Upgrade Your Rails Project

Introduction

You've been working with JavaScript for the second half of the Software Engineering course. At this point, you may feel more comfortable writing in JS, having completed your final project in React. Don't forget about Ruby and Rails, though!

Some of the positive feedback we've received from employers that have hired Flatiron graduates includes the fact that students are starting out with an understanding of both Ruby and JavaScript. Many concepts are transferrable from one language to another - showing that you know two languages is a good indication that you can adapt what you know to a third language. Knowing both Ruby and JavaScript can also open up more employment opportunities, so it is important to showcase what you know.

Updating your Rails portfolio project is a great way to do precisely this and show that you have a variety of experiences. Below are some suggestions for what you can do to upgrade your Rails project.

Refactor

Just like your CLI project, you've likely improved your coding skills since you last looked at your Rails project, even if you haven't practiced writing in Ruby since then. Time to apply what you've learned! Read through your Rails project code and consider some of these questions:

• Is the code DRY? Is there any redundant content that could be reduced or abstracted? Under time constraints, it is easy to forgo the Don't Repeat Yourself principle. There is no due date anymore, so take some time to clean up any repetitive patterns in your code.

• Can you spot and unnecessary or overly complicated code? While learning the basics, it is possible to misunderstand how specific code works. Sometimes, we try things until something sticks. Sometimes, the moment a piece of code works, we move on to the next task without reconsidering what we've written. Now is the time to look back and find examples of this in your project.

For Rails in particular, definitely review your MVC structure when refactoring. Students often load a lot of code into their controllers. However, the controller is really just meant to be an interface between your models and views. It should just be handling the 'business logic' of your app - based on the request, a controller will get data from a model and use it to render a view. If there is data-related logic present, it should probably be in a model.

Finish and Add Features

Your project may meet all the requirements that were laid out at the time and be slightly past the MVP stage. However, this does not mean it is fully developed.

Think about what features you can add to bring it to the next level. A few suggestions specific to Rails:

• You should have some basic user authentication implemented. What features could be added around users? For instance, it may be helpful to provide users with a way to view and change their own account information like their password.
• Are there any views that could be improved? It may be that some views are pretty minimal in your current project - what can be added to make them look more appealing? What can be added to make user navigation easier within your app?
• Does your application have a consistent theme? Use the application.html.erb to build out visual content that is shared across your entire app like website navigation.
• If your app is hosted live, what content is needed to ensure a visitor has a good understanding of how it works. At a minimum, this might mean adding an 'About' page. If your app revolves around a process that requires multiple steps, are all of those steps clear enough? One way to test this is to share your project with a non-technical friend. Can they figure out how to navigate it without help? Where do they get stuck, and what can be added to get them unstuck?

In addition to these, think about any features you weren't able to implement originally. Are any features only partially implemented? Rails can provide a fullstack application experience - what can you do to fully showcase your understanding of this?

Deploy to Heroku

The best way to showcase your Rails project is to deploy it online! Sometimes, potential employers may utilize a non-technical recruiter to find candidates to hire. These recruiters won't be looking at your code on GitHub. By deploying your project, you open up the opportunity for them to explore what you've built. Even if they don't know the technical requirements, they'll be able to play with app features and see how developed they are.

There are a couple of options for deploying Rails projects, but the most common way is to use Heroku. Heroku has a free hosting tier that many students have utilized over the years. They also provide a detailed tutorial on how to get your Rails app deployed.

Recommended: Once you've deployed your project, make sure to do some quality assurance testing:

• Click every link. Make sure there are no bad links
• Navigate around your app in different ways. If a user does something slightly unexpected, can your app handle it?
• Create multiple users and test your authentication. For instance, what happens if a user doesn't enter anything for a username or password?
• Share the app with some friends and ask them to play around with it. You might know how things are supposed to work, but giving your app to someone else can identify unexpected user behaviors.

Deploying your app is very helpful, but deploying a broken app can be worse than not deploying anything!

Record a Demo Video

When your project is fully functioning and looking great, consider recording a demonstration of how your app works. Recording a demo allows you to showcase features you're particularly proud of. It also means you can provide context to your application that may not be apparent from just looking at the application itself.

A demo recording should go through the essential parts of your application. One bonus that comes from doing this - during interviews, you will often need to talk about your projects. If you have a project listed on your resume, assume that you may need to explain what the project is, as well as the challenges you faced during development. A demonstration video will force you to practice this pitch so you'll be more comfortable when you have to do it live.

A demo recording also acts as an excellent way to introduce yourself. You can use it to show off a bit of your personality. It also shows your ability to communicate complex topics - a critical skill on all tech related teams.

Conclusion

Whichever updates you choose, any time spent revisitng your portfolio projects is time well spent. You should know the ins and outs of the projects you are using to represent your abilities. You can't always prepare for what questions you'll get on an interview, but being comfortable showcasing what you've already worked on is a big plus.