What problem does it solve?
Upgrading a Ruby on Rails application from 4.x to 5.x introduces critical breaking changes including mandatory strong parameters, the removal of hash-like params, the introduction of ApplicationRecord, and required belongs_to associations by default. Executing this upgrade without a guided process often leads to production bugs, security vulnerabilities, and missed migration steps for new Rails 5 features like ActiveStorage and encrypted credentials.
Core Features & Use Cases
- Guided Hop Sequence: Enforces the correct 4.2→5.0→5.1→5.2 upgrade path to avoid missing mandatory breaking changes.
- Breaking Change Remediation: Provides explicit patterns for migrating to ApplicationRecord, implementing required strong parameters, and adjusting belongs_to associations for default required behavior.
- Feature Migration: Covers adoption of Rails 5.1 system tests and yarn, plus Rails 5.2 ActiveStorage and encrypted credentials replacement for secrets.yml.
- Use Case: A team maintaining a legacy Rails 4.2 e-commerce platform can use this skill to plan and execute a safe, production-ready upgrade to Rails 5.2 without introducing unpermitted parameter errors or missing critical base class migrations.
Quick Start
Use the rails-upgrade-4-to-5 skill to plan and execute a safe upgrade of your Rails 4.2 application to Rails 5.2, including all required code changes, breaking change fixes, and feature migrations.
