Rails 8: The Demo

Introduction

This tutorial guides you through the process of building a basic blog application using Rails 8. You’ll learn how to add a WYSIWYG editor, implement user authentication, enable Progressive Web App (PWA) features, and finally, deploy your application to production. This step-by-step approach is perfect for developers looking to leverage the latest features in Rails 8.

Step 1: Set Up Your Rails Environment

1. Install Ruby and Rails:

   • Ensure you have Ruby installed on your machine. You can check this by running:

     ruby -v
     

   • Install Rails by running:

     gem install rails
     

2. Create a new Rails application:

   • Open your terminal and run:

     rails new blog_app
     

   • Navigate into your application directory:

     cd blog_app
     

3. Start the Rails server:

   • Run the server with:

     rails server
     

   • Open your browser and go to http://localhost:3000 to verify that your Rails application is running.

Step 2: Generate Blog Resources

1. Create a Blog scaffold:

   • Run the following command to generate a scaffold for posts:

     rails generate scaffold Post title:string body:text
     

2. Run database migrations:

   • Apply the changes to your database by executing:

     rails db:migrate
     

3. Verify the Post functionality:

   • Visit http://localhost:3000/posts to see the generated blog posts interface.

Step 3: Add WYSIWYG Editor

1. Choose a WYSIWYG editor:

   • You can use libraries such as Trix or CKEditor.

2. Install the chosen editor:

   • For Trix, add it to your Gemfile:

     gem 'trix'
     

   • Run bundle install to install the gem.

3. Include the editor in your application:

   • In your application.js, add:

     import "trix"
     import "@rails/actiontext"
     

4. Update the form view:

   • Replace the standard text area for the body field in app/views/posts/_form.html.erb with:

     <%= form.rich_text_area :body %>
     

Step 4: Implement User Authentication

1. Choose an authentication gem:

   • Devise is a popular choice. Add it to your Gemfile:

     gem 'devise'
     

2. Install Devise:

   • Run:

     bundle install
     rails generate devise:install
     

3. Generate User model:

   • Create the User model with:

     rails generate devise User
     

4. Run migrations:

   • Apply the changes with:

     rails db:migrate
     

5. Adjust routes:

   • Ensure you have the following in your config/routes.rb:

     devise_for :users
     

Step 5: Enable Progressive Web App Features

1. Add PWA support:

   • Use the rails-pwa gem by including it in your Gemfile:

     gem 'rails-pwa'
     

2. Install and configure:

   • Run bundle install, then follow the setup instructions from the gem documentation.

3. Create a service worker:

   • Add a service worker file in app/assets/javascripts.

4. Update your application layout:

   • Link to the manifest and service worker in app/views/layouts/application.html.erb.

Step 6: Deploy Your Application

1. Choose a hosting platform:

   • Consider platforms like Heroku or DigitalOcean for deployment.

2. Prepare your application for production:

   • Ensure you have a production database set up (PostgreSQL is a common choice).

3. Deploy:

   • For Heroku, you would typically run:

     git add .
     git commit -m "Prepare for deployment"
     git push heroku master
     

4. Migrate the production database:

   • After deploying, run:

     heroku run rails db:migrate
     

Conclusion

You have successfully built a basic blog application using Rails 8, complete with a WYSIWYG editor, user authentication, PWA features, and deployment steps. You can now expand on this foundation by adding more features or refining the existing ones. Happy coding!