My Ruby Gems

I finally had a moment to come up for air and move all my gems to Ruby Gems. Woot! You can read more about them here:

• Resourcer 0.1.0
• Commenter 0.1.0
• Number to Function 1.0.2
• Enhanced Select 1.0.1

I’ll post more news as I update these gems further (especially the Resourcer gem as there are some cool Rails 3.0 upgrades I have yet to make to this gem).

Tags: Ruby, Ruby on Rails

Gearing up for Rails 3.0

As full release of Ruby on Rails 3.0 draws near, I find myself collecting news, articles, and preparing myself for the transition. Here is what I’ve been reading so far:

• Reading material.
• Introduction.
• Approaching the upgrade.
• Getting up to speed.
• Upgrading to Rails 3.
• Automating a portion of the Rails 3 upgrade process with the rails-upgrade gem.
• Revamped Routes.
• Render Options.
• Active Record Query Interface.
• Understanding the ActionMailer API.
• Generic Actions.
• The Rails Module.
• Discovering Rails 3 generators.
• Validations.
• I18n changes.
• Signed and Permanent cookies.
• Creating new apps with the Rails 3 beta.
• Gem and Plugin Compatibility Checker.

I’m sure I’ll collect more as time rolls on. BTW, you can find these links and more on my Ruby page where I continue to capture useful Ruby information.

Tags: Ruby on Rails

Favorite Ruby Feeds

Over a year ago, I write a post about my favorite Ruby feeds. I’ve since deleted that post in order to write about an updated set of Ruby feeds that you should be paying attention to (if not already). I read all of these feeds religiously on a daily basis and have broken them down below by general news and information followed by screencasts/tutorials. Enjoy.

News

• A Fresh Cup - My personal favorite. While you can find similar news via the links below, Mike Gunderloy does an excellent job of summing everything up in place for news, information, and new gems from the Ruby community.
• Ruby Toolbox - A great trending site for finding out what gems are hot and most popular within the Ruby community. This can save you a lot of time when you want to know which gem is the best solution for a problem that has already been solved.
• Ruby Trends - Another trending site. Useful for cross-checking against Ruby Toolbox on what is hot.
• Ruby News - Straight from the source. Find about new releases, conferences, developments, etc.
• Ruby Inside - The inside scoop on Ruby news.
• RubyFlow - A great site for picking up new resources to add to your development repertoire.
• RubyFu - Useful quick news and resource links.
• Ruby Best Practices - A great source of thoughtful discussion, including code samples, on how to write better code.
• Ruby5 - From some of the same guys who provide the Rails Envy podcast below. This is another podcast on Ruby news but in short, 5-minute, segments of usually discussing many of the new and interesting gems being developed.
• Rails Inside - Get the inside scoop on Rails news.
• Riding Rails - Learn what is happening with the Ruby on Rails team.
• Rails Spikes - A multi-authored site of Ruby developers discussing news, tips, code, etc.
• Rails Illustrated - Info on Rails, web design, and the user experience.
• Rails Notes - Another site worth checking out and picking up new learning.
• Rails Tips - As the site description goes: “One man, feverishly posting everything he learns.”
• The Rails Way - News and information dedicated to teaching best practices of Ruby on Rails.
• Ruby on Rails Security Project - A good place to read up on security issues or at least keep your mind in it.
• Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots - Good development tips and tricks, mostly related to Rails.
• Ryan’s Scraps - Interesting news on what’s new and upcoming within the Rails code base. Includes code samples and detailed descriptions and examples of new Rails features.
• Has Many Through - Although he has a low writing frequency, the posts are enlightening.
• Rails Envy - An entertaining and informative weekly podcast dedicated to Ruby, Rails, and web framework news.
• Rails Podcasts - Ruby/Rails podcasts by Geoffrey Grosenbach of PeepCode fame.
• Rails Magazine - News, articles, and information about the Ruby on Rails framework.

Tutorials

• Railscasts - Short screen cast tutorials of Ruby on Rails code.
• Envy Casts - Produced by the same guys that host the Rails Envy podcasts. Each screen cast tutorial will set you back about $9.
• PeepCode - Screencast tutorials like Railscasts but longer in length and not free (roughly $9 per episode).
• Tekniqal - A collection of screencasts that cover some of the Ruby basics.
• Scaling Rails - A series of screencasts on detailing how to scale your Ruby on Rails application appropriately. Produced by Gregg Pollack of Envy Cast fame.
• BDD Casts - Video tutorials on all things related to Behavior Driven Development.

BTW, you can find this list and more on my Ruby page.

Tags: Ruby, Ruby on Rails

Rails Setup Template 1.0.0

I have released a new Ruby on Rails template project called: Rails Setup Template. In truth, this is a renaming of the original Rails Setup project. I am planning on releasing other template projects in the future so this was cause for a little refactoring of my GitHub projects.

In addition to the original code, there are a few extra goodies including the use of the BlockUI JavaScript library for easily dealing with lengthy AJAX processes and some bug fixes. Check out the template when you have a chance, it’ll definitely make building your new Ruby on Rails projects easier. It is what I use for all new work and quick demos.

Tags: Ruby on Rails

jQuery on Rails Talk

For those in the Colorado Springs area, I’ll be giving a talk tomorrow at Panera Bread for the Not Just Ruby (NJR) group on the merits of jQuery as your JavaScript framework of choice when building Ruby on Rails apps. The talk is both an intro to jQuery (in some sense) as well as how to make jQuery easy to use after I have weened you off of the out-of-the-box Rails helpers. You’ll learn to write unobtrusive JavaScript code, support graceful degradation, not open yourself up to security holes, and more.

For those of you who would like to get a jumpstart on the talk, here are the files I’ll be using for the talk:

• OmniOutliner Outline (4KB)
• Ruby on Rails Demo App (1.5MB)

In the strange event that you are not able to install the necessary gems needed to run the Ruby on Rails demo provided above, then you can goof around with the live version here if you like. I know the demo doesn’t look like much but its what is happening under the covers that will be of interest.

See you at the meeting tomorrow!

Tags: jQuery, Ruby, Ruby on Rails