Component-based Rails Applications ─ Large Domains Under Control

When Ruby on Rails was introduced, web developers flocked to it, quickly building applications that have become utterly indispensable to their organizations. But those early Rails applications have often proven extremely difficult to maintain, evolve, and scale. Now, in Component-Based Rails Applications: Large Domains Under Control, Stephan Hagemann introduces a practical, start-to-finish methodology for modernizing and restructuring existing Rails applications with modern components. One step at a time, Hagemann demonstrates how to revamp Rails applications to exhibit visible, provably independent, and explicitly connected parts -- thereby simplifying them, and making them far easier to manage, change, and test.

The first and only guide to componentizing Rails, this book offers hands-on, step-by-step coverage of:

• Creating a full-fledged component-based Rails application from the ground up
• Refactoring an existing Rails application to extract components
• Using gems and engines to implement components in Ruby and Rails codebases
• Applying modern patterns such as DCI and hexagonal architecture
• Overcoming the unique challenges that arise during componentization of Rails applications

Throughout, Hagemann introduces concepts and techniques that developers can use to improve applications of many kinds, even if they weren’t built with Rails or Ruby.

Stephan Hagemann most recently has been supporting clients of Pivotal Software in journeys of digital transformation. In these, organizational change is as much a topic as the implementation of Agile processes and software system architecture. This work grew out of Stephan’s previous management and engineering roles within Pivotal Labs, Pivotal’s software consulting group. Prior to joining Pivotal, Stephan moved to the United States from Germany where he worked as a software engineer for xing. He has a doctorate in information systems from the University of Munster in Germany.