Jay McGavren
Treehouse Teacher
Tempe, AZ
I'm the author of Head First Ruby and Head first Go, both published by O'Reilly Media. I've spoken at RubyConf, OSCON, and many other conferences. (I have a knack for explaining things, or so I hear.)
Topics & Specialties
Courses & Workshops I've Taught
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Course
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C# Basics
C# is the most popular programming language in the Microsoft ecosystem of products. C# code is designed to run fast and to be easily maintainable. In C# Basics, we'll learn how to work with C# to write simple programs.
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Course
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Continuous Integration with Jenkins
Jenkins is a continuous integration server. Integration tests take all the code and other components of your application and integrate it together, then test it to ensure it's working properly. Jenkins can watch repos for version control software like Git or Subversion. When there's a new commit, Jenkins will check it out automatically. It will run your tests, and report the result. It can even be configured to automatically deploy your software to production if all the tests pass. This course is going to show you all the basics of using Jenkins.
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Introduction to the Terminal
Apps for ordinary users use GUIs you control with a mouse or touchscreen. But developers know the most powerful way to interact with computers is by using text in the terminal. This course will set you on the path to terminal mastery!
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Git Branches and Merging
This course introduces the concept of branches in Git and shows practical uses for managing both local development and collaborative workflows.
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Algorithms: Sorting and Searching
This course will look at algorithms in two categories: sorting and searching. We'll implement well-known sorting algorithms like selection sort, quicksort, and merge sort. You'll also learn basic search algorithms like sequential search and binary search.
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Intermediate Selenium WebDriver
Manually testing your website can only take you so far. Learn how to use Selenium WebDriver to automate the process for you, and alert you to problems before your users see them.
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Introduction to Git
Git is a version control system - it helps you manage the different versions of your project files, and helps keep your work safe. This course will show you how Git works, and how to upload your projects to GitHub.
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Practice
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Practice Sinatra Basics
Let's practice the basics of creating web apps using Sinatra.
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Practice
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Practice Ruby on Rails Basics
Practice the basics of creating Ruby on Rails applications!
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Course
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Active Record Associations in Rails
Most of your Rails models are going to be connected to other models in some way. An Author has many Articles, and each Article belongs to an Author. A Doctor has many Patients, and a Patient may have many Doctors as well. Rails uses associations to make it easy to track these relationships in your database.
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Ruby Basics
Ruby is a programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity. It has an elegant syntax that is natural to read and easy to write. In Ruby Basics, we'll learn how to work with Ruby and write simple Ruby programs.
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Introduction to Docker
Docker allows any developer of any language to package an app into a container, like a shipping container. Containers include an app and all the other software it depends on, like databases. Containers let your users easily run your website, app, or service on any operating system they want. This course will show you how Docker works, and how it can make it easier to distribute your software!
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Go Language Overview
This overview of the Go programming language is designed for developers who are already familiar with another language. It's a quick tour of the language's core features such as interfaces and goroutines.
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6 minPractice
Practice Ruby Numeric Types
Let's practice some basic Ruby to make sure that everything you've learned so far sticks. We'll review numeric types such as Fixnum and Float, as well as math operations.
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4 minPractice
Practice Ruby Methods
Let's practice some basic Ruby to make sure that everything you've learned so far sticks. We'll review how to define and call Ruby methods.
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3 minPractice
Practice Strings in Ruby
Let's practice some basic Ruby to make sure that everything you've learned so far sticks. We'll review single and double-quoted strings, as well as escape sequences.
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7 minPractice
Practice Input and Output in Ruby
Let's practice some basic Ruby to make sure that everything you've learned so far sticks. We'll review variables, as well as simple input and output.
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Deployment with Capistrano
Deploying a web app to a production server involves steps that you're going to need to repeat every time you release a new version, such as pulling the changes from Git and restarting your web server. Doing it manually may not seem too bad at first, but over time the potential for mistakes adds up. So in this course, we're going to show you how to automate deploys to make them fast, easy, and safe. We'll be using the Ruby community's most popular deployment framework, Capistrano.
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26 minWorkshop
Rails Servers with Unicorn and Nginx
In this workshop, we're going to show you how to set up a "reverse proxy" between your Rails app and the Internet at large. We've going to use a high-performance web server called Nginx as our reverse proxy. Nginx will also serve the static files in our app's "public/" directory, so Rails doesn't have to. We'll also set up Unicorn, an HTTP server that will manage connections to your actual Rails app. Unicorn is good for your site's stability and speed.
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12 minWorkshop
Rails and PostgreSQL in Production
Rails can easily be configured to work with a wide variety of other databases. One of the most popular for production use is PostgreSQL. In this workshop, we're going to cover using Postgres with your Rails app.
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19 minWorkshop
Install Rails in Production
Your production server is the place the public will interact with your app. Before you can deploy any apps there, you're going to need Rails installed on the server. This workshop will show you how.
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25 minWorkshop
App Deployment Accounts
When working on the public server where your users will interact with your app, you need to be careful. If you accidentally alter the wrong setting, service, or file, your app could go down. That's why it's considered best practice for your developer account to have limited access, and to create a separate deployment account with full control over the system. You can use the deployment account to set up your app and deploy new versions, and use your development account for day-to-day maintenance tasks, secure in the knowledge that making a mistake won't break everything.
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18 minWorkshop
Linux Servers on VirtualBox
Today we're going to show you how to set up a Linux server running as a virtual machine on your development system. (If you haven't worked with virtual machines before, think of it as a computer within a computer.) This is a great way to set up a sandbox where you can try out deploying your applications.
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Building Web Apps with Sinatra
Sinatra is the second-most popular web framework written in Ruby (after Rails). It's much simpler than Rails, and it's a great way to try out web development.
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Rails Routes and Resources
You've seen how to create a Rails resource using a scaffold. But scaffolds don't offer flexibility in how a resource is set up. Let's create a resource totally by hand to see how it's put together. Along the way, we'll learn another important component of Rails: routes.
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29 minWorkshop
Troubleshooting a Rails Application
In this workshop, we'll show you how to spot, diagnose, and solve common problems with your Rails applications.
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Ruby on Rails 5 Basics
In this course, we're going to set up a simple blogging app with just a handful of Rails commands. Then, we'll dive into what we've created and help you really understand what's going on. We'll show you how to work with models, views, and controllers to quickly add new features to your app. By the end of this course, you'll be ready to create basic web apps in Rails.
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7 minWorkshop
Installing a Rails 5 Development Environment on Linux
Installing a Rails 5 Development Environment on Linux
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4 minWorkshop
Installing a Rails 5 Development Environment on Mac
How to set up your Mac for Rails 5 development.
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7 minWorkshop
Installing a Rails 5 Development Environment on Windows
Installing a Rails 5 Development Environment on Windows
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