Gemfile Reviewhttps://railsplugins.org/An editorial guide to the Rails gem ecosystemJSON serializers for Rails APIs: Jbuilder, Alba, Blueprinter and ActiveModelSerializershttps://railsplugins.org/categories/json-apis/https://railsplugins.org/categories/json-apis/2026-10-26Which gem should render JSON in a Rails API? as_json, Jbuilder, Alba, Blueprinter, ActiveModelSerializers and jsonapi-serializer compared on design, maintenance and fit.Building a property search in Rails: geocoding gems comparedhttps://railsplugins.org/categories/geocoding/https://railsplugins.org/categories/geocoding/2026-10-25Geocoder, geokit-rails and PostGIS with activerecord-postgis-adapter and RGeo compared for location search in Rails: maintenance status in 2026, licences, geocoding provider limits and a working radius-search example.acts_as_list: ordered records in Rails, then and nowhttps://railsplugins.org/plugins/317-acts-as-list/https://railsplugins.org/plugins/317-acts-as-list/2026-10-24How acts_as_list keeps Active Record rows in order, its history since it left Rails core in Rails 2.0, its status in 2026, and alternatives such as positioning and ranked-model.Rails admin panels: ActiveAdmin, Avo, Administrate and othershttps://railsplugins.org/categories/admin-panels/https://railsplugins.org/categories/admin-panels/2026-10-24How ActiveAdmin, Avo, Administrate, RailsAdmin and Madmin approach back-office interfaces for Rails, their dependencies and licences, and when to build your own admin.Authentication in Rails: the generator, Devise, Rodauth and the resthttps://railsplugins.org/categories/authentication/https://railsplugins.org/categories/authentication/2026-10-24Comparing Rails authentication options in 2026: the Rails 8 authentication generator, Devise, Rodauth, Authlogic, Clearance and Sorcery, plus OmniAuth for social login.Authlogic: the session-as-a-model authentication libraryhttps://railsplugins.org/plugins/56-authlogic/https://railsplugins.org/plugins/56-authlogic/2026-10-24What Authlogic is, how its UserSession model works, its status in 2026 (still maintained, supporting Rails 7.2 to 8.1), and how it compares with Devise, Rodauth and the Rails 8 generator.Authorization gems for Rails: Pundit, CanCanCan and Action Policyhttps://railsplugins.org/categories/authorization/https://railsplugins.org/categories/authorization/2026-10-24How Pundit, CanCanCan and Action Policy model permissions in a Rails application, how each handles scopes and testing, and when a hand-written approach is enough.Background jobs in Rails: Solid Queue, Sidekiq, GoodJob and older optionshttps://railsplugins.org/categories/background-jobs/https://railsplugins.org/categories/background-jobs/2026-10-24How to choose a background job backend for Rails: Active Job, Solid Queue (the Rails 8 default), Sidekiq, GoodJob, delayed_job and Resque, and what replaced Workling and Spawn.How to evaluate a Rails gem before adding it to your Gemfilehttps://railsplugins.org/guides/evaluating-a-rails-gem/https://railsplugins.org/guides/evaluating-a-rails-gem/2026-10-24A practical checklist for judging a Ruby gem: maintenance signals, compatibility with Rails 7 and 8, dependencies, licence, and security advisories with bundler-audit.File uploads in Rails: Active Storage, Shrine and CarrierWavehttps://railsplugins.org/categories/file-uploads/https://railsplugins.org/categories/file-uploads/2026-10-24Choosing a file attachment solution for Rails: Active Storage, Shrine and CarrierWave compared, image variants with image_processing, validation, and migrating away from Paperclip.From plugins to gems and engines: how Rails extensions evolvedhttps://railsplugins.org/guides/from-plugins-to-engines/https://railsplugins.org/guides/from-plugins-to-engines/2026-10-24How Rails extensions moved from vendor/plugins to gems, Railties and engines between Rails 2 and Rails 4, and what that means when you read old tutorials or upgrade an old app.Geokit-rails: distance queries for Active Recordhttps://railsplugins.org/plugins/124-geokit-rails/https://railsplugins.org/plugins/124-geokit-rails/2026-10-24What geokit-rails and the Geokit gem do, their release status in 2026, and when to use Geocoder or PostGIS instead for geocoding and location queries in Rails.Pagination in Rails: Pagy, Kaminari and will_paginatehttps://railsplugins.org/categories/pagination/https://railsplugins.org/categories/pagination/2026-10-24Comparing Rails pagination gems — Pagy, Kaminari and will_paginate — and when to use offset or keyset pagination for large tables and infinite scrolling.Paperclip: Rails attachments before Active Storagehttps://railsplugins.org/plugins/161-paperclip/https://railsplugins.org/plugins/161-paperclip/2026-10-24What Paperclip did, why thoughtbot deprecated it in 2018, the kt-paperclip fork, and how to migrate Paperclip attachments to Active Storage or Shrine.Search in Rails: pg_search, Ransack, Searchkick and Meilisearchhttps://railsplugins.org/categories/search/https://railsplugins.org/categories/search/2026-10-24Filtering versus full-text search in Rails: Ransack for filter forms, pg_search for PostgreSQL full-text search, and Searchkick, Meilisearch or Thinking Sphinx for a dedicated search engine.Spork: the Rails test server, and what replaced ithttps://railsplugins.org/plugins/440-spork/https://railsplugins.org/plugins/440-spork/2026-10-24What Spork did for RSpec and Cucumber in the Rails 2 and 3 era, why it stopped at 1.0.0rc4, and how Spring, Bootsnap and parallel testing solve the same problem today.Testing Rails applications: Minitest, RSpec, FactoryBot and Capybarahttps://railsplugins.org/categories/testing/https://railsplugins.org/categories/testing/2026-10-24The Rails testing toolbox in 2026: Minitest or RSpec, fixtures or FactoryBot, system tests with Capybara, shoulda-matchers, and what replaced Webrat, Spork and factory_girl.Webrat: Ruby acceptance testing before Capybarahttps://railsplugins.org/plugins/26-webrat/https://railsplugins.org/plugins/26-webrat/2026-10-24What Webrat was, how it simulated a browser for Rails integration tests, why it stopped at version 0.7.3 in 2011, and how to migrate Webrat steps to Capybara and Rails system tests.