2021-03-01

Adding truly custom page to Phoenix LiveDashboard

Phoenix LiveDashboard quickly conquered the hearts and minds of Elixir and Phoenix developers worldwide, and here at AmberBit we are no different. It’s part of our standard toolkit, and whenever we start to build another Phoenix app for our customers, we always add LiveDashboard.

2020-09-30

Building Backdoor: web console for Elixir & Phoenix applications - Part #5

Capturing the output

2020-09-28

Building Backdoor: web console for Elixir & Phoenix applications - Part #4

Making it real-time.

2020-08-17

Building Backdoor: web console for Elixir & Phoenix applications - Part #3

Managing multiple supervised sessions.

2020-08-02

Building Backdoor: web console for Elixir & Phoenix applications - Part #2

Making imports and macros work.

2020-07-29

Building Backdoor: web console for Elixir & Phoenix applications - Part #1

Project set up and simple code executor.

2019-11-18

More insightful Elixir logging with Logger metadata

Elixir’s Logger module allows us to add metadata to track & identify users and events in the application.

2019-08-23

“mix release” and missing dependencies

Updating to new Elixir releases system can lead to missing dependencies.

2019-07-26

The misunderstanding of “let it crash”

Let it crash does not mean you want to show error page on every other request to your users. No, ideally that’s not it.

2019-06-29

Refactoring Phoenix controllers

3 useful refactoring techinques.

2019-04-16

Composing Ecto queries: filters and preloads

How to build queries dynamically.

2018-12-12

React Hooks

Hooks are the future.

2018-12-07

Polish Up your JavaScript #02: Adding React

2nd part of our modern front-end series, focusing on adding React to the mix.

2018-11-27

How to configure and deploy an Elixir app to a VPS, part 2

Part 2 of our deployment guide.

2018-11-21

Polish Up your JavaScript #01: Setting up development project with Webpack

Start using modern JavaScript stack now!

2018-09-27

Elixir: Runtime vs. compile time configuration

Digging into runtime and compile-time configuration variables.

2018-07-24

When web requests fail in Elixir and Phoenix

Just what actually happens when a web request crashes?

2018-06-12

Executing raw SQL queries in Elixir

When you just want to write raw SQL.

2018-05-15

When to use Elixir language?

When is it good, and when not so good idea to build the app in Elixir?

2018-04-19

Elixir, Phoenix, CSRF tokens and gloomy foreteller

…because security is important.

2017-12-27

(Ab)using Ecto as Elixir data casting and validation library

How do you create a “tableless form” in Elixir & Phoenix? The kind of form that is not backed by a database table, think contact form. Or maybe it’s backed by multiple database tables - think registration form.

2017-11-21

Structuring Elixir projects

Thoughts on organizing code in Elxir.

2017-11-13

Connecting Ecto to PostgreSQL with SSL

Making your database connections way more secure.

2017-10-30

Trying out upcoming Elixir releases

So you want to try that exciting upcoming Elixir release before it’s available? We are here to show you how.

2017-09-22

Elixir :applications vs :extra_applications - a guide

It has been confusing? Let me help.

2017-09-20

Why you should not build your start-up as Single-Page Application?

Maybe, just maybe you don’t need all that JavaScript.

2017-08-03

Time zones in PostgreSQL, Elixir and Phoenix

Time zones are hard, no matter which stack you use.

2017-07-27

How learning Elixr made me a better Ruby developer

I write more functional code, avoid mutating data and side effects in methods, do not shy away from (modern) concurrency primitives, I explored alternative deployment options.

2017-07-17

How to configure and deploy an Elixir app to a VPS

In this guide we’ll go through a process of preparing our Virtual Private Server for a production package of our web application, building a release package using Distillery, deploying, and exposing it to the world via nginx web server. Some common troubleshooting is included too.

2017-06-29

AmberCasts #3: TDD Elixir command-line application with ExUnit

Learn how to build Elixir command line apps.

2017-06-17

AmberCasts #2: Deploying Ruby on Rails application to Heroku using Docker

Step by step guide on deploying Ruby on Rails to Heroku with Docker.

2017-06-14

AmberCasts #1 Ruby on Rails development environment with Docker and docker-compose

A screencast!

2017-03-07

Elixir - different kind of promises

Just what kind of promises Elixir gives you?

2017-01-30

Continuous delivery with Git (hotfix by default)

Hotfix by default is one of our favourite ways to push code to production!

