Grape Template

This repository serves as a default template for a Ruby on Rails (RoR) application using the --api flag with the Grape gem. It includes a pre-configured setup with essential gems and tools to streamline API development.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Setup
• Gems
• Rake Tasks
• Grape Resource Generator
  • Usage
  • Features
  • Example
• Docker Setup
• Contact

Installation

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Grigore-George-Mihai/grape_template

---

Setup

1. Rename the Application

This will update the app name everywhere it appears (module name, titles, DB names, cable prefixes, Docker volumes, etc.).

bin/rails setup:rename_app

2. Create Environment Files

Copy environment template files into .env.development and .env.test.

bin/rails setup:copy_env

Then open each file and update values as needed:

• Database credentials (POSTGRES_USER, POSTGRES_PASSWORD)
• Any other environment-specific variables

3. Set Up the Database

bin/rails db:prepare   # Creates and migrates the database
bin/rails db:seed      # Loads seed data

4. Optional Integrations

• Scout APM — Add your SCOUT_KEY value in .env.development (or the appropriate .env file) to enable. If left blank, ScoutAPM stays disabled.
• Rollbar — Add your ROLLBAR_ACCESS_TOKEN value in .env.development (or the appropriate .env file) to enable. If left blank, Rollbar stays disabled.

✅ You’re now ready to start development!

---

Gems

Database

• Pg: PostgreSQL driver for Ruby, providing fast and efficient database connectivity.

Grape

• Grape: A REST-like API framework for Ruby that is designed to run on Rack or complement existing web application frameworks like Rails.
• Grape Entity: A framework-agnostic entity layer to decorate and serialize data objects for API responses.
• Grape Swagger: Adds Swagger-compliant documentation to your Grape API.
• Grape Swagger Entity: Extends grape-entity to generate Swagger documentation automatically.
• Grape Swagger Rails: Integrates grape-swagger into Rails applications for serving Swagger UI.

Authentication

• JWT: Ruby library for creating and verifying JSON Web Tokens.

Pagination

• Pagy: A fast, efficient, and lightweight pagination gem for Rails, providing easy customization and flexibility with minimal overhead.

Background Processing

• Sidekiq: Efficient background processing for Ruby applications.
• Sidekiq-Scheduler: Extends Sidekiq to support scheduled and recurring jobs using a simple configuration.
• Redis: In-memory data structure store used by Sidekiq for managing background job queues, scheduling, and retries.

Performance Monitoring

• Scout APM: Application monitoring tool.
• Bullet: Detects N+1 queries and unused eager loading.

Error Tracking

• Rollbar: Real-time error tracking and reporting.

Code Quality & Linting

• Rubocop Rails Suite: A custom suite that bundles Rubocop with various plugins for Rails projects.

Testing

• Factory Bot Rails: Provides fixtures replacement with a straightforward definition syntax.
• Faker: A library for generating fake data.
• RSpec Rails: Testing framework for Rails.
• Shoulda Matchers: Simplifies testing Rails applications with RSpec.
• SimpleCov: Code coverage analysis tool.
• Rspec-Sidekiq: Testing framework for Sidekiq jobs.

Security

• Brakeman: Static analysis tool for finding security vulnerabilities in Rails applications.
• Bundler Audit: Scans your Gemfile for known vulnerabilities.

Environment Management

• Dotenv Rails: Loads environment variables from .env.

---

Rake Tasks

Run the following rake task to check for security risks in your application:

bin/rails security:check

• This task runs tools like Brakeman and Bundler Audit to ensure your application is secure.

---

Grape Resource Generator

This repository includes a custom Rails generator for creating Grape resources, entities, and corresponding RSpec tests. The generator helps streamline the process of adding new API endpoints to your application.

Usage

Generate a new Grape API resource:

rails generate grape_resource <ResourceName> field:type field:type

Replace with the name of your resource (e.g., Book) and field:type with the attributes and types (e.g., title:string description:text).

Features

• Auto Mounting: Automatically mounts new resources in the API.
• Swagger Integration: Adds entities to Swagger models.
• Optional Model Generation: Prompts to generate the corresponding model.

Example

rails generate grape_resource Book title:string description:text

This will create

• A Grape resource in app/api/v1/resources/books.rb
• A Grape entity in app/api/v1/entities/book_entity.rb
• A corresponding RSpec test in spec/api/v1/resources/books_spec.rb
• The resource will be automatically mounted in the API
• The entity will be added to Swagger documentation
• The generator also gives you the option to create the User model with the specified attributes.

---

Docker Setup

If you prefer to run the application inside a Docker container, follow these steps:

1. Build the Docker image:

docker-compose build

2. Start the Application and services:

docker-compose up

3. Stop the Application:

docker-compose down

4. Remove named Volumes:

docker-compose down --volumes

---

Contact

For questions or further information, feel free to reach out via LinkedIn.