Resources for Testing Ruby on Rails

1. A Guide to Testing the Rails
2. Test First Programming with Ruby
3. Ruby on Rails Testing Cheat Sheet
4. Testing Rails Apps - Mike Clark
5. Test Your Helpers
6. Testing Rails controllers communicating with external web services
7. Test Driven Designg Using ZenTest
8. A Rails Testing Tutorial
9. How to Use ZenTest with Ruby
10. Autotest Rails
11. Testing Rails Apps
12. Selenium on Rails
13. Running Your Rails App Headless
14. YAML Fixtures
15. Testing RJS Templates
16. RJS Assertions
17. 2005 Rubyconf ZenTest Movies - Ryan Davis
18. ZenTest Blog
19. Test-First development

Collecting email addesses on your website

In email marketing it is important to use the names of your subscribers to establish connection. When users fillout the forms to subscribe to your list some of them will be lazy and enter names in all lowercase. When you merge the fields during mailing your newsletter it can be very tedious to clean up the database.

In Rails, you can cleanup the name fields as follows:

test = "StRrIPPed TEst"
test.upcase.titlecase

This will create a string : "Strripped Test"

Remember that Rails has opened the existing string class and added these methods to it. So to find out the methods that are available:

~/work/testr > ./script/console
(From the Rails project directory)

> test.methods

will give you list of all available methods.

Subversion Setup for Edge Rails

The following steps are customized for my needs from the Subversion Primer for Rails Project.

1. mkdir ~/svn

2. svnadmin create --fs-type=fsfs ~/svn/pinkatio

pinkatio is the name of the Rails project

3. REPOS=file:///Users/balaparanj/svn/pinkatio

For some reason the `pwd' embedded inside the file:// does not work.

4. svn mkdir --message="Initial project layout" $REPOS/trunk $REPOS/tags $REPOS/branches

5. ~/work/pinkatio > rails pinkatio

6. ~/work/pinkatio > svn checkout $REPOS/trunk .

7. ~/work/pinkatio > svn add --force .

8. ~/work/pinkatio > svn mkdir db/migrate tmp

Ignore any error message for tmp directory.

9. ~/work/pinkatio > svn revert log/*

10. ~/work/pinkatio > svn propset svn:ignore "*.log" log

11. ~/work/pinkatio > svn propset svn:ignore "*" tmp

12. ~/work/pinkatio > svn propset svn:ignore "*doc" doc

13. ~/work/pinkatio > svn propset svn:executable "*" `find script -type f | grep -v '.svn'` public/dispatch.*

14. ~/work/pinkatio > svn commit --message="New Rails project"

15. ~/work/pinkatio > svn propset svn:externals "rails http://dev.rubyonrails.org/svn/rails/trunk/" vendor

16. ~/work/pinkatio > svn update vendor

17. ~/work/pinkatio > yes | rails .

18. ~/work/pinkatio > svn commit --message="Living on the Edge - set svn:externals on vendor / for Rails"


I skipped the steps to delete and remove the index.html from svn because the command yes | rails . undoes that step.

Resources:

1. How to use Rails with Subversion
2. Create a Rails project skeleton and import and checkout from SVN all at once!

Rubyisms in Rails Book Review

I just finished reading this book. This book has the best explanation on symbols. It does a good job of explaining duck typing, blocks and metaprogramming. The topics under metaprogramming are very easy to understand, they are reflection, message sending and method missing.

I found it easier to understand because it shows snippets of Java code to show how the problem can be solved and then gives the Ruby equivalent.

It does not explain very well or go deeper on the DSL topic. This could have doubled the size of the book easily.

Rails Secure Plugin and Google Checkout Plugin for Rails

secure_action is a ruby on rails plugin which makes it easy to defend your site against assumed logged in attacks.

To install, check out the code in your RAILS_ROOT/vendor/plugins/ directory and follow the instructions in the README:

svn checkout http://secure-action-plugin.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ secure-action-plugin

Interesting article from a developer

http://code.google.com/apis/checkout/cookbook.html

svn checkout http://checkout-on-rails.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ checkout-on-rails

Rails RESTful Authentication Plugin Part II

1. Include the line: map.connect '/', :controller => "sessions", :action => 'index'
in routes.rb
Browse the source code you will see that after login and logout the action methods route to '/', so the above definition will load the index.rhtml for the sessions_controller

2. In the sessions_controller.rb add the following method:
def index
end
3. Create a index.rhtml file in the views/sessions directory, include the following lines in the file:

<% if flash[:notice] -%>

<%= flash[:notice] %>

<% end -%>

Now when you login or logout, you will the message "You are logged in" and "You have been logged out message".

