Using Ruby For Automation And Scripting
Posts by Alan TaylorJune 23, 2023
Whatever software breakthroughs may have come, Ruby’s popularity doesn’t seem to waver.
It’s in the top five paying technologies for programming languages, and Ruby on Rails is in the top fifteen most preferred technologies by both pro and rookie developers.
In return, businesses are very fond of using it, too, as automation, one of Ruby’s basic purposes — to make complex or repetitive operations a breeze.
With this in mind, let’s delve a bit deeper into what Ruby really is, why it’s so important, and some of the most popular Ruby types.
Ruby Basics
What is Ruby? Ruby’s an open-source programming language. Its inventor is a Japanese computer scientist, Yukihiro Matsumoto.
He got inspired in the 1990s to make a blend of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp).
The main idea was to create a new language that would form a balance between functional programming and imperative programming. And, he succeeded!
Ruby is a language which is relatively easy to interpret and learn, perhaps due to the fact that it hides a lot of data from the developer.
Thus, it may be challenging to reveal the origin of an error in a codebase. On the other hand, it’s easier to master than C or C++.
Ruby’s dynamic and free-format programming language syntax enables you to do so many tasks successfully, and automation and scripting are some of the major ones.
Ruby’s Advantages
There are a lot of reasons why Ruby has become one of most preferred languages among developers.
One of the first definitely is its automation capability. Why do we celebrate Ruby’s ability to automate tasks so much? Because above all, automation is a huge time saver.
Automation helps you do multiple tests that would take ages if done manually. Also, you can repeat tests with automation as many times as you like without the fear of overseeing a certain step.
The ability to test the service or product on different browsers or devices (cell phones, tablets, PCs, etc.) is another automation perk.
In addition, the Ruby community is very well-known as one of the friendliest on the web, so you can be sure help is easy to find.
Next, Ruby improves memory usage with its efficient garbage collection. You can use add-ons, libraries, and code packages to speed up things like debugging and authentication.
Overall, automation with Ruby makes things faster and allows you to shift your focus elsewhere.
We could perhaps sum it up best by saying that Ruby’s automation advantages make your work less boring and more reliable as you don’t need to waste your time or skills on every single step of the production or testing process.
Examples Of Ruby Automation
There are plenty of examples of how you can use Ruby to automate tasks.
A fine example of Ruby automation is tracking weather changes, i.e., sending weather updates. For instance, you’ll be on a tour including ten different towns and cities.
By using the simple Ruby mail API, you can create a code that will inform you about the daily weather changes during your trip.
Or, you could schedule your pending to-dos in Microsoft Outlook and get reminders to complete them.
Why waste time interrupting your work to save to-dos for later when you can have the system do it automatically? Thanks to reminders, you won’t miss any deadlines, or get annoyed with interruptions.
Ruby Frameworks
You’ve probably heard of Ruby on Rails, as it’s become one of the essential tools in web development.
We’ll start with that one and guide you through more Ruby types you could use for automation and scripting purposes.
Ruby On Rails
If you decide to use Ruby on Rails, you’ll be joining quite a fabulous bunch. Airbnb, Twitter, and Bloomberg are some of the most famous users of this Ruby framework.
Ruby on Rails earned its fame for excelling at developing web applications requiring low bandwidth, processing power, and database performance.
In its essence, Ruby on Rails consists of so-called gems, i.e., multiple libraries that aid the functioning of web app features.
Its main advantages are cost efficiency, security, building app frameworks, and creating and rendering templates.
Sinatra
This Ruby framework appeared in 2007, three years after Ruby on Rails, and is almost just as popular. Its main use is building contemporary web applications.
GitHub and LinkedIn are among its faithful users, and if you decide to become one of them, you’ll be thrilled by what it can do for you.
That’s because Sinatra can do it all, from micro to macro web app building. It’s open-source, lightweight, and allows you to finish the complete code in a single source code file.
Camping
Speaking of lightweight, Camping’s source code is just 4 KB in size. It’s also open-source, and is able to convert a web app into a file as an MVC structure with ease.
Ramaze
Also in the lightweight category, Ramaze gives you a hand in developing advanced web apps.
If you’re already using JQuery, ORM, AJAX, or JavaScript, you’ll be able to make the most of those projects with Ramaze. This “bug-free” framework is both versatile and scalable.
Goliath
A newbie to the list, Goliath came to life in 2016. When you need to transform callback-based code into linear execution, this is the best lightweight Ruby automation framework for the job.
Some of the other Ruby frameworks that are also attention-worthy are Hanami, Padrino, Cuba, NYNY, Ruby Grape, and Scorched. We definitely recommend taking a look into those.
Ruby’s main missions are simplicity and productivity, which leads us to automation benefits. This interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language is fairly easy to learn and implement.
With a more careful insight into Ruby types, we’re positive you’ll be able to shift your focus to more urgent priorities and let automation do the rest for you.