Convert private to public repo in github

Go to edit and change the repo from private to public

Could not find nokogiri-1.4.4 in any of the sources on Ubuntu

If you get the error: "Could not find nokogiri-1.4.4 in any of the
sources" it is probably related to "libxm12" missing. In fact, that
library is probably there. What you are missing is the development
version:

sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev

nokogiri should then install.

Reference: Manual Install

Forcing DNS changes to take effect on Snow Leopard

I made a mistake while setting up the DNS on Linode. In order to flush the old DNS server settings. I had to run:

dscacheutil -flushcache

Then create a new zone with the right IP Address. Just ping the hostname to find the IP Address and check if it is correct by comparing it to the Linode dashboard.

How to highlight tabs in Rails

1) Include the following method in application helper.

def is_active?(page_name)
# logger.info("lllllllllllll #{page_name}")
# logger.info("cccccccccccccc #{params[:controller]}")
"current" if params[:controller] == page_name
end

2) In your layout, add this:

<%= link_to 'Articles', new_article_path, :class => is_active?("articles") %>


3) Uncomment the logger lines to see which controller is handling the request and just fill in
the parameters for is_active? method

Fixed an error from the code I found from an original post in Stackoverflow.

Installing Postgres on Snow Leopard

1) sudo port install postgresql83 postgresql83-server
2)

sudo mkdir -p /opt/local/var/db/postgresql83/defaultdb
sudo chown postgres:postgres /opt/local/var/db/postgresql83/defaultdb
sudo su postgres -c '/opt/local/lib/postgresql83/bin/initdb -D /opt/local/var/db/postgresql83/defaultdb'

3) sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql83-server.plist

4) sudo su postgres -c '/opt/local/lib/postgresql83/bin/postgres -D /opt/local/var/db/postgresql83/defaultdb'

5) sudo vi /etc/profile

6) Add : PATH="/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/lib/postgresql83/bin:$PATH"

7) createuser --superuser your_macusername -U postgres

8) createdb my_database

9) sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install pg

10) database.yml
development:
adapter: postgresql
database: your_db
username: your_db_username

Installing pgAdmin

sudo port install pgAdmin3

Upon completion of installation, you can find the application in /Applications/MacPorts/pgAdmin3


Reference:
Installing PostgreSQL on Snow Leopard 10.6


Installing PostgreSQL on Leopard using MacPorts

No such file or directory - /tmp/mysql.sock

Fix : sudo ln -s /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock /tmp/mysql.sock

Reference : No such file or directory

How to customize Flash messages in Devise Rails gem

Customize the config/locales/devise.en.yml file in your project.

undefined local variable or method `confirmed_at' for

Devise Rails plugin throws this error when you don't have the

t.confirmable

in the users migration.

/etc/hosts file messed up on Snow Leopard

Whenever I run a Rails app, I had to access it via http://0.0.0:port_number. Devise Rails plugin sample app barks when redirecting with this error message:

ERROR URI::InvalidURIError: the scheme http does not accept registry part: 0.0.0:3000 (or bad hostname?)


1) To cleanup the mess, I edited the /etc/hosts file so it now looks like this:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

2) Then flush the cache to pickup the new changes by running :

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

Now you can access your local Rails apps by : http://localhost:port_number and Devise is happy again.

sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified

When trying to deploy to a new staging server, I get the following
error:

sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified

Solution:

Add the line: default_run_options[:pty] = true
in your deploy.rb

Installing Sphinx on Snow Leopard

1. Download sphinx-0.9.9
2. ./configure
3. make
4. sudo make install

how to get all the branches that is remote in git

If you have many remote branches that you want to fetch at once:

$ git remote update
$ git pull --all

Now you can checkout any branch as you need to, without hitting the remote repo.


http://stackoverflow.com/questions/67699/how-do-i-clone-all-remote-branches-with-git

Source code formatter for Blogspot

Very useful source code formatter for blogspot

Ruby Programming Language Book Notes 2

| operator is used for union operation in Array.
& operator is used for intersection operation in Array.

1:  class Array  
2:       def union(another)  
3:        self | another  
4:       end  
5:       def intersection(another)  
6:        self & another  
7:       end  
8:  end  

Ruby Programming Language Book Notes

1)

minimum = if x < y then x else y end

can also be written as :

minimum = x < y ? x : y

2)

class Fixnum
def inclusive(element)
self..element
end

def exclusive(element)
self...element
end
end

This eliminates the mental mapping from .. and ... to the behaviour of the methods.

3) This does not work:

class Fixnum
alias inclusive ..
alias exclusive ...
end

gives syntax error, unexpected tDOT2

So how do you redefine the .. and ...? If you do ri Fixnum, it shows the instance methods. The section on Operators has discussion on operators that can be re-defined.

Convert Haml to ERB

1) script/plugin install http://github.com/cgoddard/haml2erb.git

2) In console:
hamls = Dir["app/views/**/*.haml"] - ['app/views/layouts/screen.html.haml'];
hamls.each do |haml|
puts haml
erb = haml.sub(/\.haml$/, '.erb')
File.open(erb, 'w') do |file|
file.write Haml2Erb.convert(File.read(haml))
end
end

http://makandra.com/notes/544-convert-haml-to-erb

ERROR: There has been an error fetching the ruby interpreter. Halting the installation.

This happens when there is no network connection. How wonderful it would be if developers can give error messages that make sense! Make the code robust and give users a clear call to action to rectify any errors that they can recover from. It is surprising that even ruby gems has the same issue.

