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Quick and easy static pages in Rails

Sometimes you have a Rails app, the core functionality is not a CMS, and you need to add some static pages to your app that don’t get changed often, eg, an about us page, privacy policy, etc.
This post shows you a quick and easy way to do that in about 60 seconds, without using a [...]

Rails 3 Beta is out – check out Rails Upgrade plugin

In case you haven’t heard, Rails 3 is now in Beta.
Just a quick post to say, if you haven’t already, check out the Rails upgrade plugin, this will quickly show you what bits of your code need to be updated to work with Rails 3.
Also, check out the full release notes, lots of juicy stuff [...]

Sometimes the best way to create is to remove

Over the life cycle of a project many features may be developed, sometimes just to account for one variation or tiny use case, get used once, and are then not used again for the next 5 years (if ever).
One of my personal pet peeves is overly complicated software with too many redundant, old, unused features.

Decrypt/Reverse MD5 / SHA1 Password Hashes

There is a nice little tool over on tmto.org that allows you to decrypt (or should I say, reverse) MD5 or SHA1 hashes. Essentially, someone has forward hash’ed all a-z letters, put them in a database, then matches your hash against what is in the DB to find what the original string was.

Decrypt/Reverse MD5 / SHA1 Password Hashes

There is a nice little tool over on tmto.org that allows you to decrypt (or should I say, reverse) MD5 or SHA1 hashes. Essentially, someone has forward hash’ed all a-z letters, put them in a database, then matches your hash against what is in the DB to find what the original string was.

Installing AutoTest

I think autotest is one of the best things about developing in Rails. If you don’t know, autotest runs in the background watching all of your application files.

Wireframing your Rails Apps

A really useful way to mockup your applications before coding is to use wire framing software to create the screens and layout of your application.

Is your conversion rate good?

Something I have been asked a few times by online retailers is, “how does my conversion rate compare to others in my industry?“.

Google Analytics and Rails in 60 Seconds

This quick post will show you how to install Google Analytics into your Rails powered website in less than 60 seconds.
Before I start, I need to ask you…

In real terms, what is each visitor to your website worth? Do you know?

Rails: Black Box Testing Complex Models

In this article I will show you how you can perform complete end-to-end testing of very complex models using a method called Black Box Testing.