Do not use .all without pagination or a .limit

Be wary of…

…ever using a “raw” .all:

class MoviesController
  def index
    @movies = Movie.all
  end
end

Use…

…either a limit scope or pagination gem.

class MoviesController
  def index
    @movies = Movie.limit(50)
  end
end

# using pagination
class MoviesController
  include Pagy::Backend

  def index
    @movies = pagy(Movie.all, items: 50, page: params[:page])
  end
end

My preferred pagination gem is pagy. It has a relatively small and understandable core, works well across frameworks, and is very performant.

Why?

Lots of coding is an exercise in avoiding situations where you can shoot yourself in the foot. This is one of those times.

Even if the limit is pretty large (50? 100?), having one puts a cap on the outcome of any unexpected situation. At most you’ll only ever load and then render a fixed, known, number of Active Record objects.

Why not?

You might think a quick use of .all will be of little harm, but it may cause a performance issue at some point.

Perhaps you feel in control because you’re dealing with a model that customers cannot create more instances of. Perhaps the relevant view isn’t hit by many customers. It is still worth limiting your potential downside with this defensive technique.