Mispelled HTTP_REFERER in Rails 3.0

The correct spelling is HTTP_REFERRER but Rails source has it with wrong spelling. So in order to get the HTTP_REFERRER do the following in your controller:

request.env["HTTP_REFERER"]

request.domain has been deprecated. The domain method has been moved to ActionDispatch::Http::URL. Ideally we want to use the method defined in this module.Do to metaprogramming it is difficult to figure out the actual keys that are used in ActionDispatch::Request. If you run this snippet:

request.env.keys.each do |x|
logger.info x
end

You will get all the keys:

action_dispatch.request.formats
action_dispatch.request.parameters
rack.session
HTTP_ACCEPT
HTTP_HOST
SERVER_NAME
rack.request.cookie_hash
action_dispatch.remote_ip
rack.url_scheme
HTTP_KEEP_ALIVE
HTTP_USER_AGENT
REQUEST_PATH
action_dispatch.request.query_parameters
action_dispatch.request.unsigned_session_cookie
SERVER_PROTOCOL
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE
rack.errors
action_dispatch.secret_token
async.callback
REMOTE_ADDR
PATH_INFO
rack.run_once
rack.version
SERVER_SOFTWARE
action_dispatch.request.path_parameters
rack.request.cookie_string
SCRIPT_NAME
HTTP_REFERER
action_dispatch.parameter_filter
HTTP_COOKIE
HTTP_VERSION
rack.multithread
action_dispatch.request.request_parameters
action_dispatch.cookies
REQUEST_URI
rack.multiprocess
rack.request.query_hash
SERVER_PORT
HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET
action_controller.instance
rack.session.options
async.close
REQUEST_METHOD
warden
rack.request.query_string
action_dispatch.request.content_type
GATEWAY_INTERFACE
HTTP_CONNECTION
HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING
QUERY_STRING
rack.input

Now you can access any of these environment values from your controller similar to the referrer.

Accessing Webrick running on VM from Mac OS

1) If the VM is running, stop it.

2) To forward from port 3001 on the host to port 3000 on the guest, run the following command on the host.
$ VBoxManage modifyvm "Ubuntu" --natpf1 "webrick,tcp,,3001,,3000"

3) To delete the port forwarding run:

VBoxManage modifyvm "Ubuntu" --natpf1 delete "webrick"

4) Now you can go to http://localhost:3001 on your host to hit webrick running on your VM.

The page loads very slow. Is there any way to speed it up?

My Job Went to India Book Review

Businesses cannot exist without the IT and vice-versa. They are interdependent. IT systems automate the business processes and run 24 by 7. Therefore we cannot really view those who work at the “Business” level as above us. So, I disagree with the author on this point. However, he does sort of make a U turn later on in the book.

This book will make you think. For instance: What is the supply demand for programmers in a particular Business domain? This would be a good question to research so that we can plan our career.

He talks about how to survive layoffs by being knowledgeable in different areas. Not everyone wants to stay in one organization for a long time. Another thing is that it is almost impractical to learn everything in a particular technology (say, Java technology). Developers will have different intentions, for example they might have a backup plan in case of IT downturn, either by having a cash cushion or generating cash flow through software products.

I agree about following your passion. It enables us to transcend limitations. It inspires us and makes us reach a level of performance that amazes us. This explains the previous paragraph (which sounds like excuses).

Another principle that he explains - “Be the Worst” is very real. Two projects, one early in my career where I had the opportunity to work with a strong and talented team of developers and project manager. Recently when I found working for people who were not anywhere near my capabilities, they did affect my performance.

This book helps to see and expect what the work environment could possibly bring us and what we can do to proactively handle these situations.

Maintenance is seen as a menial work and recruiters downplay any experience on it. Oh, this is a developer job… Chad advises you to learn to love maintenance.

He recommends having a mentor and I am glad I read his book. I know mentors can also come in the form of a book!!! You can have more than one mentor.

I love the Eight-Hour Burn concept. This explains why I get very depressed and productivity drops during the last few weeks of the project. Now I know how to make the work stay in the office. No more nagging problems following me home!

The concept of “Presence” is very realistic. I learned this by making mistakes in the workplace and the cost was high. I wish I had read this book early in my career. Lot of things that he explains has already happened to me in my career. Still I was able to learn how to handle those situations successfully next time around.

Reading open source code really helps to solve recurring problems quickly. I have experienced this in my job. The cover of this book really needs to be improved. The content of the book is much better than the quality of cover image.

Search recursively for a specific pattern in directory and list the names of the files that has that string

grep -r "#{" .

This will search for the pattern #{ in the current directory and all the files at and below this directory

Whole word search in Textmate

1) Command + Shift + f
2) Type in find :
\bsomething\b

Where something is the string you want to search

3) Check Regular expression box

Getting Rails 3 running on Windows

Checkout the following resources for help:

http://accidentaltechnologist.com/ruby-on-rails/running-rails-3-on-windows/
http://accidentaltechnologist.com/ruby-on-rails/railsinstaller-is-instant-rails-evolved/
http://accidentaltechnologist.com/?s=rails
http://rubyinstaller.org/
http://sqlite.org/download.html (Go to precompiled binaries for Windows, download slitedll-3_7_3.zip , unzip it, copy the sqlite3. dll to Ruby bin directory, for example
c:\Ruby192\bin)

If you still need help, I recommend "Meet Rails 3 Part I" screencast by Peepcode.

Upgrading git on snow leopard

If you have followed

1. curl -O http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.7.3.tar.bz2
2. tar xzvf git-1.6.4.2.tar.bz2
3. cd git-1.6.4.2
4. ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
5. make
6. sudo make install

Error installing ruby-1.8.7-p330 on Snow Leopard

The error :

make[1]: *** [readline.o] Error 1
make: *** [all] Error 1

Error running 'make ', please read ...make.log

Snow Leopard version is 10.6.5

1) Make sure you have the latest XCode installed. I have 3.2.5
2) rvm update && rvm reload
3) rvm_archflags="-arch x86_64"
4) rvm install ruby-1.8.7

Fixes the problem and installs ruby-1.8.7-p330.

Rack Developers Notebook

Download the book from : http://www.meetup.com/silicon-valley-ruby/files/

How to install MongoDB on OS X

Download, unpack, and install the pre-compiled 64-bit binaries:

curl -O http://downloads.mongodb.org/osx/mongodb-osx-x86_64-1.6.2.tgz
tar xzf mongodb-osx-x86_64-1.6.2.tgz
sudo mv mongodb-osx-x86_64-1.6.2 /opt/local/mongodb
sudo mkdir /opt/local/mongodb_data /var/log/mongodb
sudo chown -R root /opt/local/mongodb

(If you’re on a 32-bit machine, substitute in i386 for each x86_64 above.)

Next, you’ll want to make a config file so you can change the server’s options without fiddling with command-line arguments.

Save as: /opt/local/mongodb/mongod.conf

# Store data alongside MongoDB instead of the default, /data/db/
dbpath = /opt/local/mongodb_data

# Only accept local connections
bind_ip = 127.0.0.1

Now, we’ll make a launchd job to register the server as an OS X daemon. launchd will start the server at startup, stop it before shutdown, make sure it stays up, and redirect its output to a nice log file.

