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rails_best_practices

rails_best_practices is a code metric tool to check the quality of Rails code.

It supports the following ORM/ODMs:

activerecord
mongoid
mongomapper

And the following template engines:

erb
haml
slim
rabl

rails_best_practices supports Ruby 1.9.3 or newer.

External Introduction

Ruby5 - Episode #253

Railscasts - #252 Metrics Metrics Metrics

Usage

At the root directory of a Rails app, run:

rails_best_practices .

Or for HTML output:

rails_best_practices -f html .

By default rails_best_practices will parse code in the vendor, spec, test and features directories.

Excluding directories

To exclude a directory simply call it with -e or --exclude:

rails_best_practices -e "db/migrate" .

To exclude multiple directories, separate them with comma:

rails_best_practices -e "db/migrate,vendor" .

Other command-line options

To see the full list of command-line options, run:

$ rails_best_practices -h

Usage: rails_best_practices [options]
    -d, --debug                      Debug mode
    -f, --format FORMAT              output format
        --without-color              only output plain text without color
        --with-textmate              open file by textmate in html format
        --with-vscode                open file by vscode in html format
        --with-sublime               open file by sublime in html format (requires https://github.com/asuth/subl-handler)
        --with-mvim                  open file by mvim in html format
        --with-github GITHUB_NAME    open file on github in html format. GITHUB_NAME is like railsbp/rails-bestpractices OR full URL to GitHub:FI repo
        --with-hg                    display hg commit and username, only support html format
        --with-git                   display git commit and username, only support html format
        --template TEMPLATE          customize erb template
        --output-file OUTPUT_FILE    output html file for the analyzing result
        --silent                     silent mode
        --vendor                     include vendor files
        --spec                       include spec files
        --test                       include test files
        --features                   include features files
    -x, --exclude PATTERNS           Don't analyze files matching a pattern
                                     (comma-separated regexp list)
    -o, --only PATTERNS              analyze files only matching a pattern
                                     (comma-separated regexp list)
    -g, --generate                   Generate configuration yaml
    -c, --config CONFIG_PATH         configuration file location (defaults to config/rails_best_practices.yml)
    -v, --version                    Show this version
    -h, --help                       Show this message

Resources

Homepage: http://rails-bestpractices.com

GitHub: http://github.com/railsbp/rails_best_practices

Team Blog http://rails-bestpractices.com

Google Group: https://groups.google.com/group/rails_best_practices

Wiki: http://github.com/railsbp/rails_best_practices/wiki

Issue Tracker: http://github.com/railsbp/rails_best_practices/issues

Install

gem install rails_best_practices

or add it to the Gemfile

gem "rails_best_practices"

--with-sublime

Install https://github.com/asuth/subl-handler

Editor Integration

TextMate 2

If you use TextMate 2, you can install the RailsBestPractices.tmbundle bundle.

Issues

If you install the rails_best_practices with bundler-installed GitHub-sourced gem, please use the following command instead.

bundle exec rails_best_practices .

If you encounter a NoMethodError exception, or a syntax error, you can use debug mode to discover which file is to blame:

rails_best_practices -d .

That will provide the error's stack trace and the source code of the file which is causing the error.

Custom Configuration

First run:

rails_best_practices -g

to generate rails_best_practices.yml file.

Now you can customize this configuration file. The default configuration is as follows:

AddModelVirtualAttributeCheck: { }
AlwaysAddDbIndexCheck: { }
#CheckSaveReturnValueCheck: { }
#CheckDestroyReturnValueCheck: { }
DefaultScopeIsEvilCheck: { }
DryBundlerInCapistranoCheck: { }
#HashSyntaxCheck: { }
IsolateSeedDataCheck: { }
KeepFindersOnTheirOwnModelCheck: { }
LawOfDemeterCheck: { }
#LongLineCheck: { max_line_length: 80 }
MoveCodeIntoControllerCheck: { }
MoveCodeIntoHelperCheck: { array_count: 3 }
MoveCodeIntoModelCheck: { use_count: 2 }
MoveFinderToNamedScopeCheck: { }
MoveModelLogicIntoModelCheck: { use_count: 4 }
NeedlessDeepNestingCheck: { nested_count: 2 }
NotRescueExceptionCheck: { }
NotUseDefaultRouteCheck: { }
NotUseTimeAgoInWordsCheck: { }
OveruseRouteCustomizationsCheck: { customize_count: 3 }
ProtectMassAssignmentCheck: { }
RemoveEmptyHelpersCheck: { }
#RemoveTabCheck: { }
RemoveTrailingWhitespaceCheck: { }
RemoveUnusedMethodsInControllersCheck: { except_methods: [] }
RemoveUnusedMethodsInHelpersCheck: { except_methods: [] }
RemoveUnusedMethodsInModelsCheck: { except_methods: [] }
ReplaceComplexCreationWithFactoryMethodCheck: { attribute_assignment_count: 2 }
ReplaceInstanceVariableWithLocalVariableCheck: { }
RestrictAutoGeneratedRoutesCheck: { }
SimplifyRenderInControllersCheck: { }
SimplifyRenderInViewsCheck: { }
#UseBeforeFilterCheck: { customize_count: 2 }
UseModelAssociationCheck: { }
UseMultipartAlternativeAsContentTypeOfEmailCheck: { }
UseObserverCheck: { }
#UseParenthesesInMethodDefCheck: { }
UseQueryAttributeCheck: { }
UseSayWithTimeInMigrationsCheck: { }
UseScopeAccessCheck: { }
UseTurboSprocketsRails3Check: { }

Now, at the root directory of a Rails app, run:

rails_best_practices . -c config/rails_best_practices.yml

You can remove or comment a review to disable it, and you can change the options.

You can apply the ignored_files option on any rule by giving a regexp or array of regexps describing the path of the files you don't want to be checked:

DefaultScopeIsEvilCheck: { ignored_files: 'user\.rb' }
LongLineCheck: { max_line_length: 80, ignored_files: ['db/migrate', 'config/initializers'] }

Implementation

Move code from Controller to Model

Move finder to named_scope (rails2 only)
Use model association
Use scope access
Add model virtual attribute
Replace complex creation with factory method
Move model logic into the Model
Check return value of "save!"

RESTful Conventions

Overuse route customizations
Needless deep nesting
Not use default route
Restrict auto-generated routes

Model

Keep finders on their own model (rails2 only)
The law of demeter
Use observer
Use query attribute
Remove unused methods in models
Protect mass assignment
Destroy return value (disabled by default)

Mailer

Use multipart/alternative as content_type of email

Migration

Isolating seed data
Always add database index
Use say with time in migrations

Controller

Use before_filter (disabled by default)
Simplify render in controllers
Remove unused methods in controllers

Helper

Remove empty helpers
Remove unused methods in helpers

View

Move code into controller
Move code into model
Move code into helper
Replace instance variable with local variable
Simplify render in views
Not use time_ago_in_words

Deployment

Dry bundler in Capistrano
Speed up assets precompilation with turbo-sprockets-rails3

Other

Remove trailing whitespace
Remove tab (disabled by default)
Hash syntax (disabled by default)
Use parentheses in method definition (disabled by default)
Long line (disabled by default)
Not rescue exception

Write Your Own Checklist

If you want to write your own checklist (some checklist only for your Rails projects), please read this first, How to write your own check list?

Contribute

If you want to add your rails best practices into the gem, please post your best practices on http://rails-bestpractices.com

Contact Us

We provide Rails consulting services, you can contact us by Twitter or email.

Send us email: team@railsbp.com