New Features in Ruby on Rails

Dec 27, 2022

Ruby on Rails is a popular web application framework that has been used by developers for over a decade. It has a reputation for being easy to learn and use, and for providing developers with a lot of tools and features to build robust web applications.

In recent years, the Ruby on Rails community has been working hard to add new features and improvements to the framework. In this article, we'll take a look at some of the most exciting new features in Ruby on Rails, and how they can benefit developers.

Action Mailbox

Action Mailbox is a new feature in Ruby on Rails 6 that allows developers to handle incoming emails in their applications. This means that developers can now use Rails to receive and process emails, just like they would with HTTP requests.

Action Mailbox makes it easy to create email-based workflows in your application, such as sending confirmation emails or processing support requests. It also provides a lot of flexibility, allowing developers to use any email service or protocol they choose, including POP3, IMAP, and Microsoft Exchange.

Parallel Testing

Parallel testing is a new feature in Rails 6 that allows developers to run test suites across multiple processors or threads, improving test suite performance significantly. This can be especially useful for large, complex applications with many tests.

Parallel testing in Rails 6 is easy to set up and can provide significant time savings for developers, allowing them to run tests faster and more efficiently.

Action Text

Action Text is a new feature in Rails 6 that provides a rich text editor for applications. It allows developers to easily add formatted text, images, and other media to their applications, without requiring them to use a third-party editor or plugin.

Action Text uses the Trix editor, which is a powerful and flexible WYSIWYG editor that provides a lot of customization options for developers. It also supports embedding of images and other media, making it easy to create rich, multimedia content in your application.

Zeitwerk

Zeitwerk is a new code loader that was introduced in Rails 6. It provides a simpler and more efficient way of loading code in Rails applications, using a modern and intuitive naming convention.

Zeitwerk is designed to be faster and more reliable than the previous code loader, which used a more complex and error-prone approach. It also provides a lot of flexibility and customization options for developers, allowing them to configure how code is loaded and unloaded in their applications.

Conclusion

Ruby on Rails continues to evolve and improve, with new features and improvements being added all the time. The new features in Rails 6, such as Action Mailbox, Parallel Testing, Action Text, and Zeitwerk, provide developers with even more tools and capabilities to build robust and efficient web applications.

Whether you're a seasoned Rails developer or just getting started with the framework, these new features are definitely worth exploring. They can help you to build better, faster, and more powerful web applications, and provide you with a competitive edge in today's fast-paced development landscape.