Save as: /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.mongodb.mongod.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" 
  "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>

  <string>org.mongodb.mongod</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/opt/local/mongodb/bin/mongod</string>

    <string>run</string>
    <string>--config</string>
    <string>/opt/local/mongodb/mongod.conf</string>
  </array>

  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
  <key>KeepAlive</key>
  <true/>
  <key>WorkingDirectory</key>

  <string>/opt/local/mongodb</string>
  <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
  <string>/var/log/mongodb/output.log</string>
  <key>StandardOutPath</key>

  <string>/var/log/mongodb/output.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Now we just need to load the launchd job:

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.mongodb.mongod.plist

And that should do it! Try visiting http://localhost:28017 to see the status console for your database.

One last thing: you should probably add /opt/local/mongodb/bin to your $PATH. That way you can use the other binaries that ship with MongoDB, like the mongo console, mongoexport, and so on.

You can adjust your path the regular way by editing your shell’s profile, or you can use this nice paths.d mechanism that OS X provides:

sudo sh -c 'echo "/opt/local/mongodb/bin" > /etc/paths.d/mongodb'

Install Postgresql server on Ubuntu 10.04

1) sudo apt-get install postgresql
2) sudo apt-get install postgresql-client
3) sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.4 restart
4) ALTER USER postgres with encrypted password 'your_password';
5) sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.4 restart

Install Java 6 on Ubuntu 10.04

1) sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner"
2) sudo apt-get update
3) sudo aptitude install curl sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre sun-java6-jdk

Reference:

Install Java 6 on Ubuntu

Cloning a VM with mutiple snapshots

As of 3.0.8 (or before) the VBoxManage clonehd command can clone any snapshot of a hard disk or clone the Current State of a hard disk. The resulting VDI file is flattened (it does not have any other snapshots attached).
You need to find the UUID of the Current State image file, or of the Snapshot image file (NOT the UUID of the snapshot!)
To clonehd the Current State of a disk:

* Open the Virtual Media Manager (Menu: File>Virtual Media Manager).
* Navigate to the hard disk you want to clone and fully expand the tree (use * key on numeric keypad).
* Find the {hexUUID}.vdi file that is attached to the VM you want to clone the Current State of.
It will be (one of) the leaf files at the end of a branch.
When you select it, the 'Attached to:' text at the bottom of the window will say:
'Attached to: ', without any (snaphot name) in brackets after it.
* Click the filename to the right of the 'Location:' displayed at the bottom of the window.
* Ctrl+C / Copy to copy the text to the clipboard, which will be something like:
(path){b6441469-5ccb-418c-8fdd-73c5e1a17314}.vdi
* Ctrl+V / Paste and extract the hexUUID value (removing the {} brackets) and run clonehd to clone it!
CODE: C:> VBoxManage clonehd b6441469-5ccb-418c-8fdd-73c5e1a17314 CloneDisk.vdi

To clonehd a snapshot of a disk:

* Find the {hexUUID}.vdi file that is attached to the VM (and Snapshot) you want to clone.
* It will be one of the files along a branch.
When you select it, the 'Attached to:' text at the bottom of the window will say:
'Attached to: ()', with (snaphot name) in brackets after it.
* Follow the instructions above for cloning the current state of a disk.



Reference:

This thread

VirtualBox Shared Folders between Ubuntu 10.04 Guest and Mac Host

You’ll need the VirtualBox (1.6 or above) with Guest Additions installed in Ubuntu.

* With the Virtual Machine powered off and selected in VirtualBox, go to:
Machine > Settings > Shared Folders
* For “Folder Path”, click the icon to browse for the folder you want to share.
* For “Folder Name”, enter a name to describe the share. Let's say vshare
* Click “OK” and start the virtual machine again.
* Create a mount point which is basically an empty folder. Example: /vmnt on the Ubuntu guest VM.
* Fire up the terminal and type:
sudo mount -t vboxsf folder_name path_to_mount_pointfolder_name is the name you typed in earlier to describe the share. Example: sudo mount -t vboxsf vshare /vmnt
* You should be able to browse the shared folder now.

Reference:

VirtualBox Shared Folders on Ubuntu

How to install KDevelop on Ubuntu 10.4

KDevelop is a decent editor for Rails projects. It gives a nice class browser view of your Rails project.

To resolve the error:
E: Package kdevelop has no installation candidate

before install, Go to :

1. Applications -> System Tools -> KPackage Edit
2. Settings -> Edit Software Sources -> Updates tab
3. Check "Unsupported Updates"
4. sudo apt-get update
5. Run : sudo apt-get install kdevelop

Alternate way:

1. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install kdevelop

To run KDevelop, just type kdevelop on the terminal

How to Install Guest Additions on CentOS 5.5

Prerequisite:

yum install yum-priorities
Make sure that yum-priorities is enabled by editing the /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf file, and ensuring that it contains the following lines:

[main]
enabled=1

Edit the .repo files in /etc/yum.repos.d/ and set up priorities by adding the line:

priority=N

to a repository entry, where N is an integer number from 1 to 99.
The recommended settings are:
[base], [addons], [updates], [extras] ... priority=1
[centosplus],[contrib] ... priority=2
Third Party Repos such as rpmforge ... priority=N (where N is > 10 and based on your preference)


Based on architecture: uname -i download the corresponding rpm into your downloads directory.

wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.1-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt rpm -K rpmforge-release-0.5.1-1.el5.rf.*.rpm

rpm -i rpmforge-release-0.5.1-1.el5.rf.*.rpm

yum check-update

Now you will be able to install dkms (You need sudo access to run these commands)


1) Devices > Install Guest Additions
2) Browse to the Guest Additions CD on the desktop, right click and open terminal. Run
sudo chmod +x VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
3)yum install dkms
4) sudo yum install kernel-devel kernel-headers
sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

This will automatically switch VM to Seamless Mode and the resolution upgraded to 1024x768. You can now copy/paste from host to guest and vice-versa.

References:


How to Install Virtual Box Guest Additions for a Linux Guest

RPMForge

Getting Rails and Sinatra to Share Sessions - Part I

Introduction

This is the first part of a series of blog posts that will show you how to setup your machine so that you can share sessions between Rails and Sinatra apps.

This idea was inspired by the In a World of Middleware, Who Needs Monolithic Applications? Mountain West Ruby Conference 2009 talk given by Corey Donohoe of Engine Yard.