2016-12-06

Redux Overview

Introduction to using Redux.

2016-09-08

Elixir vs. Ruby: catching method/function call errors

Elixir differs from Ruby in error handling.

2016-08-10

Rails Girls Bialystok 2016

We did it again! It was fun (again!).

2016-05-13

Process name registration in Elixir

Several approaches to registering process names in Elixir explained.

2016-05-10

Creating Elixir libraries as OTP applications

So you want to build Elixir library?

2016-02-28

On migrations, JSONB and databases in general

Thoughts on databases and data.

2016-02-24

How Elixir’s Ecto differs from Ruby’s ActiveRecord

Ecto may seem similar to ActiveRecord, but it really is not.

2016-01-31

Translating existing Rails applications made easier

…because not all your users read English.

2015-12-22

When to choose Elixir over Ruby for 2016 projects?

Elixir is super cool, but exactly why should you care?

2015-11-30

Using Repository pattern to migrate Rails app from MongoDB to PostgreSQL

…because you will need to make that migration.

2015-11-29

State Machines

Creating state machines in Ruby.

2015-11-28

How to deploy Rails App on a VPS

A simple Rails deployment recipe.

2015-10-30

Rails Girls Bialystok 2015

We helped to make this thing and enjoyed it!

2015-10-15

Rails mountable engines

What is an engine? And a mountable one?

2015-07-29

Hold on, I know where it leads…

Just read it this time.

2015-07-14

Flux vs. Reflux

Update: just use React Hooks. Or MobX.

2015-07-03

Sorcery + Google Calendar for multiple users

Integrating with Google Calendar for fun and profit.

2015-06-14

Closures: Elixir vs. Ruby vs. JavaScript

Closures are not the same across languages. Learn how they differ between Ruby, JavaScript and Elixir to avoid bugs and confusion.

2015-04-23

SEO basics for Rails developers

A handful of SEO tricks that every developer should know.

2015-04-22

Why Rails 5 / Turbolinks 3.0 / Action Cable matter, and why @dhh was right all along

Update: just use Phoenix LiveView.

2014-10-09

5 Cool AngularJS libraries

Every blog needs to have X cool Y things.

2014-09-29

10 skills that will make you a better Rubyist

So you are a Ruby developer? You write Rails code for living? That’s cool. But you know what, you can do much better if you learn at least some of these 10 skills.

2014-09-19

Splitting monolithic Rails applications

The big monolith no more?

2014-09-09

Ruby - the bad parts

Things we don’t enjoy about Ruby.

2014-06-12

Calling C/C++ from Ruby

Because sometimes you have to get your hands dirty.

2014-04-10

Ruby - the good parts

Things we enjoy about Ruby.

2014-02-19

Building and documenting API in Rails

How to build API in Ruby on Rails.

2014-02-14

Putting Ruby on Rails on a diet

Building very slim Rails apps.

2014-02-12

Automate tasks on the web with Ruby and Capybara

Automate all the things! (on the web!)

2014-02-04

PostgreSQL awesomeness for Rails developers

A handful of timeless PostgreSQL tips.

2014-01-20

Torquebox 3, Rails 4 - zero downtime deployments on Ubuntu 12.04

Update: Torquebox was super cool, it’s a shame it seems to be dead.

2014-01-20

AngularJS templates and Ruby on Rails assets pipeline

How to embed Angular (1.2) templates in Rails apps.

2013-12-20

Similar images detection in Ruby

Measuring images similarity with Ruby.

2012-02-02

Building small sites with LocomotiveCMS and deploying to Heroku and GridFS

So you have a small site to build and host cheaply. Let’s user Rails.

2011-12-27

Render views and partials outside controllers in Rails 3

Using Rails 3 rendering from plain old Ruby objects.

2011-11-28

Ruby FLV pseudostreaming implemented with Sinatra and Rack::Evil

Multimedia streaming with a few lines of Ruby code.

2011-10-24

Measuring complexity of Ruby 1.9 code with metric_abc

Simple static code analysis tool for Ruby.

2011-10-21

GoTranslateYourself - Rails engine for managing web site translations

Update: This gem has been replaced with translator. Please use instead!

2011-07-20

Social networks application development with Rails and OpenSocial (part 1 - introduction)

What is Open Social and how can you build Ruby apps to support it?

2011-07-16

Geospatial search with Ruby and Sphinx

An alternative to PostGIS.

2011-07-13

Introduction to Rack middleware

Building web applications with Rack.