For developing our Ruby on Rails based web site, we usually take regular SQL dumps from our production servers (of course, anonymizing sensitive customer data along the way). Always having a fresh dump allows us to be on the safe side when writing database migrations. Having an up to date development database enables us to … Continue reading Setting up a test database on a ruby on rails continuous integration server using SQL instead of schema.rb
Too Busy to Blog
I've been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest the past few weeks. And because of this I haven't been keeping up with my weekly posts. But yesterday, after getting through the guilt trip, I realized that I was missing more than just blogging. I was missing my weekly retrospectives and thereby losing … Continue reading Too Busy to Blog
webrat: Automated Acceptance Testing with RSpec or Cucumber
Recently, I was looking deeper into how we could add some automated acceptance tests to our Ruby on Rails based website. We're using RSpec since quite a while now for TDD, but doing some high level acceptance tests was not on our agenda so far. DRY Cucumber Scenarios The new cool kid on the block … Continue reading webrat: Automated Acceptance Testing with RSpec or Cucumber
1st Birthday: Best of Agile Web Operations
It's time to say "Thank you" to all of you, our loyal readers. Thanks for reading, commenting and subscribing to our posts for exactly one year now. That's right, Agile Web Operations is now one year old. I can hardly put into words how great it is to have you with us! 103 posts and … Continue reading 1st Birthday: Best of Agile Web Operations
Seed Data In Ruby On Rails
To run automated tests for your Ruby on Rails webapp, not only do you need your latest database structure deployed to the test database (created by rake db:test:prepare), but you also need some seed data for lookup tables, e.g. like zip codes. Common approaches like adding seed data through rails migrations are discouraged, and plugins … Continue reading Seed Data In Ruby On Rails
Using SiteSucker For Testing Redirects
My boss threw down the gauntlet Monday morning during our weekly meeting. In relaunching one of our decade old platforms, we couldn't afford to get bashed by fickle finger of Google Search Results and I needed to take extra care in ensuring all redirects were properly made. With over twenty thousand pages, it was no … Continue reading Using SiteSucker For Testing Redirects
Acceptance Testing with Cucumber
After watching a Pivotal Labs Tech Talk Making a Case for Cucumber, I decided to give it a try. Especially the seamless integration with rails and webrat made me curious. Webrat is a headless browser simulator, which can execute UI tests for you. You even can use the same syntax to drive a real browser … Continue reading Acceptance Testing with Cucumber
Getting a Quick Overview of your Site’s Response Times
I promised you a couple weeks back to share some more code for building your own XFD (extreme feedback device). Embedding Munin graphs is child's play, so I thought I'd give you a head-start with the Pingdom API. And we all know how critical site response times are to the success of your online business. … Continue reading Getting a Quick Overview of your Site’s Response Times
Agile on steroids
Agile software development is a great thing. It makes people deliver real value faster. Based on the agile manifesto there are a lot of processes and frameworks available (XP, SCRUM or Lean Software Development anyone?), which try to enable teams to develop better and more relevant software. So far, so good. In our company, we're … Continue reading Agile on steroids
Splunking for Spikes
We had a short load spike on our application servers a couple weeks back. A load of 28 on a 4-core machine is more than uncomfortable - it's downright dangerous. Luckily, it only lasted for 2 minutes and, just as suddenly as it came, vanished again without a trace. Well, that's not quite true, because … Continue reading Splunking for Spikes