However I will not be using Hancock or Hancock Client for Single Sign On. I think it is too complicated. I want something simple. My motivation is to build Rack compliant apps that are very focused on doing one thing really well and combining them to create a mashup.

At the end of the talk Corey said that in a world of why do we even need Rails? My opinion is that Rails app must be the last app in your Rack Stack and must be focused on your Core Domain. Anything else must be built as a Rack app. Because it is independent of your business and can be re-used across all your web apps.

Installation and Configuration

Environment: Ruby 1.8.7 managed by RVM

1)
gem install passenger

2)
passenger-install-apache2-module

Note: Steps 1 and 2 does not use sudo

3)
sudo mkdir /usr/local/apache2/conf

Add the lines shown during installation to httpd.conf file and save it in the directory created above.

In my case it is:

LoadModule passenger_module /Users/bparanj/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p299/gems/passenger-2.2.15/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
PassengerRoot /Users/bparanj/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p299/gems/passenger-2.2.15
PassengerRuby /Users/bparanj/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p299/bin/ruby

4) Setup folder to hold vhosts

sudo mkdir /usr/local/apache2/conf/vhosts

5) Add the following to the httpd.conf

NameVirtualHost *
Include /usr/local/apache2/conf/vhosts/*

6) Add virtual hosts to a file virtual_hosts.conf under /usr/local/apache2/conf/vhosts directory

# Example App

ServerName app.test
DocumentRoot /Users/benr/Rails/app/public
RailsEnv development



# Example App 2

ServerName app2.test
DocumentRoot /Users/benr/Rails/app2/public
RailsEnv development


7) Edit /etc/hosts file

sudo vi /etc/hosts

and add:

127.0.0.1 app.test app2.test

8)
sudo apachectl graceful or

sudo apachectl start

9) To restart app, create a file under RAILS_ROOT/tmp/restart.txt

when you run touch on restart.txt your Rails app will be reloaded

References:

http://benr75.com/2008/04/12/setup-mod_rails-phusion-mac-os-x-leopard
http://www.modrails.com/videos/passenger.mov

error: Error running 'make ', please check. rvm/log/ruby-1.8.7-p299/make*.log

Step 1: Install readline.

1 curl -O ftp://ftp.cwru.edu/pub/bash/readline-6.0.tar.gz
2 tar -xvzf readline-6.0.tar.gz
3 cd readline-6.0
4 ./configure
5 make
6 sudo make install

Step 2: Install Ruby 1.8.7
rvm install 1.8.7 -C --enable-shared,--with-readline-dir=/usr/local

RSpec API - The Good and the Bad

The Good:

Operator Expressions : Good use of meta-programming

The Bad:

#1. Have method has bubble words and it complicates the API. It increases the noise in the code. Make the API minimal. (Bubble word - Words that does not do anything, but is used only for readability)

#2. Leaky API : render method is leaky because it depends on the argument passed in to the outer method. Basically it has parametric coupling. Developer has to *remember* the coupling in order to use the API.

undefined method `visit' for cucumber

Fix: Include the following configuration in features/support/env.rb

require 'webrat'
require 'webrat/core/matchers'

Webrat.configure do |config|
config.mode = :rack
config.open_error_files = false # Set to true if you want error pages to pop up in the browser
end

World(Webrat::Methods)
World(Webrat::Matchers)

This also fixes the error : "no such file to load -- action_controller/integration"

Getting RSpec Book Rails app working on Rails 3.0 Beta 4

1. Create a new Rails app called blog, skip test unit since we will be using RSpec
rails new blog --skip-testunit

2. Edit gem file :

group :test do
gem 'rspec-rails', '>= 2.0.0.beta.10'
gem 'webrat'
gem 'selenium-client'
gem 'database_cleaner'
gem 'rspec-rails'
gem 'cucumber'
gem 'cucumber-rails'
gem 'rspec'
end

3. From app's root directory, run:

bundle install

4. rails g rspec:install

5. rails g cucumber:install

6. rails g cucumber:skeleton --rspec --webrat

7. rails g cucumber:feature

8. script/cucumber --tag @focus

9. script/cucumber -t @focus

10. rails g model movie showtime_date:date showtime_time:time
11. rake db:migrate
12. rake db:test:prepare
13. cucumber -t @focus
14. cucumber

Reference:

Rails 3, RSpec, and Cucumber

How to add a source to Ruby gems

gem sources -a http://gems.github.com

To remove a source:

gem sources -r http://gems.github.com

Run:
gem env

to see the sources that is currently in your Ruby gems.

Extremely Simple Alternative to AutoTest

I am reading the Rails 3 in Action by Yehuda. To run the sample code I customized the stakeout.rb to output the results of the test when specs get run whenever the file is changed.

1. Copy the source to a directory that is in your path:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
if ARGV.size < 2
puts "Usage: stakeout.rb [files to watch]+"
exit 1
end

command = ARGV.shift
files = {}

ARGV.each do |arg|
Dir[arg].each { |file|
files[file] = File.mtime(file)
}
end

loop do

sleep 1

changed_file, last_changed = files.find { |file, last_changed|
File.mtime(file) > last_changed
}

if changed_file
files[changed_file] = File.mtime(changed_file)
puts "=> #{changed_file} changed, running #{command}"
puts system(command)
puts "=> done"
end

end

2. chmod +x stakeout.rb

3. To run:

stakeout.rb "spec bacon_spec.rb" **/*

This will run the spec called back_spec.rb whenever any files found recursively from the current file is changed.

Reference:

Faster TDD with Stakeout.rb

Problem Installing Sqlite3-ruby on Snow Leopard

I was getting this error when I started the server. I had installed RVM, Ruby 1.9.1, Rails 3.0 Beta 4:

.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.1-p378/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.3.1/lib/sqlite3/sqlite3_native.bundle: dlopen(.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.1-p378/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.3.1/lib/sqlite3/sqlite3_native.bundle, 9): no suitable image found. Did find: (LoadError)
.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.1-p378/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.3.1/lib/sqlite3/sqlite3_native.bundle: mach-o, but wrong architecture - .rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.1-p378/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.3.1
/lib/sqlite3/sqlite3_native.bundle


Resolution:

Uninstall sqlite3-ruby (1.3.1)
1. gem uninstall sqlite3-ruby

Install sqlite3-ruby version 1.2.5
2. gem install sqlite3-ruby --version 1.2.5

If you get the error:

no such file to load -- sqlite3

when running rake db:migrate

Edit the Gemfile for the line sqlite3-ruby as :

gem 'sqlite3-ruby', :require => 'sqlite3'

Installing Ruby 1.9.2 using RVM on Snow Leopard

When I tried to install Ruby 1.9.2
rvm install 1.9.2

I got :

error: Error running 'make ', please check /Users/bparanj/.rvm/log/ruby-1.9.2-rc2/make*.log
error: There has been an error while running make. Aborting the installation.

