How this project works
Junction Commons is the Rails remake of Westloop: a neighborhood social network with accounts, profiles, follows, likes, comments, a following timeline, search, notices, and a real Ubuntu VPS deploy. Each numbered folder in fcc-rails-social is a working snapshot.
The stack, and why these tools
| Job | Choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Language / framework | Ruby, Rails 7.1 | Rails invented this shape of app. Active Record associations (`has_many :following, through: :follows`) are the graph. Hotwire updates likes the way HTMX does in Westloop. |
| Database | PostgreSQL | Follows, likes, and comments need foreign keys and unique pairs. SQLite is only for the first laptop boot. |
| CSS | Tailwind CSS | Feeds, avatars, and a sticky nav are layout-heavy. Utilities stay in the templates you already edit. |
| JavaScript | Hotwire (Turbo + Stimulus) | Turbo frames/streams replace HTMX. Stimulus replaces Alpine for the menu. Do not add React. |
| Authentication | has_secure_password + session cookies | has_secure_password and a session id. authenticate before writes. Current.user in a before_action. |
| Process / proxy | Puma + systemd, Nginx, Let’s Encrypt | Same VPS shape as Westloop: one app process, Postgres on localhost, Nginx for TLS and static/media files. |
| Hosting / DNS | Hetzner Cloud CX22 (or Contabo / DigitalOcean), Cloudflare Registrar + DNS | You own the box. PaaS is easier and teaches less. |
| Console locally, Postmark in production | Password reset must leave the laptop. |
If you already finished the Rails blog, keep going — this project adds a social graph and a VPS ship, not another CRUD journal.
Parts in order
Work through the parts in sequence. Each lesson explains the ideas, then points you to a runnable GitHub snapshot.