Are you a web application software engineer in the Minneapolis, MN area? Come and join us for two hours on the evening of April 23, 2024 in downtown Minneapolis, to meet, socialize, and learn.

There is limited space, capped at 25, and registration must be in advance. More details below.

• Event link: http://pgrailsbook-workshops.eventbrite.com
• Date: Tuesday, April 23rd, 6PM - 6:30PM
• Location: Industrious, 60 South 6th Street #2800 Minneapolis, MN 55402
• Registration Ends: Sunday, April 21 at 11PM CT

There’s no charge to attend. You’ll need to figure out parking or transportation to the venue. We’ll provide pizza. Bring your laptop and be ready to install software, create databases, and populate data.

This event will be focused more on examples and exercises, supported with some slides to provide context and instructions.

This is intended to be an intermediate level event, so please have PostgreSQL installed in advance, and be prepared to install and operate a Rails app. That said, we can adjust the information based on participant feedback.

Sponsors

Thank you very much to the sponsors of the event space and pizza M-RETS, a Minneapolis company, generously hosting the event within the Industrious coworking and office space in Minneapolis.

I’ve met some engineering team members at M-RETS, working with them and using the product, and they’re all great. They provide a valuable service that supports renewable energy.

M-RETS is building an innovative and efficient path to a decarbonized economy.

• Learn more about M-RETS: https://www.linkedin.com/company/m-rets/
• Learn more about Industrious here: https://www.industriousoffice.com/

Pre-Registration is Required

The venue requires that we provide a list of attendees in advance. For that reason, registration ends on the preceding Sunday, April 21, at 11PM CT! We’ll need your name and email address.

Agenda

• 6 PM - 6:30 PM Reception
• 6:30 - 7:20 PM First half: Query performance
• 7:20 - 7:35 PM Break
• 7:35 - 8:20 PM Second half: Replication, Multi-DB
• 8:30 PM Event ends

Why is this workshop free?

I’d like to offer this workshop for free to get a good real-world runthrough in before delivering it at the RailsConf conference.

I’ve presented on similar content and done team-level training and mob programming sessions before, but the workshop format is not something I have much experience in. I’ll be giving this workshop a couple of weeks following this at the RailsConf conference, possibly to an audience of hundreds, so I’d like to work out some issues in a smaller setting first!

I’ll be looking to learn from you as well, to refine the content, learning goals, and see how long certain sections will take. Please fill out a post-workshop survey I’ll send out.

In exchange for this free workshop, I’d love for engagement, survey feedback, and would really appreciate your support mentioning my book for sale, or my consulting services.

How can you support me?

If you’re able to attend the version at RailsConf, that would be cool! Here are the details:

• Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2024, Detroit, MI

• Site: https://railsconf.org/schedule/

• Conference Hall, Huntington Place
• 1 Washington Boulevard, Detroit, MI 48226
• Conference 140 B-D Wed 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Here’s the description from RailsConf:

In this workshop, you’ll learn to leverage powerful Active Record capabilities to bring your applications to the next level. We’ll start from scratch and focus on two major areas. We’ll work with high performance queries and we’ll configure and use multiple databases.

You’ll learn how to write efficient queries with good visibility from your Active Record code. You’ll use a variety of index types to lower the cost and improve the performance of your queries. You’ll use query planner info with Active Record.

Next we’ll shift gears into multi-database application design. You’ll introduce a second database instance, set up replication between them, and configure Active Record for writer and reader roles. With that in place, you’ll configure automatic role switching.

My Book

If you’d like to support me further, and you either are already interested in these topics, or find that you’re more interested in them after attending the workshop, please consider buying my book from Pragmatic Programmers, called “High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails”.

You can buy the book in ebook form or pre-order it in printed form. Please see my book page for more info, where you can order via Prag Prog, or as a pre-order from big retailers like Amazon, B&N, Target etc.: https://andyatkinson.com/pgrailsbook

I’m also working as an independent consultant with teams that use Rails and PostgreSQL, helping them solve challenges, and improve the efficiency of their database operations.

Referrals are greatly appreciated! Learn more about my consulting services here: https://andyatkinson.com/consulting