Steps to Resolve :

1. Install libxml

curl -O ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/libxml2-2.7.7.tar.gz
tar zxvf libxml2-2.7.7.tar.gz
cd libxml2-2.7.7
./configure --with-python=/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/
make &
sudo make install

2. Install libxslt

curl -O ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxslt/libxslt-1.1.26.tar.gz
tar xvzf libxslt-1.1.26.tar.gz
cd libxslt-1.1.26
./configure
make
sudo make install

3.
rvm install 1.9.2-head -C --enable-shared,--with-readline-dir=/opt/local,--build=x86_64-apple-darwin10

Reference:

Installing Ruby 1.9.2 with RVM on Snow Leopard

Tips:

#1 :
rvm 1.9.2-head --default

to make it 1.9.2 when you open new terminal or after reboot.

#2 :
To revert to system installed Ruby:

rvm system --default

uninitialized constant Mysql while running rake db:create

1. Uninstall the mysql gem

bparanj$ sudo gem uninstall mysql

Successfully uninstalled mysql-2.8.1

2. Installing the gem the right way on Snow Leopard
bparanj$ sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
Successfully installed mysql-2.8.1
1 gem installed

3. Edit the gemfile and include the line:

gem 'mysql'

4. Run bundle install from the rails project directory:

mbp2:blog bparanj$ bundle install
Fetching source index from http://rubygems.org/
Using rake (0.8.7) from system gems
Using abstract (1.0.0) from system gems
Using activesupport (3.0.0.beta4) from system gems
Using builder (2.1.2) from system gems
Using i18n (0.4.1) from system gems
Using activemodel (3.0.0.beta4) from system gems
Using erubis (2.6.6) from bundler gems
Using rack (1.1.0) from bundler gems
Using rack-mount (0.6.6) from system gems
Using rack-test (0.5.4) from system gems
Using tzinfo (0.3.22) from system gems
Using actionpack (3.0.0.beta4) from system gems
Using mime-types (1.16) from system gems
Using polyglot (0.3.1) from system gems
Using treetop (1.4.8) from system gems
Using mail (2.2.5) from system gems
Using actionmailer (3.0.0.beta4) from system gems
Using arel (0.4.0) from system gems
Using activerecord (3.0.0.beta4) from system gems
Using activeresource (3.0.0.beta4) from system gems
Using bundler (0.9.26) from system gems
Using mysql (2.8.1) from system gems
Using thor (0.13.7) from bundler gems
Using railties (3.0.0.beta4) from system gems
Using rails (3.0.0.beta4) from system gems
Using sqlite3-ruby (1.3.0) from bundler gems
Your bundle is complete! Use `bundle show [gemname]` to see where a bundled gem is installed.

5. rake db:create will now work
mbp2:blog bparanj$ rake db:create
(in /Users/bparanj/projects/blog)
db/test.sqlite3 already exists

Include Vs Extend in Ruby

Include vs Extend

Include

Classes and modules can include modules and reuse the methods defined in the module. The method in the module is available as an instance method. The constants, methods and module variables are available once the module is mixed in.

Extend

You can extend an instance of any class with module. The method in the module is available as an instance method.

The difference is extend is only applicable for that particular instance which was extended. Where as the include is applicable to any instance of the class.

Screen cast IncludeExtend.mov

Addition to IncludeExtendRuby.mov

module Talkable
def talk
p "hi"
end
end

class Foo

end

Foo.extend Talkable

Foo.talk


If extend is used on the class instead of the object, the method becomes available as class method. The extend can be used inside the class or outside the class. Refer the screencast to see how it works.

Upgrading Snow Leopard to Rails 3.0 Beta 4

1. gem env

should be 1.3.6 or above

2. gem update --system

Update Ruby gems to the latest version

3. sudo gem install i18n tzinfo builder memcache-client rack rack-test rack-mount erubis mail text-format thor bundler i18n bundler

Install required gems for Rails 3.0

4. sudo gem install rails --pre

Installs Rails 3.0 Beta 4

5. sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-3.0.0.beta4/lib

Create the lib directory to resolve the following error

ERROR: While executing gem ... (Errno::ENOENT)
No such file or directory - lib

Installing Ruby 1.9.2 on Snow Leopard

1)

Install Readline:

curl -O ftp://ftp.cwru.edu/pub/bash/readline-6.0.tar.gz
tar -xvzf readline-6.0.tar.gz
cd readline-6.0
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install

I ignored the message: install: you may need to run ldconfig

2)

Install Ruby 1.9.2

curl -O ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.2-rc1.tar.gz
tar -xvzf ruby-1.9.2-rc1.tar.gz
cd ruby-1.9.2-rc1
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-pthread --with-readline-dir=/usr/local --enable-shared
make
sudo make install
sudo make install-doc


I ignored the message: configure: WARNING: unrecognized options: --with-readline-dir

3) Update ~/.bash_profile with
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH"

in the last line

Open a new window and check Ruby version: ruby -v
ruby 1.9.2dev (2010-07-02 revision 28524) [x86_64-darwin10.4.0]

Tracking Referrals

From Google Analytics Tracking for Mobile Apps page:

The Android 1.6 OS release supports the use of a referrer URL parameter in download links to the Android Market. The Google Analytics SDK for Android uses this parameter to automatically populate referral/campaign information in Google Analytics for your application. This enables the source of the application install to be recorded and associated with future pageviews and events.

When is Steve going to provide this feature to developers for iPhone OS?

How to convert .wav to .mp3

Use iTunes to import the .wav files. Go to preferences and change Import Settings -> Import Using to MP3 Encoder. Select all the .wav files to convert to .mp3 and go to Advanced -> Create mp3 version. Now just select one of the .wav file and go to "File -> Show in Finder", you will find all the converted mp3 files in the same folder.

You have to use iTunes to convert because the command line tool afconvert does not have the ability to convert to mp3.You will get the error Error: ExtAudioFileSetProperty ('cfmt') failed ('fmt?')

