In this episode of ‘On Rails’, host Robby Russell (@planetargon) chats with Rosa Gutiérrez, Principal Programmer at 37signals, about the technical decisions behind Solid Queue - a database-backed job queue replacing Resque in their Rails apps.
Rosa dives into why her team built Solid Queue, how it improves reliability, visibility, and maintainability, and the challenges of migrating live apps like Hey during active development. Learn how they tackled recurring jobs, long-running tasks, and testing strategies, plus insights on system design, scaling, and the joy of deleting old code.
Topics:
- Why 37signals replaced Resque
- Building a job queue with ActiveJob + MySQL
- Transparent job states & using Mission Control as a dashboard
- Migrating with minimal impact
- Best practices for recurring and long-running jobs
- Recommended tools, testing gems, and dev books
Links:
- Rosa's migration script for scheduled jobs from Resque to Solid Queue
- Acidic Job
- Chaotic Job
- Rosa.codes
- Rosa’s videos on Ruby Events
- Rosa on the 37signals Dev blog
- Rosa on Github
- Rosa on LinkedIn
- Book Recommendation: Refactoring, Second Edition by Martin Fowler
#RubyOnRails #SolidQueue #BackgroundJobs #37signals #OnRailsPodcast
On Rails is a podcast focused on real-world technical decision-making, exploring how teams are scaling, architecting, and solving complex challenges with Rails.
On Rails is brought to you by The Rails Foundation, and hosted by Robby Russell of Planet Argon.