Excerpt
When working on a new feature that’s not quite ready for production, it’s helpful to hide it without introducing a bunch of complexity or new dependencies.
Here’s a tiny helper we’ve been using that lets us keep in-progress UI elements visible in development, but safely hidden in production:
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# app/helpers/application_helper.rb
module ApplicationHelper
def under_construction
if Rails.env.development?
yield
end
end
end
That’s it.
Now in your views, you can wrap anything that’s still baking:
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<% under_construction do %>
<div class="dev-banner">
🚧 This feature is under construction
</div>
<% end %>
In development, the block gets rendered. In production, it silently disappears.
It’s clean, predictable, and keeps you from accidentally shipping half-done features. No feature flags, no YAML configs, no extra gems. Just a simple guardrail.
We’ve also found it handy for revealing admin-only tools, toggling unfinished form fields, or just leavi
When working on a new feature that’s not quite ready for production, it’s helpful to hide it without introducing a bunch of complexity or new dependencies.
Here’s a tiny helper we’ve been using that lets us keep in-progress UI elements visible in development, but safely hidden in production:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
# app/helpers/application_helper.rb
module ApplicationHelper
def under_construction
if Rails.env.development?
yield
end
end
end
That’s it.
Now in your views, you can wrap anything that’s still baking:
1
2
3
4
5
<% under_construction do %>
<div class="dev-banner">
🚧 This feature is under construction
</div>
<% end %>
In development, the block gets rendered. In production, it silently disappears.
It’s clean, predictable, and keeps you from accidentally shipping half-done features. No feature flags, no YAML configs, no extra gems. Just a simple guardrail.
We’ve also found it handy for revealing admin-only tools, toggling unfinished form fields, or just leaving little reminders like:
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<% under_construction do %>
<p class="note">TODO: Hook up API integration</p>
<% end %>
This isn’t a replacement for a full-blown feature flag system, but for early development work, it’s a useful utility that helps keep unfinished code out of production, without overcomplicating things.