Rails3 and Datamapper quick start May 21st, 2010
Rails3 is almost released and I decided to try it out with Datamapper to see how things work. Things work AWESOME!
Here's a rundown of the steps I used:
gem update --system # you need rubygems >= 1.3.6
git clone http://github.com/rails/rails.git
cd rails
rake install
cd ..
rails my_dm_rails3_app -m http://github.com/jeremyd/rails-templates/raw/master/dm_rails_master.rb
cd my_dm_rails3_app
bundle install
acts_as_serializable March 15th, 2008
You heard it here first folks. Acts_as_serializable is making it's public debut today! Yes it may be horrifically stuck in a brain twister of recursion that could bring your server to it's knees when used improperly, AND THAT'S why I feel it is finally READY.
Are YOU ready? Here we go:
script/plugin install http://svn.rubyonlinux.org/acts_as_serializable/trunk
Haha, I know no one is even reading this. That's ok because I need someone to help me finish coding it first :) It's really coming along though! Even as I'm writing this, I would describe it to you but instead I'm going to work on the documentation and tests.
...
OK, I think the way I was approaching it was too crazy. I think this serializable thing is better suited to be some kind of helper like the TestFactory. Mocks etc should be used to stub out required relationships. Building a generic solution is way less effective than teaching how to export your data serialized in yaml form (custom).
Example:
..coming soon
If what you see in the SVN interests you, drop me a comment.
Textmate style rails plugins for VIM. October 11th, 2007
"Textmate is cool, but VI is forever"
Here's how to get some textmate like potential out of VIM using plugins.
I have the following plugins installed: project.vim, genutils.vim, rails.vim, multvals.vim, rubycomplete.vim and surround.vim.
non-insert mode
| what to type | what it does |
| :help surround | shows help for the surround plugin |
| yss= | surrounds the current line with <%= %> |
| yss CTRL-E | turns the current line into a block <% -%>newline char<% end -%> |
| yss- | surrounds the current line with <% -%> |
| CTRL-X CTRL-O | brings up the OMNI complete window for the current object/method |
| ysse | creates an ending for the current block. ie: an 'end' or closing brace |
| CTRL-G e | creates an ending for the current block. use in insert mode |
| what to type | what it does |
| :help surround | shows help for the surround plugin |
| CTRL-G = | surrounds the current line with <%= %> |
| CTRL-G CTRL-E | turns the current line into a block <% -%>newline char<% end -%> |
| CTRL-G - | surrounds the current line with <% -%> |
| CTRL-X CTRL-O | brings up the OMNI complete window for the current object/method |
| CTRL-G e | puts an 'end' on the next line |
Generating KML / XML on the fly in Ruby on Rails June 7th, 2007
KML can now be used both in Google Maps and Google Earth.
I wrote a simple KML generator using Builder and Rails.
I also used an RSS parser to read geographic coords from an RSS feed which is in use now at Baleen.org, but that is a code story for another day..
I wanted to post some code snips from the project, cause it's cool.
The view "kml.rxml"
xml = Builder::XmlMarkup.new(:indent => 2)
xml.instruct! :xml
xml.kml( "kmlns" => "http://earth.google.com/kml/2.1" ) do
xml.Document {
xml.name("someplaces")
xml.description("someplaces.org locator")
xml.Style( "id" => "highlight" ) {
xml.IconStyle {
xml.Icon {
xml.href("http://URL to transparent 32x32 png image.png")
}
}
}
Place.find_all.each do |p|
xml.Place {
xml.name(p.tooltip)
xml.description {
x=p.popup.dup
xml.cdata!("#{x.slice!(1..250)}<br><a href=#{p.ext_url}>..Read more</a>")
}
xml.styleUrl("#highlight")
xml.Point {
xml.coordinates("#{p.x},#{p.y},4")
}
}
end
}
enddef kml
render_without_layout
@headers["Content-Type"] = "application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml kml; charset=utf-8"
@headers["Content-Disposition"] = "attachment; filename=someplaces.kml"
endclass CreatePlaces < ActiveRecord::Migration
def self.up
create_table :places do |t|
t.column :x, :string
t.column :y, :string
t.column :ext_url, :string
t.column :tooltip, :string
t.column :popup, :text
end
end
def self.down
drop_table :places
end
endmap.connect '/someplaces.kml', :controller => 'places', :action => 'kml'Bonus Code !! Example Javascript for Google Maps API that loads up KML from an URL.
var geoXml = new GGeoXml("http://URL to someplaces.kml");
function load() {
if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map"));
map.setCenter(new GLatLng(37.12755479789267,-112.7487179140864),3);
map.setMapType(new GMapType([G_SATELLITE_MAP.getTileLayers()[0]], G_NORMAL_MAP.getProjection(), "test", {}));
map.addOverlay(geoXml);
map.addControl(new GSmallMapControl());
map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl());
}
}<script src="http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2.x&key=YOURKEY>Leave a comment if this tutorial helped you. Thanks!
Using DRb and ruby to control mplayer and record/playback HDTV. March 14th, 2007
I wanted HDTV broadcast in Ubuntu, so I bought a PC-HDTV 5500 tuner. It needs a 2.6.18 or higher kernel to work.
I’ve been working on some scripts to control my TV. So far I have a rudimentary server and client along with a HDTV record script that uses a direct copy from the device using the linux tool ‘cat’. My system @kernel 2.6.19 had a bug which causes cat to overflow.. So there is error detection and resume recording after a crash.
I’ll be using linux CRON to schedule recordings.
It is a work in progress.
Here is the SVN repository:
http://svn.rubyonlinux.org/mplayerctl/
I used Kazuki Takemura’s code to control mplayer, and extended it to use DRb connections.
Go ahead and comment if you are interested in helping with the project. I want it to become a simpler MythTV style thing eventually.. SIMPLER is better.
New commits, March 2008. Rudimentary recording and scheduling via cron are now possible. Need to improve the actual mplayer part now but it’s working so that’s great.