How to view only starred emails in Gmail

Type the following in the search box and hit search:

in:Starred in:Inbox

Migraine leaves British woman speaking with Chinese accent

"I spoke to my stepdaughter on the phone from hospital and she didn't recognize who I was. She said I sounded Chinese. Since then, I have had my friends hanging up on me because they think I'm a hoax caller ... The first few weeks of the accent was quite funny, but to think I am stuck with this Chinese accent is getting me down. My voice has started to annoy me now. It is not my voice."

Learn to speak in British Accent iPhone app:

More at National Post

How to reduce caf file size

afconvert -f caff -d LEI16@22100 -c 1 ./test.mp3 ./test.caf

I kept reducing the sampling rate from 44100 to 13100. Anything below 22100 seems to affect the quality of the audio.

You can also convert a caf file with a given sampling rate to another caf file with different sampling rate:

afconvert -f caff -d LEI16@22100 -c 1 ./test.caf ./test2.caf

Analyzing Your App Store Sales Statistics - Part II

AppStore Sales Vs AppViz

Clearly AppViz is the winner. Provides nice charts and downloads 13 weeks of data to your desktop and provides a clear interface.

Heartbeat Signed up for this site. After I login I don't see anything. Not easy to use or figure out how to generate reports. It takes too much time than it saves. If you have a different opinion do let me know.

Tap Mini from TapMetrics. I watched the demo. It seems to allow import. I don't like the drilling into different levels to view my data.

4 ways to capitalize on Google's real-time search results

Following tips to be tested for iPhone / iPad apps that is already in the app store.

From iMedia Connection:

To take advantage of the new real-time search results -- and minimize any potential negatives -- here are four fundamental steps for marketers:

* Keep positive messages about your brand or products alive in the online news media. Issue frequent press releases with positive news about your company and create positive viral content related to your brand or product that has the potential to be mentioned frequently on popular social networking sites and even featured in news stories.


* Be active on sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku, and Identi.ca. Create positive messages about your brand or products in the online social media sites likely to appear in Google results. Promote positive news stories published on mainstream news sites that result from your press releases or viral content promotions, as well as positive viral content that you created yourself.


* Maintain an active presence in social networking and microblogging sites. Cultivate relationships and interact with influential users to enlist their help in spreading your positive message. In addition, be responsive to both positive and negative mentions of your brand or product to mitigate any negative press that may occur. (Note: This is not a job for an intern. Ensure you are represented on these sites by a professional with social media and public relations savvy.)


* Closely monitor news and real-time buzz sites for mentions of your brand or product so you can react if necessary. That means setting up accounts with Google Alerts, Yahoo Keyword News Alert, and Twitter Alerts and following them.

Analyzing Your App Store Sales Statistics

App Figures provides reporting of app sales. The graphing does not update when you change the period. Emailed the tech support. No progress has been made after a week. I do like the daily and weekly report email feature. I can set up so that all my partners get the reports emailed. The pricing seems to be reasonable: $5 / mo for 2 apps. $1.5 for each additional app that you want to track. It provides ranking of your app also.

App Sales Mobile This is available on Github. I downloaded it and ran it on Simulator. Not bad for something that is free. Nice charts and reports.

My App Sales I paid $27.70 (20 Euros) for this today. It's ok. It has lot more features. Provides data export and the option of creating html reports. I had to save the instruction to try the advanced features. The advanced features are not just one click from the app.

How to use Active Support Rails library in Ruby scripts

#!/usr/bin/ruby
require 'rubygems'
require 'active_support/inflector'

puts Inflector.singularize('inflections')

British Accent Training iPad App is now live!

The first Accent Reduction training iPad app in the app store. British Accent Training is a great tool to help you learn British Accent. You can practice your accent, pronunciation and intonation.

Taught by a native British English speaker Alison Pitman. It gives you enough time to record, playback and to repeat the lesson.

The best solution is to practice with a computer. I tried a simple sound recorder on a computer as well as a tape recorder, and it did not work - too complicated, involves too much button pressing.

You need a program which plays a phrase, then records you repeating it, then repeats the native speaker, then plays your recording, and does it all over again in a loop until you are satisfied.

You can hear your mistakes and you feel that you are correcting them.

This training will allow you to record and hear your own voice. Record your voice every week you use the training to see the transformation in your accent.

The app demonstrates each pronunciation with practice words and sentences which are simple and easily understood. More content will be added in later releases. If you buy at current price you will get updates for free. When more content is included the price will go up. BUY NOW.

How to prepend a character to a line

sed 's/^/"/'

will prepend the double quotes to the beginning of the text. I had to copy paste the character ^ for this to work on my Mac. Could not find on the Mac keyboard.

How to connect Windows XP machine to Mac Airport Extreme Wireless router

I bought a $150 PC from San Jose Salvation Army. It has 1 GB RAM, 40 GB hard drive with wireless card. This solves the headache of installing VMware, buying a licensed Windows and configuring etc.

First, make sure you are using WEP in your wireless router. Check the settings. If not, you have to change it to WEP in the router settings. It will prompt you for 13 character password. Once you change it, the router will reboot and the changes will be in effect. Now on your Windows machine just type the password (as alphanumeric characters, not as HEX) and you should be good to go.

Bladder Diary iPhone Released

Bladder Diary iPhone app will help you and your health care team figure out the causes of your bladder control trouble.

As long as you have your iPhone / iPod touch with you, you can record your bladder activity from anywhere and anytime.

Keeping a bladder diary (or "voiding diary") can help you and your doctor look for patterns to your bladder problems. You can track things like:

* How often you pass urine, and when
* How much urgency you feel each time
* Whether you're experiencing incontinence

You can keep a bladder diary before your appointment, or your doctor may ask you to start one to track your progress through treatment.

Export the data easily in a csv format that you can import to any spreadsheet, print it and take it to your doctor. You can also forward the data to your health care provider or anyone as an email.

The term OAB refers to "Over active bladder".

