Upgrading a Large Rails Application from Rails 5.0 to 5.1

We recently collaborated with Procore opens a new window on a Rails upgrade opens a new window for their Rails application which allows teams in the construction industry to connect their entire business process.

We spoke with Andy Maltun, Procore’s VP of Software Engineering, about the work performed to help them upgrade their app to version 5.1. According to Maltun, Procore’s R&D department is large and complex. While Procore opens a new window previously had handled their Rails upgrades internally, with so many teams working on the application, it caused a lot of disruption as each team would handle only part of the upgrade. Therefore, Maltun “wanted to take a different approach this time in an effort to centralize the update and minimize the project management overhead and disruption of teams.”

Initially, Procore opens a new window reached out to OmbuLabs opens a new window to discuss how the teams could work together on this project. At that point, an initial 4-week engagement was discussed with the goal of addressing various issues in Procore’s Rails 5.1 branch. This initial engagement also served the purpose of seeing if the OmbuLabs opens a new window team would be able to easily plug into Procore’s team. According to Maltun “OmbuLabs proved more than up to the challenge in terms of technical ability and being a wonderful partner to collaborate with. They were not only capable but flexible in being open to our existing processes and tooling.”

With the success of the initial engagement, OmbuLabs renewed its partnership with Procore opens a new window and continued to work on Procore’s Rails upgrade project for another 5 weeks. During this time, we helped move the project along and added value by moving Procore’s application closer to the next Rails version while causing minimal disruption to their internal teams and regular operation.

On a final note, Maltun stated that “this project was an unmitigated success” and we hope to be able to work with OmbuLabs again on future Rails upgrades.

For more information about upgrading your Rails application, check out our “Upgrade Rails Series opens a new window ”, a series of do-it-yourself guides to upgrade Rails.

If you’re not on Rails 5.1 yet, or if you are and would like to upgrade to 6.0, we can help! Download our free eBook: The Complete Guide to Upgrade Rails opens a new window .