Rails Visionaries - Gems/Plugins Top Contributors

The following is a list of the people/companies whom i feel are leading the pack when it comes to the most useful gems and/or plugins. My criteria is that the gem/plugins are almost KEY to any rails app that needs them, and that this person/company has more then ONE key gem/plugin. FYI - I left out DHH, he gets enough accolades. Let's begin

1. Technoweenie github repo - Where would a lot of rails apps be without restful_authentication and attachment_fu, just to start. When you add in Acts_as_paranoid and his work with Mephisto, we owe this dude a big thanks for making components of what we do in rails easier and more efficient.


2. thoughtbot github repo - This company keeps pumping out hit after plugin/gem hit. In the field of testing, they help simplify our testing needs by putting out shoulda and factory girl. In the authentication field, they gave us clearance and paperclip. In the error notification field, they offer hoptoad, (which is rad).


3. mbleigh github repo - Now mbleigh is a dude that should get mad props, and you should get to know his work, if you aren't familiar yet with him. Essential gems/plugins such as subdomain_fu and twitter_auth are just two of his current 24 projects he has on his repo. When you add acts_as_taggable_on and his ubercool uberkit (for easier form and menu creation), you realize how truly original his work is to our community.


4. Phusion github repo - Passenger makes all production app serving easier. Back in the day, it was mongrel that made things easier... things keep evolving. However, i can't see how it could get any easier beyond Passenger, which makes setting up your slice/VPS extremely easy. And from their website they describe the Ruby Enterprise Edition as Transparently improve scalability and efficiency of Ruby on Rails web applications.


5. Shopify github repo - If you handle anything to do with ecommerce you must bow at the generosity of the shopify folks. You have active_merchant, active_fulfillment and active_shipping. easy enough to use, powerful and well thoughtout and maintained.

Honourable Mention

There is no question to the visionary impact that these individuals have made to the rails community and furthering it's progress. In the spirit of this post however, these luminaries have given us fantastic testing apps, while this post was looking at those who have given us more then just one type of gem/plugin.

• aslakhellesoy github repo - Cucumber is making BDD testing easier for everyone. A killer gem that makes learning testing palatable.


• dchelimsky github repo - RSpec. enough said. (I do realize it is a team of core dev's who create this, but for clarity purposes, his name is usually at the forfront of any rspec conversation).


• thinking_sphinx github and acts_as_ferret github - Good search plugins and gems. You are either a Ferret guy or a Sphinx guy.

Well that is the list. Enjoy