Powerful datatypes such as hstore and json give PostgreSQL the most compelling feature of many NoSQL databases, which is management of semi structured data. Unfortunately the popular Ruby ORMs try very hard to equalize all databases, so these and other features often go unnoticed or underappreciated.
While there are some Ruby libraries providing application-level bindings for these features, they are generally new or otherwise not well-known. Developers are also often further discouraged by having to sacrifice the benefits of their ORM to use these libraries. Fortunately, the situation is starting to improve.
We will go into detail about what was needed to bring hstore support to Ruby, survey the current PostgreSQL and Ruby landscape, and discuss what needs to happen in the near future to improve their relationship.