Forecastly is a modern Rails 8 application that provides weather forecasts for US cities. It features a clean, mobile-friendly UI, fast responses via caching, and a modular, object-oriented codebase. The app is currently deployed to: https://forecastly-f42b147e3fc1.herokuapp.com/
- Search for weather by US city/address
- Current and 5-day forecast display
- Turbo Frames for fast, partial page updates
- Solid Cache for robust, database-backed caching
- Mobile-first responsive design (Tailwind CSS)
- Object decomposition for maintainable code
- Ruby 3.4.4+
- Rails 8+
- PostgreSQL
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Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/forecastly.git cd forecastly -
Install dependencies
bundle install
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Set up environment variables Create a .env file (or set in your shell) for any secrets. For weather.gov API, you can set a user agent:
WEATHER_GOV_USER_AGENT="Forecastly, ([email protected])" -
Set up the databases
bin/rails db:create bin/rails db:migrate
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Install and migrate Solid Cache Solid Cache uses a separate database for caching. The default config uses forecastly_cache
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Start the Rails server
bin/dev or rails s Visit http://localhost:3000 in your browser.
- Prepare the test database
bin/rails db:test:prepare bin/rails db:create bin/rails db:migrate
- Run Rspec
rspec
The WeatherFetcher class encapsulates all logic for retrieving and parsing weather data.
- Geocodes the user’s address using Geocoder.
- Fetches weather data from api.weather.gov.
- Parses and structures current and daily forecast data.
- Handles error cases (invalid address, API errors, etc).
- Single Responsibility: All weather-fetching logic is isolated from controllers and views.
- Testability: The class is easily stubbed/mocked in tests.
- Extensibility: If you want to swap APIs or add more data, you only need to update this class.
- Caching: The controller caches the result of
WeatherFetcher#callusing Solid Cache for performance. - Geocoder setup: Geocoder is cached using Rails Solid Cache and it's timeout set for 20 seconds for resilience
- Multi-Database Configuration for Rails 8 on Heroku
- Navigating Rails’ multi-database setup (primary, cache, queue, cable) and aligning it with Heroku’s environment and connection URLs.
- Resolving errors related to missing or misconfigured database roles in production.
- Solid Cache and Solid Queue Integration
- Understanding how to configure and migrate Solid Cache and Solid Queue, especially when using a single database versus multiple databases.
- Heroku deployment issues with Solid Cache and Database configuration related to it. Had to find a way to run all the migrations in a single database and play around with database.yml config files to make sure it works and caches correctly in all 3 environments: dev, test, prod (Heroku).
- Ensuring cache writes/read work correctly in both local and production environments.
- Geocoder Reliability and Error Handling
- Handling edge cases where Geocoder returns empty results or times out, and ensuring the user receives a clear error message instead of a spinner or blank state.
- Configuring Geocoder with proper caching and timeouts for resilience.
- Frontend Responsiveness and UX
- Ensuring the UI provides clear feedback for loading and error states
app/controllers/weather_controller.rb— Handles search and caching logic.app/models/weather_fetcher.rb— Fetches and parses weather data.app/components/forecast_current_component.rb— Renders current weather.app/components/forecast_daily_component.rb— Renders daily forecast.app/views/weather/index.html.erb— Main page and search form.app/views/weather/search.html.erb— Turbo Frame response for search.
- Caching: Uses Solid Cache for production-grade, database-backed caching.
- API Usage: Please set a valid
WEATHER_GOV_USER_AGENTfor responsible API usage. - Testing: Uses RSpec, Capybara, and ViewComponent test helpers.