How to add Rails plugin files to SVN during install

use -x flag. Example:

script/plugin install -x http://svn.techno-weenie.net/projects/plugi
ns/restful_authentication/

Recurring Billing in Rails

Research notes:

Dealing with subscriptions payment
Follow-up to subscriptions
Recharging to the Same Credit Card

Sample test case:

def test_reference_purchase
assert response = @gateway.purchase(Money.new(10000), @creditcard, @options)
assert_equal "Approved", response.message
assert response.success?
assert response.test?
assert_not_nil pn_ref = response.authorization

# now another purchase, by reference
assert response = @gateway.purchase(Money.new(10000), pn_ref)
assert_equal "Approved", response.message
assert response.success?
assert response.test?
end

Acts As Billable Plugin

script/plugin install http://source.collectiveidea.com/public/acts_as_billable/trunk/
There’s a start of a sample app (that uses rspec) that goes with it at http://source.collectiveidea.com/public/acts_as_billable/samples/depot

Authorize.Net Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) Example Code

ARG Guide

Boyer-Moore string search algorithm in ruby

Fast search of a specific search string.

Help in writing tests in Rails

script/console test

It will load the console in the test environment. Very useful to experiment with the code and write tests.

Railscookbook example error

NameError in User#list_perms

Showing app/views/user/list_perms.rhtml where line #22 raised:

uninitialized constant UserHelper::Permission

create the permission model without migration.

Also the migration for permissions table does not have a id column. This results in a bug where the update does not work for some cases. So I had to add a primary key column to the permissions table. This fixed the buggy update problem.

How to skip migration in Rails

use --skip-migration switch: Ex: script/generate model user --skip-migration

How to format mysql output

select * from table_name limit 1 \G;

How to suppress rendering of layout while generating xml in Rails

def my_xml_method
@foo = Foo.find(:all)
render :layout => false
end

If you have render and respond_to in the same method, you will get the dreaded double render error.

How to install RubyInline in Mac OS

$ sudo gem install rubyinline
Successfully installed RubyInline-3.6.3
Installing ri documentation for RubyInline-3.6.3...
Installing RDoc documentation for RubyInline-3.6.3...

Port install did not work:

sudo port install rb-rubyinline
---> Fetching autoconf
---> Attempting to fetch autoconf-2.61.tar.bz2 from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf
---> Verifying checksum(s) for autoconf
---> Extracting autoconf
---> Configuring autoconf
---> Building autoconf with target all
---> Staging autoconf into destroot
---> Installing autoconf 2.61_0
---> Activating autoconf 2.61_0
---> Cleaning autoconf
---> Fetching rb-rubygems
---> Attempting to fetch rubygems-0.9.4.tgz from http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/20989/
---> Verifying checksum(s) for rb-rubygems
---> Extracting rb-rubygems
---> Configuring rb-rubygems
Error: Target com.apple.configure returned: configure failure: shell command " cd "/opt/local/var/db/dports/build/_opt_local_var_db_dports_sources_rsync.rsync.darwinports.org_dpupdate_dports_ruby_rb-rubygems/work/rubygems-0.9.4" && /opt/local/bin/ruby -rvendor-specific setup.rb config " returned error 127
Command output: sh: line 1: /opt/local/bin/ruby: No such file or directory

Error: The following dependencies failed to build: rb-hoe rb-rake rb-rubygems rb-rubyforge
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.

How to use select_tag to create drop down menus in Rails

<%=
select_tag :size, options_for_select(["Small", "Medium", "Large"])
%>

This will create a drop down with the values in the array. You can either declare a constant array in the model and use that like: MyModel::SHIRT_SIZES instead of hard coding it. If it is database driven, write a helper that will return an array of options.

How to find the helper methods for RESTful nested routes in Rails

1) script/console
2) >> irb ActionController::Routing::Routes
3) rs = ActionController::Routing::Routes
4) rs.named_routes.each {|name, route| puts( name, route) }; 1
5) Just copy the list of helper methods show in the output of step 4 and append path to that name. You must also provide the required ids shown in the output. For example take the output:

user
GET /users/:id/ {:action=>"show", :controller=>"users"}

and in the console, type:

>> user_path 1
=> "/users/1"

The same process can be used for nested routes.

Reference: Rails Routing by David A Black. This book gave me a solid understanding of routes.