Rails Designer's JavaScript library Attractive.js hits 1.0.0

Hey there! 👋

Good to back in your inbox once again. 😊 Once again an issue with the latest from Rails Designer HQ. I published a new gem (suprise!). Lets get right into it. Let me know what you think. ❤️

In this issue:

• HQ updates
• OSS updates
• Notes
• From the blog

🏢 HQ Update

What's happening at Rails Designer HQ a.k.a. me exploring a beautiful tropical island drinking coconuts. 🥥

☁️ Bluesky

You can find me on Bluesky. Using it mostly to PoPe (Post Once Publish Everywhere) via the Notes on my site (all powered by Spinal CMS. So if you are already subscribed to the notes feed, you are good. If you like the “fediverse”, feel free to follow there.

🪡 Rails UI consultancy / product engineering

Last time's mention for availability resulted in a booked calendar again. Also this month I have a little bit of availability.

I help teams level up their (LLM-build) UI, tackle their frontend mess or help manage product.

If you (or your team) needs some help from the front to the back of your Rails app, just reply. 🤙

🤝 Open source

What has been new from Rails Designer on the OSS (aka code you can copy-paste into your app 😅😞).

perron

v1.2.0

This release sees some interesting features like update frontmatter values: @resource.metadata.update key: value. Useful if you want to programmatically create/update resources and need to update one value in the frontmatter.

Next to that various smaller improvements and bugfixes.

Hanami Icons

v0.6.0

Most of what I write about is for Ruby on Rails. But more and more am I exploring other areas for various reasons (if you know, you know). Regardless: having options is generally a good thing for a consumer. With this in mind; I released the Icons gem some time ago and am now happy to announce a "wrapper" for it for Hanami. Hanami is, based on my limited experience with it, one of the frameworks that can rival Rails. I also like its vision and goals.

So the most logical thing I could do as a first step, is to create the same icons experience Rails users have with Rails Icons. If you are running a Hanami app, do check it out—I am still learning my away around it and might have made some odd choices.

I might move away from the name Rails Designer… I am considering it—taking suggestions for names!

Articles

Build an accessible paused-GIF using an Custom Element

For a11y reasons it is not a good idea to auto-loop/play gifs. This explores a simple custom element you can wrap around it to give you a play button for it. Did you notice I like custom elements?

A reusable tooltip built with a custom element

Yes, you read that right: another post around custom elements. I am making it my personal goal to make every Ruby developer aware of custom elements (hint: this won't be the last post).

Distort HTML with SVG's feDisplacementMap

Remember needing flash for those fancy (animated) effects "back in the day"? Or creating them in Photoshop and export into little images?

SVG filters have been around for some time, but here I am exploring the most wicked of them all: feDisplacementMap. All kinds of weird effects can be made using, while keeping this accessible.

Notes

I started a new section on Rails Designer called Notes. Short things about what I am reading or thinking. These notes are not publicly listed on the site but can be read via RSS. I will also list them here.

(also readable now via bluesky)

• Opened a hefty—oh irony—PR to prune unused icons in the icons gem (that powers Rails- and recently Hanami, Icons 💡).

• Opened a PR so Herb can be aware of Rails Icons. ❤️

• Smoother onboarding / initial page load when signing up. One class to trigger animations using CSS’ sibling-index.

• Nice primer on “agents”. Even if you think you know all the ins and outs, there is always something new to learn.

• “Revenue per worker is rising for the Mag 7 but is flat for the S&P 493. Profit margins are rising for the Mag 7 but flat for the S&P 493. With no impact on the bottom line, mainstream corporate America is pulling back and starting to view token spending as a cost center that weighs on margins.”

And that is all I have for you today. As always looking forward to your replies. ❤️

See you next month! 👋

—Eelco, founder Rails Designer