I am very prone to writing string matching as ‘string’.match(/ing/), which is very readable, however it is not always necessary to capture the matching part of the string. Having seen alternative syntax from a colleague I’ve used the following benchmark to test what is the most efficient syntax/method.

Robs-iMac:benchmarks$ irb
2.2.2 :001 > require 'benchmark'
 => true 
2.2.2 :002 > 
2.2.2 :003 >   "cloudfront.net" =~ /cloudfront/
 => 0 
2.2.2 :004 > 
2.2.2 :005 >   Benchmark.measure{ 1000000.times { "cloudfront.net" =~ /cloudfront/ } }
 => #<Benchmark::Tms:0x007fdea2288ee8 @label="", @real=0.30020256410352886, @cstime=0.0, @cutime=0.0, @stime=0.0, @utime=0.30000000000000004, @total=0.30000000000000004> 
2.2.2 :006 > 
2.2.2 :007 >   "cloudfront.net"[/cloudfront/]
 => "cloudfront" 
2.2.2 :008 > 
2.2.2 :009 >   Benchmark.measure{ 1000000.times { "cloudfront.net"[/cloudfront/] } }
 => #<Benchmark::Tms:0x007fdea24785a0 @label="", @real=0.36411550105549395, @cstime=0.0, @cutime=0.0, @stime=0.0, @utime=0.36, @total=0.36> 
2.2.2 :010 > 
2.2.2 :011 >   "cloudfront.net".match(/cloudfront/)
 => #<MatchData "cloudfront"> 
2.2.2 :012 > Benchmark.measure{ 1000000.times { "cloudfront.net".match(/cloudfront/) } }
 => #<Benchmark::Tms:0x007fdea2350920 @label="", @real=0.967038004193455, @cstime=0.0, @cutime=0.0, @stime=0.0, @utime=0.9600000000000001, @total=0.9600000000000001>

I would appear that =~ is the outright winner, being at least three times faster. Keeping an eye out for unnecessary overuse of .match from now on. Referencing Stack Overflow http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11887145/fastest-way-to-check-if-a-string-matches-or-not-a-regexp-in-ruby

So it appears you can’t alias_method_chain []=. Rightly so you’d end up trying to do something like

def []=_with_rescue
  []=_without_rescue
end
alias_method_chain :[]=, :rescue

The resulting method names are of course invalid. So you have to do it longhand

require 'action_dispatch/middleware/cookies'
# action_dispatch/middleware/cookies.rb
module ActionDispatch
  class Cookies
    class SignedCookieJar
      def assign_with_overflow_rescue(name, options)
        assign_without_overflow_rescue(name, options)
      rescue ActionDispatch::Cookies::CookieOverflow => e
        SiteMailer.delay.error(e, key: key, original_options: original_options, encoded_size: options[:value].size)
      end
      alias_method :assign_without_overflow_rescue, :[]=
      alias_method :[]=, :assign_with_overflow_rescue
    end
  end
end

Are you ever frustrated that you cannot just grab objects in the console to see what the hell they are and what methods you can call on them?

2.2.3 :001 > ArticlesController
#<ActiveSupport::Callbacks::Callback:0x007fdb1e58a010>
70289541845000
#<ActiveSupport::Callbacks::Callback:0x007fdb1e3104d8>
70289540547180
#<ActiveSupport::Callbacks::Callback:0x007fdb1ed30058>
70289545855020
#<ActiveSupport::Callbacks::Callback:0x007fdb1e30b708>
70289540537220
=> ArticlesController 
2.2.3 :002 > ObjectSpace._id2ref(70289541845000)

It is my aim in 2016 to stop being lazy. It’s all too easy to let your skill set slide, and while I enjoy what I do every day I haven’t explored every language, framework or technology enough to know whether I am missing out on anything I am interested in. So starting from tomorrow morning I’ll be taking a stab a some new projects to advance my skills in probably the following, Python, R, Java / Android app development, Swift for iOS, AngularJS for Desktop Development with Electron, Unity / C#, Corona SDK / Lua, Raspberry Pi PSX Emulation, Arduino development to measure how much our cats are using their cat wheel (no really). Expect the Lab to fill up with guff. Wish me luck or don’t.

Quick and dirty database migration on the console

When a database migration failed to roll back properly, stripping one column but not all, we had to put back the original column without changing the migration and re-running. It always feels very dangerous when a multipart migration fails halfway through. So….you can actually call migration commands on ActiveRecord::Migration directly, just be careful to test in development first as accidents can and will happen.

Rails pro >> ActiveRecord::Migration.add_column :somethings, :thing_file_name, :string, before: :thing_file_name
-- add_column(:somethings, :thing_file_name, :string, {:before=>:splash_content_type})
   (4838.6ms)  ALTER TABLE `somethings` ADD `thing_file_name` varchar(255)

Cherry picking changes in a different branch with Git.

I had to give up on a recent branch because refactoring had caused more problems than it intended to solve. Without wanting to start over I was able to pick the files that I cared about individually rather than sifting through and reverting parts of a previous commit.

git checkout feature/somefeature -- config/blah.yml

While I’m there, ever wanted to ditch your local changes in a conflict over the merged in changes from another branch?

git checkout --theirs config/routes.rb

Rails partials as layouts

Ever had a Rails partial and wanted to re-use it in a specific situation but with a small change? A partial can also be used as a layout, it appears a partial can be a layout that takes a block.

app/views/somethings/_dave.html.haml

= form_for(@dave) do |f|
  = f.text_field :full_name

app/views/somethings/thing.html.haml

= render partial: 'dave'

I really want to add an way to to re-use the form and add to it. How about this?

app/views/somethings/_dave.html.haml

= form_for(@dave) do |f|
  - if block_given?
    = yield
  = f.text_field :full_name

app/views/somethings/thing.html.haml

= render layout: 'dave' do
  %p A MESSAGE TO PLONK AT THE TOP OF THE FORM

Another mini-project. A Secret Santa app, Facebook login, address data collection, will then select a suitable Gift Recipient, mark gifts as shipped and reciprocol gifts received.

https://iplayred.co.uk/secret_santa

Hosted on https://iplayred.co.uk

Created just a quick widget, although it did require buying an SSL key in order to host the app through Facebook. The playlist itself was tirelessly compiled by Fox James for the MammothFest 2015 line-up.

<!-- full width 810px -->
<iframe src="https://robl.me/mammothfest" width="810" height="920"></iframe>

<!-- width limited to 560px, width 20px border -->
<iframe src="https://robl.me/mammothfest?width=560" width="580" height="920"></iframe>

Just a demo of it in action. https://www.facebook.com/uncleanmusic/app_1686134591618166
It can be installed via https://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=1686134591618166&redirect_uri=https://robl.me/appadded

This really just boils down to using the Spotify embedding as below served via Facebook.

<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="600" src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:user:mammothfest:playlist:0OJn0Ky6GjedhLINTjZ2Fe" width="520"></iframe>

Raging Speedhorn are back and looking to do a new album, best way to test if embedding is working I suppose. https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/raging-speedhorn