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RSpec Testing - How to Stub REST Requests

Whether you’re writing basic unit tests or more robust integration specs, using stubs for REST requests is generally considered good practice. Since you want to focus on the functionality of your specific application, at this level of testing it’s useful to just set expectations for how an external service will...

Ewing Theory

In 1999, Patrick Ewing tore his Achilles during the NBA playoffs. A star player on the Knicks, Ewing’s injury led most to conclude that the team’s playoff run was over for this season. Unexpectedly, the Knicks defeated Indiana in three out of their next four games and made it to...

Quiet Those Noisy Logs

Have you ever wasted time sifting through log messages to find the useful information? The Silencer Ruby gem allows you to suppress logging for specified actions and quickly identify the signals hidden within the noise. This can be incredibly useful when you have a long running processing that...

Quickly Seed Your Database With Faker

For those unacquainted with it, Faker is a Ruby gem that developers can use to generate random data from a multitude of categories. For example, users can direct Faker to retrieve a random quote from an ancient Greek philosopher or the name of a planet from the Star...

Excellent Public APIs to Use in Your Next Application

For many web developers, discovering a comprehensive and intuitive API can be akin to striking oil. Below I have listed several first-rate APIs that I have used, along with several that I have tagged for future exploration. As a bonus, these APIs do not require a key or any additional...