When you have Overactive Bladder (OAB), you may experience:

* Urgency: a pressing need to urinate. It can happen even when you don't really need to go. The urge can be so sudden and so strong that you have to run to the bathroom.
* Urge incontinence: when you can't reach the bathroom in time and you leak or have an accident.
* Frequency: having to urinate more than about 8 times a day.
* Nocturia: an urge to urinate that wakes you up at night

Seduction Flash Cards iPhone App

Ross Jeffries Speed Seduction(TM) Home Study Course flash cards is now available on your iPhone / iPod touch. Just swipe the flashcard to browse through 50 flash cards that consists of following themes:

1. Trance Words
2. Seduction Rules
3. Polarity Responders
4. Weasel Phrases
5. Super Influence Patterns
6. Super Weasel Phrases

Speed Seduction trademark belongs to Straight Forward Inc.

Collectible Cook Books Price Guide iPhone App

Price for over 3800 collectible cook books is now available on your finger tips. You do not need Internet connection to use this product. Due to changing nature of the market, this is not a guarantee of prices. Choose multiple research tools to verify data.

Collectible Books Price Guide iPhone App

Price for over 3000 collectible books are now available on your finger tips. You do not need Internet connection to use this product.

Due to the changing nature of the market, this is not a guarantee of prices. Choose multiple research tools to verify data.

I developed this product for my own use. Due to difficulty in getting the pricing information fast without waiting for websites to load.

Movies For Any Mood iPhone App

Top 20 movies for the genres : Action, Adventure, Animation, Biography, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Film-Noir, History, Horror, Independent, Music, Musical, Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi, Short, Sport, TV Mini Series and Westerns of all time. Keep track of which movies you have watched. Search the entire database to see if it is in the top list.

Top 500 Movies iPhone App

The top 500 movies of the past 100 years is now available on your iPhone / iPod touch. You can keep track of which ones you have watched and which ones are still to be enjoyed. You can also search the entire database to find out whether it is in the top 500 list or not.

British Accent iPhone App

Boost your British accent to boost your career!

* Is your accent holding you back at work?
* Are you often asked to repeat yourself when you speak english?
* Do your friends and colleagues speak with a better British accent than you?
* Could improving your British accent improve your job prospects and get you that promotion?

then this product could help you!

If you are frustrated with your British accent and would like to speak with a clear RP voice then this video can help.

This product teaches you how to make the different sounds found in the RP British Accent.

* 15 different Vowel Sounds
* 16 different Consonant Sounds

By learning how to pronounce each of these individual sounds correctly you will be able to improve your spoken English immediately.

IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES WITH YOUR REFINED BRITISH ACCENT

* Is your poor British accent affecting your job prospects?
* Could improving your British accent help improve your job opportunities?

For an investment of only $4.99 this product can help boost your British Accent to boost your promotion prospects.

iPhone App for Kidney Stones and Gallbladder Stones

iOxalate

This application is for those who have suffered from Kidney stones or Gallbladder stones due to Calcium Oxalate stones.

Foods are categorized according to the oxalate content. Foods low in oxalate can be consumed in unlimited amounts. However, common sense needs to prevail. For example, distilled alcohol, though low in oxalate, should not be consumed in unlimited quantities.

This application helps you to follow a low oxalate diet by eliminating foods very high in oxalate and eating those with moderate oxalate content in limited amounts.

This application does not have any recipes. It only contains the names of the foods categorized by oxalate content. You can also search the entire database of foods to find its oxalate content.

* Use it in a grocery store while shopping
* To lookup the food when you are in a restaurant
* When cooking to reduce the foods high in oxalate content

British Accent iPhone App now Live!

Learn British Accent on your iPhone / iPod touch: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/british-accent/id350212768?mt=8

can't convert Fixnum into String to_param

I was getting this error in to_param method. I had to explicity call to_s on id to fix it. My to_param method :

def to_param
name_slug ? "#{id.to_s}-#{name_slug.parameterize}" : id.to_s
end

If the name slug is not nil then it uses that to generate the SEO friendly URL otherwise it uses the id.

-bash: mate:command not found

In Mac OS X 10.5.8 add the line: alias mate='open -a TextMate.app'
to your ~/.bashrc file

Hivelogic instructions for ruby path

If which ruby shows /usr/bin/ruby instead of /usr/local/bin/ruby , it means you have not set the PATH correctly. I had to add a line: source ~/.profile to the ~/.bash_profile file. Now whenever you bring up the terminal and when you check the PATH, usr/local/bin will come before /usr/bin and the latest installed version will be picked up (which ruby will output /usr/local/bin/ruby)

Syntax to ignore schema.rb file in Subversion

svn propset svn:ignore "schema.rb" db

Scriptaculous Rails - Complex Forms Railscasts IE fix

$($(this).parentNode).remove() works on both FF and IE.

How to prevent the active_record output in rails console

end the statements with ; nil

Eg: list = Blog.find(:all)
list.each do |x|
puts x.title
end ; nil

how to add github to gem repository

gem sources -a http://gems.github.com

How to dynamically insert html code with Javascript and Rails

somePage.html.erb

<%= text_field("myObjectName", "someAttribute", "onchange" => "calculateMyVar()") %>

When the user moves out of the text field, the javascript will be called.

<% if @myVar.nil? %>

<% else %>
<%= @myVar %>
<% end %>

Notice that, in order for this to work the value between the td tags is empty. If you have some dynamic output tag as shown in the else section then the javascript will not work. The above code will work for new and edit cases.

Include the following javascript within the head section of the html.erb file.

function calculateMyVar()
{
var f1 = document.getElementById('field1').value;
var f2 = document.getElementById('field2').value;
document.getElementById('myVar').innerHTML = f1 - f2
}

Rails Documentation Bug for Time extension

If you have a table with an attribute of type :time then to access the minutes, use min method. There is no minute or minutes method on Time extension object in ActiveSupport.

You can list all the methods available by: myActiveRecordObject.game_time.methods.sort

How to format date in US format in Rails

ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::Date::Conversions::DATE_FORMATS[:default]='%m/%d/%Y'

How to replace space with comma in sed

test.txt :

Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck

cat test.txt | sed -e 's/[ ]/,/g'

outputs:

Bugs, Bunny
Daffy, Duck

cat test.txt | sed -e 's/[ ]/,/g' | sed 's/$/,/'
will append comma to the end as well, so:

Bugs, Bunny,
Daffy, Duck,

install specific version of rails

sudo gem install -v=2.2.2 rails --include-dependencies

How to load a specific version of gem

For some reason if you want to use specific version of gem installed on your system:

require 'rubygems'
gem 'activesupport', '=1.4.2'
require 'active_support'

How to check if CRON service is running

You can make sure the cron service is running by running 'sudo /sbin/service crond restart'.

scp GUI for Mac OS

Fugu gives a nice GUI for scp. Very easy to use.

