Active Admin Hidden Features

🎉 Unlocking Hidden Gems in Active Admin for Ruby on Rails 🌟

Active Admin is a powerful tool for building elegant backends for Ruby on Rails applications. While its primary features like resource management and dashboards are well-known, there are some hidden gems and lesser-known features that can supercharge your admin panel! Let’s dive into these unique tricks and features with examples to help you get the most out of Active Admin.

1. Customizing Resource Forms Dynamically 🌟

Active Admin allows you to dynamically customize forms based on conditions. For instance, let’s say you want to show additional fields only for certain roles:

ActiveAdmin.register User do
  form do |f|
    f.inputs "Basic Details" do
      f.input :name
      f.input :email
    end

    if current_user.admin?
      f.inputs "Admin Details" do
        f.input :admin_notes
      end
    end

    f.actions
  end
end

This adds role-specific fields, making your admin panel smarter and more context-aware.

2. Using Custom Pages for Specialized Actions 🔗

Need a custom page for a special report or admin action? Active Admin makes this possible with ease:

ActiveAdmin.register_page "Monthly Report" do
  content do
    panel "Summary" do
      para "This is a custom page for monthly reports."
    end
  end
end

Access this page at /admin/monthly_report, and you can add any custom functionality you need!

3. Conditional Scopes for Enhanced Filtering 🔍

Scopes in Active Admin are great for filtering records, but did you know you can make them conditional? Here’s how:

ActiveAdmin.register Order do
  scope :all

  scope("High Value Orders") { |orders| orders.where("total_price > ?", 500) }

  scope :today do
    Time.zone.now.hour > 12 ? Order.where(created_at: Date.today) : Order.none
  end
end

This lets you define highly contextual and useful filters for your admin users.

4. Custom Action Items for Better Workflow ⚙️

Action items are those handy buttons in the admin interface. You can add custom actions like this:

ActiveAdmin.register Post do
  action_item :publish, only: :show do
    link_to "Publish", publish_admin_post_path(post), method: :put if !post.published?
  end

  member_action :publish, method: :put do
    resource.update(published: true)
    redirect_to resource_path, notice: "Post published successfully!"
  end
end

Your admin panel now has a custom Publish button for unpublished posts, boosting productivity.

5. Interactive Dashboards with Charts and Stats 🎨

Active Admin dashboards are great for summaries, but you can make them interactive with charts. Use the chartkick gem:

ActiveAdmin.register_page "Dashboard" do
  content do
    panel "User Signups" do
      line_chart User.group_by_day(:created_at).count
    end
  end
end

This provides an insightful and visually appealing dashboard for your app.

6. Batch Actions for Bulk Operations 🚀

You can add custom batch actions to handle bulk tasks efficiently:

ActiveAdmin.register User do
  batch_action :approve do |ids|
    User.where(id: ids).update_all(approved: true)
    redirect_to collection_path, notice: "Users approved successfully!"
  end
end

This lets your admins perform bulk updates, saving time and effort.

7. Extending Active Admin with Custom Views 🎨

Want more control over how data is displayed? Use custom partials:

index as: :block do |user|
  div class: "user-block" do
    h3 user.name
    para user.email
  end
end

This renders a completely customized block layout for your admin index page.

8. Integration with Pundit for Granular Authorization ⚖️

While Active Admin comes with built-in authorization, integrating with Pundit gives you more granular control:

ActiveAdmin.register User do
  controller do
    include Pundit
    def scoped_collection
      policy_scope(User)
    end
  end
end

Admins now see only the data they’re authorized to view, enhancing security.

9. Improving Performance with Paginated Associations 🚗

If you’re dealing with large datasets, loading associated records can slow things down. Use :includes for eager loading:

ActiveAdmin.register Order do
  includes :user, :products
end

This speeds up your admin panel significantly for large associations.

10. Adding Emojis and Styles for Fun 🌟

Make your admin panel lively by using emojis and CSS:

ActiveAdmin.register Post do
  index do
    column(:status) { |post| post.published? ? "🔥 Published" : "❌ Draft" }
    actions
  end
end

A small touch like this makes your admin panel more engaging and user-friendly.

Wrapping Up 🎉

Active Admin is more than just a CRUD generator; it’s a powerful tool that can be tailored to fit any admin need. By leveraging these hidden gems, you can create a more dynamic, efficient, and user-friendly admin interface. Which of these tricks are you excited to try? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Happy coding! 🚀