Harsha MV

Joined

50 Experience
0 Lessons Completed
0 Questions Solved

Activity

Posted in Coming back to Rails after ~6 years, are the older API-mode tutorials still current?

Hi all. I built quite a bit with Rails up to around 2019-2020, then spent the last few years in the JS/TS world (Node, Next.js). I'm now picking Rails back up for the backend of a new project, API-only, with a separate Next.js frontend.

While looking for up-to-date learning material, I've noticed most of the "Rails API" tutorials and videos I can find are from 2017-2018. So I wanted to ask:

  1. Do those older API-mode tutorials still hold up, or has enough changed (Rails 4/5 → 8) that I'd be learning outdated patterns?
  2. Is the API side of Rails basically stable/mature (so old material is fine), or are there newer conventions I should learn instead, SolidQueue, the built-in auth generator, Kamal, etc.?
  3. Any current resources (2023+) you'd recommend for someone experienced but rusty, who mainly needs to refresh on what's changed rather than learn from scratch?

For context, the stack I'm planning: Rails 8 API + Postgres, Next.js frontend, likely Render or Fly for hosting. Thanks!