Conditional Validations with Rails

Adding validations to your ActiveRecord models always starts out pretty simple. But as your app grows, your business rules compound in complexity and your data can become untidy. Oftentimes we require that certain models are validated differently under different…

How not to fail at Timezones in Rails

We recently discovered a test that was failing only at night. Of course this set off all kinds of alarms in my head — we must be screwing something up with timezones! Time for an audit. Let’s review how Rails deals with timezones.

Shopify Rate Limits, Sidekiq, and You

We’re just about to launch our Shopify App, which allows Shopify shops on Reverb to sync their inventory from Shopify to Reverb.

Working with Shopify at any decent scale requires respecting their rate limits, which makes API access rather…

Project Planning for Self-Managing Developers

As a first-time start-up employee, I originally struggled to adapt to the high level of responsibility I have here at Reverb.com. One of the responsibilities I have is planning my own projects, from preparation through delivery. At Reverb.com…

Finding where a method is defined in Ruby

Ruby can sometimes look like magic, but, like all magic, if you look hard enough, you can see the sleight of hand. With method_missing, dynamically defined methods, and being able to extend objects at runtime, sometimes it looks like voodoo as to where the…