Rails Custom Middleware not being recognized in GH CI: A Step-by-Step Guide to Resolve the Issue

Are you frustrated with your custom middleware not being recognized in GitHub CI (Continuous Integration)? You’re not alone! Many Rails developers have faced this issue, and in this article, we’ll walk you through a comprehensive solution to resolve it. But before we dive in, let’s understand the importance of custom middleware and GH CI.

Why Custom Middleware Matters

In Rails, middleware plays a crucial role in filtering requests and responses. Custom middleware allows you to write your own logic to handle specific tasks, such as authentication, rate limiting, or logging. With custom middleware, you can extend the functionality of your Rails application and make it more robust.

The Importance of GH CI

Continuous Integration (CI) is an essential practice in software development that ensures your code changes are tested and verified automatically. GitHub CI is a popular CI tool that integrates seamlessly with your GitHub repository. By using GH CI, you can automate testing, deployment, and monitoring of your Rails application.

The Problem: Custom Middleware not being recognized in GH CI

When you write custom middleware in your Rails application, you expect it to be executed in your GH CI pipeline. However, sometimes, the custom middleware doesn’t get recognized, causing your pipeline to fail. This issue can be frustrating, especially if you’re new to GH CI or custom middleware.

Understanding the Issue

Before we dive into the solution, let’s understand why custom middleware might not be recognized in GH CI. There are a few reasons for this issue:

• config.middleware not being loaded in the GH CI environment
• Incorrect configuration of the GH CI pipeline
• Middleware not being registered correctly in the Rails application

Step-by-Step Solution

Now that we understand the issue, let’s walk through a step-by-step solution to resolve it:

Step 1: Verify Custom Middleware Registration

First, ensure that your custom middleware is registered correctly in your Rails application. Open your application.rb file and check if your middleware is listed in the config.middleware array:

module MyApp
  class Application < Rails::Application
    # ...
    config.middleware.use MyCustomMiddleware
  end
end

Make sure the middleware is registered correctly and the class name matches the file name and path.

Step 2: Check GH CI Pipeline Configuration

Next, review your GH CI pipeline configuration file (.github/workflows/ci.yml). Ensure that the pipeline is configured to load the Rails environment and execute the middleware:

name: CI

on: [push]

jobs:
  ci:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: bundle install
      - name: Run Rails environment
        run: rails c
      - name: Execute middleware
        run: rails middleware

In this example, the pipeline checks out the code, installs dependencies, loads the Rails environment, and executes the middleware.

Step 3: Load config.middleware in GH CI Environment

To ensure that the config.middleware array is loaded in the GH CI environment, add the following code to your ci.yml file:

- name: Load middleware
  run: |
    rails c <

class MyCustomMiddleware
  def call(env)
    Rails.logger.info "MyCustomMiddleware executed!"
    # ...
  end
end

- name: Verify middleware execution
  run: |
    rails c <