"In Relentless Pursuit of Rest" from Derek Prior

in_relentless_pursuit_of_rest_notes.md

RailsConf 2017: In Relentless Pursuit of REST by Derek Prior

Slides : https://speakerdeck.com/derekprior/in-relentless-pursuit-of-rest Talk : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HctYHe-YjnE

• REST help rails growing

• More small things (small models, controllers, services, views...)

• [Anti-pattern] Custom actions

  • When having noun#verb_noun (users#edit_password, users#update_password) = Missing resource -> Resource is password (password#edit, password#update)
  • Controllers do not need to map to ActiveRecord objects

• [Anti-pattern] Complex actions

  • Make boring code
  • Less before_actions
  • Use service object, query objects, objects to extract complexity
  • Be boring (boring controller, boring model, ...)

• [Anti-pattern] Ambiguous language

  • "process"? What does it mean?
  • Order#process -> Shipments#create
  • Don't be scared about duplicate code. "duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction" (cf Sandi Metz)
  • This change Order#process -> Shipments#create create a "breathing room".

• [Anti-pattern] State Machines

  • Code spaghetti.
  • State machines are magnetic : they attract more states, transitions, events, callbacks and they accumulate callback logic where our bugs hide
  • State machines are not easy to clean
  • What if update didn't exist?
  • Move to REST with a object/service object for the step of state machine
  • Any move to tiner ruby object will be a win

• Outside in (https://youtu.be/HctYHe-YjnE?t=1696)

  • We changing the language of the applcation from "What this application store, and how this is stored" to "What it this application does" (at a higher level)
  • In most case what's keeping any app from being a CRUD app is a lack of imagination : You have'nt gone back to rethink the problem from the outside to identify the resource you're talking about.
  • Be boring. Be RESTful.