Ruby on Rails
TAKScopes update
Just rolled out an update to TAKScopes, a Rails site I built for Rice University.
The site now allows for automatic guest login to view sample of the resources available, so you can browse a little more of the site without a paid account. You still can’t see the admin interfaces, which is probably the [...]
Tech refresh for the company site
With time that would probably have been better invested in actually improving the content of the site, I instead re-deployed my Agile Tortoise company website, in a far more buzzword compliant fashion. That’s right, rather than running on Rails 1.1.6, behind FastCGI on Apache 1.3 on a shared host with code in Subversion and [...]
Chronic “smart” date update
b.logi.cx posted an elegant and more complete solution to incorporating Chronic date fields in your ActiveRecord models. my version was certainly hack-ish.
I started on a simple helper plugin to use for AJAX previews of chronic’s parsing. Hopefully I’ll have something release on that before too long.
Rails and Chronic, easy ’smart’ date fields
There are quite a few Ruby on Rails plugins to give you nice Calendar drop downs for date selection...but, I'm much more partial to the style of fuzzy date entry you see in a lot of apps now, allowing you to enter common strings and have the app figure out the date -- ie, "next [...]
TextMate syntax coloring and Rails 2.0
Now that the Ruby on Rails 2.0 Preview Release is out, I'm playing around with it. First thing I noticed, while minor, is that TextMate's syntax coloring for "HTML (Rails)" doesn't recognize the new view naming scheme. "rhtml" is now replaced by "html.erb" as the file extension.
It's a simple fix, however. Just [...]
Haml
Haml looks like a nice alternative to ERb for Rails template coding. I get tired of writing out ERb, but don't quite love Markaby either.
Lone Star RubyConf
I just registered for Lone Star RubyConf in September. Not quite the spectacular that RailsConf was, but I bet it will be a good focused 2 days of learning and networking. Plus, I can crash at Sean's.
RailsBrain
Aaaaah, a kinder, gentler way to browse the Rails API docs.
TAKScopes
Though a few details are still being worked out, the latest Ruby on Rails project I've been working on has been launched. Called TAKScopes, the site is a teaching resource site for primary level educators in Texas -- created by the Science Science and Technology Department at Rice University.
Unfortunately, from a personal point of [...]
Rails: flatten your content model with single-table inheritance and alias_attribute
I'm currently working on a Ruby on Rails app with a very deep content model. There are many different "same-but-different" types of content to be managed. The "same" parts are roughly similar structure, like simple list items. The "different" parts are usually more meta-data oriented, such as different field labels.
I didn't want [...]
Rails: model == file
If you're thinking about saving yourself a few files by placing a couple of model classes in the same file in your Rails app, think again. It seems that Rails load structure (at least in recent versions) will puke on that setup.
I was using Single Table Inheritance, and it seems a good idea -- [...]
Rails: content_tag block fix
Currently (as of 1.2.2), Ruby on Rails useful content_tag method fails if you try to pass a block to it in code. The following syntax works in a view template:
PLAIN TEXT
RUBY:
<% content_for('div') do %>
this is the <b>div content</b>.
<% end %>
But, if you try to do the equivalent in ruby code (like in a [...]
Dallas.rb, now with Dave Thomas!
The March Dallas.rb meeting will feature the Dave Thomas speaking on Metaprogramming in Ruby. Dave literally wrote the book on Ruby, and also Rails. He's also an excellent speaker.
The Dallas.rb crew has worked out special digs for this meeting, with refreshments, etc, so if you're in the DFW area and have [...]
Django vs. Rails
I posted some comments RE: Django over at Jim's blog. I was planning to post some comments here, but the timing of his post prompted me.
New Rails project
Well, after using it for personal applications, skunk works projects that I haven't had time to actually launch, and my consulting site -- I just got the go ahead on my first professional Ruby on Rails project!
I'm really excited about it because it's also a first co-venture with Jamie, a good friend and awesome designer. [...]