Africa Ruby Community (ARC) Platform

Introduction

The Africa Ruby Community (ARC) Platform is a project aimed at creating a hub for Ruby language enthusiasts in Africa. This platform facilitates connection, knowledge sharing, collaboration on projects, and staying updated with the latest Ruby community developments. Whether you're a seasoned developer or a beginner, this platform offers tailored resources for different countries and cities, merchandise, meetup information, and details about online workshops and webinars.

Project Design: ARC Platform Design
Database Design: ARC Database Design

Note: This project is open source, and contributions are encouraged.

Application Setup

To follow along, watch this youtube tutorial on how to set up the application step by step on WSL.

Step 1: Install Prerequisites

Installing ASDF

ASDF is a tool capable of managing all runtimes locally. Follow the instructions for installation, especially for Windows WSL users.

Install dependencies for compiling Ruby:

macOS: Install Homebrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Ubuntu/ Windows WSL

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git-core zlib1g-dev build-essential libssl-dev libreadline-dev libyaml-dev libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev software-properties-common libffi-dev

Installing ASDF version manager

cd
git clone https://github.com/excid3/asdf.git ~/.asdf
echo '. "$HOME/.asdf/asdf.sh"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo '. "$HOME/.asdf/completions/asdf.bash"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'legacy_version_file = yes' >> ~/.asdfrc
exec $SHELL

Installing Ruby via ASDF

Install ASDF plugins.

asdf plugin add ruby
asdf plugin add nodejs

Install Ruby and set the default version by running the following commands:

asdf install ruby 3.2.2 

# Set the default Ruby version
asdf global ruby 3.2.2 

# Update to the latest Rubygems version
gem update --system

Confirm the default Ruby version matches the version you just installed.

which ruby
#=> /Users/username/.asdf/shims/ruby
ruby -v
#=> 3.2.2

Install Node.js for handling Javascript in our Rails app

asdf install nodejs 20.9.0
asdf global nodejs 20.9.0

which node
#=> /Users/username/.asdf/shims/node
node -v
#=> 20.9.0

# Install yarn for Rails jsbundling/cssbundling or webpacker
npm install -g yarn

To switch to a different Ruby and Node version for a specific project, you can use the following command to set the Ruby or Node version for that project. You should be in the project directory.

asdf local ruby <ruby version>  # eg 3.0.2
asdf local nodejs <nodejs version> # eg 20.9.0

Step 2: Create a Fork & Branch

Create a fork of this repository from the main branch.
Select an issue to work on from the main repository.
Create a branch named after the selected issue from the main branch.

Note: Keep your fork in sync with the main repository, and make all changes on this branch.

Step 3: Clone & Install Dependencies

$ git clone <link to your forked repo>
$ cd <path to your cloned repo>
$ bundle install

Step 4: Setup the Database

$ rails db:create
$ rails db:migrate

Step 4: Install Yarn Dependencies

$ yarn install

Step 5: Start Server

$ ./bin/dev

Step 6: Creating a Pull Request

Make changes locally on your branch.
Push your changes to your branch on GitHub.
Create a pull request to the main branch of the main repository.

Step 7: Merging

Once your changes are reviewed, they will be merged into the main branch.

Contributing

Thank you for considering contributing to the Africa Ruby Community (ARC) Platform! We welcome contributions from developers of all experience levels.

Finding Issues to Work On

We label our issues to help contributors find ones that match their skills and experience level. Here are some labels you might find helpful:

Difficulty Level	Description	Label
Easy/ Beginner/ Novice	Issues for first-time contributors
Very Easy	Simple issues for quick fixes
Average/ Normal/ Medium/ Standard/ Intermediate	Issues requiring understanding of the codebase
Hard/ Expert/ Difficult	Issues needing significant time and effort
Harder	Very challenging issues requiring advanced knowledge