Things You Might Not Have Tried with Ecto

If you're only using Ecto for schema modules, changeset functions, inserts, and updates, you're missing out on some great features.

Without a database: Ecto.Types can be used to convert stringly-typed data from any source to native Elixir; Ecto.Changeset can be used as a convenient way to accumulate errors when going between layers with richer support for nested and translatable errors than error tuples with a String or a list of Strings.

Ecto migrations can represent primary keys that aren't integers and more closely reflect unique identifiers in your domain; join tables that use composite primary keys that represent what’s unique about the join instead of an arbitrary id column; accurately represent the difference between time keeping in the database and in your Ecto schemas using different timestamp configs.

The full power of Postgres is available through Ecto constraints: unique constraints can be tuned to specific conditions; exclusion constraints make ranges and scheduling easy; and check constraints are even more general and allow modeling complete validation logic in the database. Constraints ensure that different code paths can't corrupt your data and violate business rules. Leaning on the database constraints is crucial when doing bulk operations in concurrent ETL pipelines, but Luke will show how you don't need to abandon changeset and validations just because insert_all doesn't support inserting changesets.
Location:

Go to Capital Factory's 1st floor front desk (the big room with the robot head across from the hotel bar) and ask for the Austin Elixir meetup room (usually Wall-E or Jonny-Five on the first floor) and they'll point you in the right direction. You might want to stop by the front desk to get to the parking validation ticket before the meetup too.

Parking:

Capital Factory has validated parking: when you go to the 1st or 16th floor ask the front desk for a parking voucher. The parking voucher will let you park for 50% off from 5pm-10pm (so ~$15 instead of ~$30) in the Omni Hotel garage under Capital Factory. To get into the garage turn north on Brazos from 7th Street. The garage entrance is the first downward ramp on the right at 733 Brazos (Street view https://www.google.com/maps/@30.2689199,-97.740976,3a,75y,88.67h,84.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6eYOcptw_oovfL-UUMEM1Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1 ) . There is cheaper lot parking at 406 E 7th Street (https://goo.gl/maps/LseRL3TGKC32)