April DCRUG: Avoiding Gemfile Bloat + Developing an API

Our meetings are open to all experience levels, from total novices to expert Rubyists.

Current agenda:

"Actually Invented Here - Avoiding Gemfile bloat in pursuit of cleaner software" by Flip Sasser

Let’s throw out commonly accepted wisdom for 40 minutes and talk about reinventing the wheel, even if ten other people have invented it for you.

This talk will take us to an alternate universe wherein adding a line to your Gemfile may not necessarily be the quickest way to productivity, but rather the quickest way to dependency headaches, slow software, and half-solved problems.

We’ll explore alternatives to using pre-packaged libraries, discuss strategies for doing it well and when to declare defeat, and compare results for systems that follow the status quo and those that follow their own road. Because who’s to say your wheel is wrong, just because someone else put theirs online? "Developing an API for Your Application" by Sushant Mohanty and Matt Scilipoti

You got your shiny Rails web application live!! Now your partners want to interface to your app using a web service API. Or you decide to develop a Mobile app that needs API access to your backend. We will present our experience of developing a REST API. Discussions will include RESTful API design strategies, authentication, security, versioning, testing, and deployment considerations. We now meet monthly at Logik's new headquaters, now located at 1400 I (Eye) Street NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005. The closest Metro stop is McPherson Square. If you're downstairs and need someone to let you into the building or the elevator, please give me a call at 202-374-7303 or tweet me at @naffis.

We always need presenters, so if you have a topic or project on which you'd like to do a 30-minute presentation on anything Ruby-related, Rails-related or possibly of interest to Ruby developers, please contact our organizers info@dcrug.org and we'll schedule you to speak. If you have presented before, you are welcome to give a presentation on a new topic. This is a great chance for some of you guys and gals lingering in the back of the room to share some of the cool things you are working on. Don't be shy -- you're among fellow geeks. :)

As always, we'll have an ample supply of free pizza and soda for all attendees, so don't worry about eating dinner beforehand.

And we'll be heading to a nearby bar after the meeting, to unwind and socialize with fellow techies.