Invalid command 'SSLEngine', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

This error is caused if mod_ssl is not installed. On Cent OS : sudo yum install mod_ssl to get SSL working.

Getting MySQL to work with Rails 2.2.2 on Mac OS 10.5.6

Weird errors: dlsym(0x256ee10, Init_mysql): symbol not found - /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.7/lib/mysql.bundle

It turned out I had installed the x86_64 version of MySQL and it does not work with Ruby.

[BLATANT COPY/PASTE BEGIN]
0. In Terminal: ls -l /usr/local ## Showed that mysql was pointing to a PowerPC version instead of i686
1. EXPORT ALL DATABASES FROM CURRENT MYSQL
2. Downloaded MySQL 5.1.30 (I am on OS X 10.4.11 so I used Mac OS X 10.4 (x86))
3. Ran installation package (be sure to see the README first about stopping current server, etc)
4. In Terminal: sudo gem uninstall mysql
5. In Terminal: sudo gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config
6. Started up my app's script/server
[BLATANT COPY/PASTE END]

Source: RailsForum

Captcha in Rails 2.1.2

Simple Captcha plugin by Sur Max works great. Few things that has made life easier:

1. You can now install the RMagick on Linux and Mac OS X using gem install rmagick.
2. Just follow the readme file that comes with the plugin and things will work fine.

It still is in SVN repository. It's ok, just install it.

Phusion Passenger Enterprise Ruby

If you're using Phusion Passenger (http://www.modrails.com),
and you want it to use Ruby Enterprise Edition, then edit your Apache
configuration file, and change the 'PassengerRuby' option:

PassengerRuby /opt/ruby-enterprise-1.8.6-20080810/bin/ruby

If you ever want to uninstall Ruby Enterprise Edition, simply remove this
directory:

/opt/ruby-enterprise-1.8.6-20080810

How to install gem without Rdoc or ri

$gem install passenger -d --no-rdoc --no-ri

ssh keys setup - passwordless login from multiple machines

Append id_rsa.pub value in a new line (if there is already another entry) to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys in the remote machine.

no such file to load -- mysql (MissingSourceFile)

I followed the Hivelogic tutorial to install MySQL. I was getting that error message when I do:

sudo gem install mysql

To get this to work run:

sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-dir=/usr/local/mysql --with-mysql-lib=/usr/local/mysql/lib --with-mysql-include=/usr/local/mysql/include

[All in one line]

WARNING: RubyGems 1.2+ index not found for:

RubyGems will revert to legacy indexes degrading performance.

I was getting this error message while upgrading from Rails 2.1.1 to 2.1.2. Just add github as another gem source.

1. sudo gem sources -a http://gems.github.com

2. sudo gem install rails --version 2.1.2

Rails 2.1.1 Htmldoc 0.2.1 PDF generation

I was getting the error:

NoMethodError (undefined method `size' for false:FalseClass):
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.1.1/lib/action_controller/streaming.rb:123:in
`send_data'

Patch the file :
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/htmldoc-0.2.1/lib/htmldoc.rb

with the following:

result.split("\n").each do |line|
+ line.strip!


Reference:

http://textmode.at/2008/5/14/ruby-htmldoc-gem-falseclass-error

Using HTTPS in RESTful authentication Rails 2.1.1

If you get the error message:

ActionController::UnknownAction (No action responded to show):

In the sessions controller make sure you have :

ssl_required :new, :create

This will now enable https when someone logins in to the site. All other details can be easily found via Google.

Tagging in Rails 2.1

I had to migrate from Acts As Taggable on Steroids to Acts As Taggable On plugin to get tagging working Rails 2.1.

One migration issue is that context column that is added by this plugin will be null for old data. It must be set to 'tags' for listing tags for a given model. This will make #tag_list display all the tags for that particular model.

Dream Machine

I got my Mac Pro 3.2 GHz 2 processor quad core with 16 GB RAM and RAID enabled 15000 rpm SAS drive on oct 29. I am experimenting with 3 monitor setup, two 30 inch Apple Cinema displays and one Samsung 22 inch display.

Let's see how much productivity I can get from this new setup. Only gripe is the hissing noise of the fan. I don't know if it has to do with the SAS drive. I will post my setup photo on rubyplus.org soon.

Secret to a Developer's Success

In a interview with LinuxDevCenter.com, Matz was asked the "future plans for Ruby", he replied:

loop do
read and reply mails
write code
write document/article/book
write code
end

I think this is an excellent plan to succeed for a developer who is passionate about software development.

Integrate ActiveMerchant With Rails

I read the Integrate ActiveMerchant With Rails recipe in the book Enterprise Rails Recipes by Maik Schmidt. This recipe is basically a recipe for disaster.

In a real web application the user must be taken out of the loop as soon as possible. Having a spinner spining or disabling the button or saying don't click the button is a bad design. Take Amazon for instance the user experience on the site is a good example to follow.

As soon as you create an order, you must set it's initial state and process that order in the background. You can use run rake task using a CRON job that processes the orders. What happens if the Gateway is down? What will you recover from network errors? These things happen in the real world and your software that affect the bottom line must be able to handle it.

Winner of Rubyplus.org Rails Documentation Contest

There was only one entry to the contest! That entry was from a prolific Rails contributor Xavier Noria Rami. Congratulations Xavier and keep up the good work.

I will be shipping him a brand new iPhone 3g soon!

LaunchBox Unleashes Its First Nine Startups

None of those startup are likely to make any money.

Here is an idea for a startup that can make money:
How about a web app / iPhone app that users can use to check how likely they can get a room with a certain rating in a given location and date? Business travelers will find it very helpful.

Eric Hodel 3000 Logger `load_missing_constant': uninitialized constant Hodel3000CompliantLogger

Rails 2.0 configuration for Hodel 3000 logger blows up in environment.rb. Switching to RAWK. It would be cool to have a Capistrano task that shows the output.

Ultrasphinx on Centos

1. yum install bison
2. yum install gcc-c++
3. wget http://www.sphinxsearch.com/downloads/sphinx-0.9.8.tar.gz
4. tar xvf sphinx-x.y.z
5. cd sphinx.x.y.z
6. ./configure
7. make
8. sudo make install

You also need chronic and hpricot gems on your system.