for developers.

Features:

• Define your own repository pattern.
• Supports various databases (SQL, MongoDB, Redis, etc.).
• Fully customizable mapping layers.

Why use it:

• Use Rom-RB when you need full control over how your application interacts with data, particularly if your app works with multiple databases or has non-trivial persistence requirements.

gem 'rom'

3. AppSignal 📈 – Monitoring & Error Tracking

AppSignal is an advanced monitoring and error-tracking gem built specifically for Rails applications. It provides deep insights into your app’s performance, uptime, and errors with minimal configuration.

Features:

• Performance monitoring (APM) with detailed metrics.
• Error tracking with stack traces and request data.
• Custom dashboards and alerts.

Why use it:

• If you’re scaling an application and need deep insights into performance and errors, AppSignal offers a holistic view of how your application is performing in real time.

gem 'appsignal'

4. Waterfall 🌊 – Synchronous Chainable Workflows

Waterfall is a gem that provides a lightweight and elegant way to create chainable workflows in Rails applications. It’s perfect for building complex operations that depend on a series of steps.

Features:

• Allows chaining operations in a readable and synchronous manner.
• Supports error handling and fallback mechanisms within workflows.
• Helps avoid deep nested code.

Why use it:

• Use Waterfall to streamline operations that need to be executed step-by-step, such as order processing or multi-stage form submissions. It keeps your business logic clean and easy to follow.

gem 'waterfall'

5. Hutch 🐰 – Message Queue for Microservices

Hutch is a gem designed to simplify message queue handling using RabbitMQ. It’s particularly useful for microservice architectures where different parts of the system communicate via messages.

Features:

• Supports RabbitMQ for message handling.
• Simple setup for publishing and consuming messages.
• Easily integrates with Rails or other Ruby apps.

Why use it:

• Hutch is a must-have if you’re working on a microservices architecture and need to handle asynchronous job queues efficiently with RabbitMQ.

gem 'hutch'

6. Mutations 🎯 – Command Pattern for Clean Code

Mutations implements the command pattern in Rails, allowing you to encapsulate business logic into well-defined, reusable objects. It encourages clean, maintainable code while handling complex operations like user signups or payments.

Features:

• Clear input validation and processing.
• Lightweight, focused business logic encapsulation.
• Simplifies error handling and validation.

Why use it:

• Use Mutations when you need a clean and maintainable way to handle complex logic in your Rails app, without polluting controllers or models.

gem 'mutations'

7. Wisper 📢 – Publish-Subscribe Pattern for Rails

Wisper brings the pub-sub (publish-subscribe) pattern to Rails, making it easy to decouple your app components. It’s perfect for building event-driven architectures.

Features:

• Implements the pub-sub pattern.
• Decouples event publishers and subscribers.
• Works with ActiveRecord models, plain Ruby objects, and more.

Why use it:

• If you’re working with event-driven systems, Wisper provides a simple and elegant way to publish and subscribe to events without introducing tight coupling between components.

gem 'wisper'

8. Shoryuken 🎢 – Amazon SQS for Background Jobs

Shoryuken integrates seamlessly with Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) to handle background jobs in your Rails app. It’s a fantastic choice if you’re already leveraging AWS infrastructure.

Features:

• Multi-threaded background processing.
• Simple integration with AWS SQS.
• Highly configurable for various concurrency needs.

Why use it:

• If you are using AWS and need to process background jobs at scale, Shoryuken can help you take full advantage of Amazon’s SQS for handling massive workloads.

gem 'shoryuken'

9. Cerebrum 🧠 – Intelligent Caching for Rails

Cerebrum is a unique gem that adds intelligent caching to your Rails app. It automatically caches query results and updates the cache when the data changes, ensuring that you always have the most up-to-date information without overloading your database.

Features:

• Automatically caches query results.
• Keeps cache consistent by invalidating stale data.
• Reduces load on the database with minimal setup.

Why use it:

• If you need to optimize database performance without managing cache invalidation manually, Cerebrum does it for you intelligently.

gem 'cerebrum'

10. Scenic 🌄 – Database Views for ActiveRecord

Scenic simplifies the use of database views in your Rails applications. A database view is a virtual table that pulls data from one or more tables in a queryable format, which can simplify complex queries in your app.

Features:

• Create, update, and manage database views.
• Works with Postgres and other databases.
• Automatically integrates with ActiveRecord.

Why use it:

• If you’re dealing with complex SQL queries in your app, Scenic lets you manage those queries as database views, improving performance and readability.

gem 'scenic'

Conclusion 🌟

While Ruby on Rails already offers a wealth of functionality out of the box, these unique gems can take your development experience to the next level. Whether you’re building microservices, optimizing performance, or ensuring clean code architecture, there’s a gem for every need.

💬 Over to you: Have you tried any of these unique gems in your projects? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! 👇