Rabid Brains

Logging into RefineryCMS with an existing Devise user

For simple content management using Ruby on Rails, RefineryCMS is a great option - it’s an actively-maintained project with support for plugins (via Rails engines which lots of Rabid staff are already familiar with), and a reasonably easy to understand codebase. When we are called upon to add CMS features to an existing Rails application though, we usually already have some kind of authentication system in place. This blog post outlines how we configure Refinery to use our existing authentication system to authenticate and authorize CMS editors.

AWS Presigned Posts

When designing a JSON API that needs to deal with uploaded files, there’s a few options, but all of them have a degree of compromise. At the end of the day, a file uploaded via HTTP must be provided as a form-encoded name-value set, and this conflicts with how most JSON APIs work.

At Rabid, we had a need to support just such an API. With the help of the AWS S3 SDK, we found a great pattern for supporting file uploads without compromising on our APIs.

Rabid's New Space!

Rabid has a new Wellington home!! We’re now located at Level 2, 50 The Terrace. We’re tucked away off the street, so if you want to come visit you’ll need to enter via 44 The Terrace, head through the lobby and down the stone steps to the right, and then head down the wood-panelled hallway to the stairs or lifts at the end.

Christchurch Rails Girls

Rose and I coached at Rails Girls Christchurch in May. Given Rabid’s commitment to diversity, it was great for Rabid to sponsor the event by sending us down to Christchurch. The awesome weekend was superbly organised by Hayley van Waas, Elora Walmisley and Daniel Fone. The event was held at Canterbury University and as a result, most participants were students already studying Computer Science or Software Engineering.

Why is 20% time good for us all?

In my old life in the film industry, we all worked for free; on short films, music videos or low-budget features. It’s how we gained experience and credits on our CV, as well as supported our fellow filmmakers on projects we cared about. I’ve done my fair share of free stuff over the years, but there comes a point when you just have to say “No” - my time and contribution has value, no more freebies!

So I was pleasantly surprised when I joined Rabid and found out they had a policy of 20% time projects as part of the working week. At Rabid, this generally happens on a Friday. It’s when we can choose what we’d like to work on; perhaps some training or professional development, our own project, a startup or that really good idea we’ve had for a while and we want to see if it flies, or not. It creates a bit of space where clients know we are not available to give us time free of other commitments to control our own priorities.