Flicki

Flicki (“the movie wiki”) is a wiki application for publicly creating and updating basic movie information. The concept of this application probably isn’t very useful, but the purpose of this project is to practice my Rails skills, particularly as they relate to offering premium content and charging for it using a Stripe integration. This web app also marks my first use of the Devise gem for managing user data, as well as the Redcarpet gem for parsing markdown.

Requirements

I set out to build a wiki app that can be edited by any logged in user and that allows users the option to upgrade to private wikis with a Stripe payment.

One of my favorite gems is Devise, which manages user capabilities expertly. As complex as Devise is, it’s very simple to use. After adding the Devise gem to the Gemfile and installing it, run `rails g devise:install` to add it to the application. Here’s what the `User` model looks like:

class User < ApplicationRecord
  # Include default devise modules. Others available are:
  # :confirmable, :lockable, :timeoutable and :omniauthable
  devise :database_authenticatable, :registerable,
         :recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable
end

Stripe

Flicki uses Stripe to accept payments and upgrade users to premium accounts. I was impressed with the simplicity of connecting to Stripe for secure payments. Inside the `ChargesController`, a customer and a charge get created with each transaction, followed by `current_user.premium!` to upgrade the user to premium.

class ChargesController < ApplicationController
  before_action :amount

  def new
    @stripe_btn_data = {
      key: "#{ Rails.configuration.stripe[:publishable_key] }",
      description: "Flicki Membership - #{current_user.first_name} #{current_user.last_name}",
        amount: @amount
    }
  end

  def create
    customer = Stripe::Customer.create(
      email: current_user.email,
      card: params[:stripeToken]
  )

  charge = Stripe::Charge.create(
    customer: customer.id,
    amount: @amount,
    description: "Flicki Membership - #{current_user.email}",
    currency: 'usd'
  )

  current_user.premium!
  flash[:notice] = "Thanks for all the money, #{current_user.email}! Feel free to pay me again."
  redirect_to edit_user_registration_path(current_user)
     
  rescue Stripe::CardError => e
    flash[:alert] = e.message
    redirect_to new_charge_path
  end

  private

  def amount
    @amount = 1500
  end
end

The user is then redirected to their account page where they can see their account status and opt to downgrade from premium.

Redcarpet

Redcarpet manages markdown in Rails apps, so Flicki employs it. The meat of this gem is found in the `ApplicationHelper`, where options and extensions can be customized to fit the application’s needs.

module ApplicationHelper
  def markdown(text)
    options = {
      filter_html: true,
      hard_wrap: true,
      safe_links_only: true,
      link_attributes: { rel: 'nofollow', target: "_blank" },
      no_images: true
    }

    extensions = {
      autolink: true,
      superscript: true,
      disable_indented_code_blocks: true,
      tables: true,
      footnotes: true
    }

    renderer = Redcarpet::Render::HTML.new(options)
    markdown = Redcarpet::Markdown.new(Redcarpet::Render::HTML, extensions)

    markdown.render(text).html_safe
  end
end

Conclusion

Flicki was fun to develop. Not only do I love the simplicity and ease of using Ruby [on Rails], but resources like the Devise and Redcarpet gems and the Stripe API make building incredible web apps quick, easy, and intuitive.