This is a redprint ("a blueprint from Mars") of a CFP ("call for proposals") management app for built with Ruby on Rails, Inertia.js, TailwindCSS and React.
Built for SF Ruby Conference, open to everyone!
Tip
📖 Read the Redprints CFP introduction post at Evil Martians Chronicles
- Ruby 3.4+
Install dependencies:
bin/setupRun a web server along with the Vite dev server:
bin/devGo to localhost:3000 and check it out!
We use RSpec to write tests. You can run them with:
bundle exec rspecNote that system tests are excluded by default. You can run them as follows:
bundle exec rspec spec/system
# or
bundle exec rspec --tag type:systemIn development, use a corresponding record from db/seeds.rb or log in via Google or GitHub. If you need admin access, use admin: true, or login as a developer using the following email: [email protected].
You can access our Avo admin console at: localhost:3000/admin.
NOTE: You must have admin: true in your user record to access the admin console. Feel free to update it from the Rails console.
We use Lookbook to work with UI (development, previews). All the code related to previews is stored under the lookbook/ folder. The lookbook itself is available at: localhost:3000/dev/lookbook.
We use letter_opener_web to delivery and view emails in development. You can access the inbox at localhost:3000/dev/letters.
Check out a demo PR that shows which changes are required to create an SF Ruby CFP app from this template: PR#1.
We use OAuth via omniauth to authenticate users. By default, GitHub and Google plugins are added and activated if the corresponding credentials are configured.
For GitHub, see the omniauth-github documentation. Put the credentials in the Rails credentials file as follows:
github:
oauth_key: <key>
oauth_secret: <secret>For Google, see the omniauth-google-oauth2 documentation. Put the credentials in the Rails credentials file as follows:
google:
client_id: <client-id>
client_secret: <secret>If you omit credentials for any of the default providers, they won't be activated (and available to users). Thus, it's not necessary to configure both.
In development and tests, the "Sign in as developer" option is available.
The default SMTP configuration for mailers is stored in the config/smtp.yml file (we use Mandrill by default). SMTP authentication credentials must be stored in the Rails credentials file as follows:
smtp:
username: <username>
password: <password>Default mailer parameters (From, Reply-To) are defined in the config/mailer.yml file.
You can configure Slack notifications to notify about proposal submissions. For that, add a webhook URL to the credentials as follows:
app:
slack_notifications_url: https://hooks.slack.com/services/...We use SQLite3 as a database and provide the Litestream configuration for creating backups. All you need is to provide your S3 bucket access information in the credentials:
litestream_rails:
bucket: <bucket-name>
access_key_id: <access-key-id>
secret_access_key: <secret-access-key>Tip
We use Anyway Config for configuration management, so you can also use env variables for providing secrets, not necessary Rails credentials.
This app is meant to be used for a single event and by default has a single ("primary") CFP configured in a YAML file (config/data/cfps.yml):
- id: primary
tracks:
general: "General"
oss: "Open Source Tooling"
scale: "Scaling with Ruby and Rails"
deadline: "2026-06-14T00:00:00-07:00"The app supports handling different submission types (i.e., different forms). For example, if you want to have a separate form for workshops and lightning talks (with different verbiage), you can add another CFP configuration:
- id: primary
# ...
- id: workshops
tracks:
workshop: ""
deadline: "2026-06-14T00:00:00-07:00"
field_names:
header: "Submit Your Workshop"
- id: lts
tracks:
lt: ""
deadline: "2026-10-14T00:00:00-07:00"
field_names:
header: "Submit Your Lightning Talk"
description: >
Share your quick insights and lightning-fast ideas with the Ruby community!
talk_header: "Lightning Talk Information"
title: "Title"
title_description: ""
abstract: "What will you talk about?"
abstract_description: "Give us a brief overview of your lightning talk topic"
details: "Talk Details"
details_description: "Tell us more about what you'll cover in your 5-minute presentation. What key points will you share with the audience?"
details_notice: "Remember, lightning talks are typically 5 minutes long with no Q&A."
pitch: "Why is this relevant to the Ruby community?"
pitch_description: ""The field_names mapping allows you to customize the form field labels.
The review process is managed by the Evaluation object. There can be multiple evaluations (distinct by tracks or reviewers).
You can create a new evaluation in Avo. Here are some settings explained:
-
tracks: you can select the tracks to only include submitted proposals matching these tracks. This way, for example, you can configure different reviewers for different tracks. -
criteria: list of the evaluation criteria (any words), e.g., "Novelty", "Relevance", etc. These will translate into "stars" inputs in the review form. -
blind: whether the review process is blind or not (showing speaker details or not). -
personal: personal evaluations do not update the proposal scores; you can use them as readonly evaluations (e.g., if you want to share the proposals with non-reviewers). -
deadline: defines the final date when reviews could be submitted by the reviewers (and the final results become available to them).
After creating the evaluation configuration, add reviewers (users with the role "reviewer") and trigger the "Prepare review sheets" action (all in Avo)—that would populate pending reviews for the reviewers. You MUST trigger "Prepare review sheets" every time you add a reviewer or a proposal to review (the action is assumed to be idempotent).
The default proposals distribution among reviewers logic is "everyone must review everything". You can tweak it by updating the Evaluation::Distribution model (app/models/evaluation/distribution.rb).
Go to app/frontend/styles/theme.css to change the colors and the default font family. For example, SF Ruby CFP app configuration is as follows:
@theme {
--font-display: 'Martian Grotesk', 'sans-serif';
/* https://oklch.com/#0.65,0.25,25,100 */
--clr-primary-chroma: 0.25;
--clr-primary-hue: 25;
/* https://oklch.com/#0.65,0.17,250,100 */
--clr-secondary-chroma: 0.17;
--clr-secondary-hue: 250;
}Add your logo by updating the frontend/components/Logo.tsx component. That's it!
You may want to add your conference name and various links to some Inertia pages and components as well as mailer templates—just do that! The React UI is not meant to be magically configurable, tune it up to your needs (but prefer to stick to the page props, so you don't need to touch the backend).
Tip
Search for the FIXME: ... and EXAMPLE Conference comments in the codebase to see the bits to be updated with your information.
Go to config/initializers/avo.rb and update the corresponding configuration. See Avo docs.
There is a production Dockerfile and an example Fly.io configuration is included in the template. Change the app value in the fly.toml file (and, optionally, the primary_region) and run the fly deploy command to bring your app to live!