4. You can also uncomment the code for remember me functionality in the rhtml file. This will provide a check box that allows the user to login without entering the username and password.

How to setup RESTful Authentication

The following steps are tested on Mac OS 10.4.8

1. Create the Rails application: rails testr

2. Cd to testr directory. You need Rails 1.2 for this plugin, so:
rake rails:freeze:edge

3. Install the plugin: ruby script/plugin install http://svn.techno-weenie.net/projects/plugins/restful_authentication/
(the command must be in one line)

4. Add the resouces in the config/routes.rb file (just below the first line):

map.resources :users, :sessions
map.signup '/signup', :controller => 'users', :action => 'new'
map.login '/login', :controller => 'sessions', :action => 'new'
map.logout '/logout', :controller => 'sessions', :action => 'destroy'

I also commented out the last line (default Rails 1.1 style routing).

5. Generate the migrations: ./script/generate authenticated user sessions

6. Generate mailer: ./script/generate authenticated_mailer user

7. Run mysql server

8. Specify the database password in database.yml file in config directory

9. Create testr_development database (Use CocoaSQL, YourSQL, MySQL Query Browser or command line)

10. Cd to db/migrate directory and run: rake db:migrate

11. Start the webserver: $testr > ./script/server

12. Point the browser to http://localhost:3000/signup

13. View the output of the signup process in the server console, you will see SQL insert statement.

14. Check the user table to see the newly created record.

15. Go to http://localhost:3000/login and http://localhost:3000/logout and play with the application.

I am getting sqlsock error in RailsLive CD environment. It has MySQL server 5.0. My mac has MySQL server 4.0 and it does not have any problems.

Getting Real - 37 SIgnals book

Last night I bought the "Getting Real" book from 37 signals and I finished
reading it. Here is the process that they have used with success:

1. Draw html mock-ups using paper and pencil. Easy to change and the cost of
throwing it away is negligible.
2. Create static html mockup for your site. Get feedback and make any
changes.
3. Code the most essential feature. Less is more. (They talk about
"Epicenter Design")
4. Release. Say no to all the features requested by customer. Incorporate
only those that align with the "Vision" for your software and is requested
by most of the customers.

In general there is no artifacts such as documentation, specification or
diagrams created during the product development. They are a waste of time
since no one can agree on issues. It is easier to know what we are building
and refine it when we play with the real thing.

It has helped me to think clearly and I have gained so much from this book.
I now have a blueprint for building a successful online business. I highly
recommend this book.

Rails Goodies

Agile Web Development with Rails covers the Model, View and Controller part of the Rails framework very throughly.

It falls short in AJAX and WebServices. OReilly's $10 pdf book on RJS and Webservices really rocks.

Money Train is another pdf book which is basically based on the RailsConf 2006 presentation. It contains very practical tips on Rails development.

Also $100 subscription to the RailsConf 2006 online video is not worth it. The quality of some of the videos is poor. The website has problems streaming the content. It drops the connection several times. Very frustrating experience. Half of the recordings have no video. I got the password for the site after 4 days.

There are some good presentations, I liked the DSL presentations. Google Reader is great, I subscribed for all the Rails related blogs and sites. It saved me money, I decided not to buy the RSS reader for Mac OS.

Linux RailsLiveCD and VMWare Player on Windows

Booting the RailsLiveCD from the CD was problematic. Changed the BIOS setting to boot from CD, still no luck. Fortunately it is even better with VMWare player. It is free. This method also allows you to run both windows and Linux at the same time.

1. Download and install the free VMware player.
2. Download and install the generic virtual machine.
3. Rename the RailsLiveCD iso file to livecd.iso. Move this file to the same directory as the generic virtual machine.
4. Open the vmx file in the VMware player and enjoy.

This blog is more descriptive.

Subversion svn server

Pragmmatic Version Control - using Subversion is a very easy to read book. It makes it easy to learn about Subversion. This book will prepare you to move on to the free book on Subversion available at redbean. Search Rails mailing list for the actual link.

The reason for this post is that this explains about how to use the svn server to connect to your repository. I am running Subversion on my Powerbook. The IP address changes due to my ISP. In order to give a host name to my Mac I followed the instructions on the site Give your Mac OS X computer a hostname with DynDNS

It was easy to sign up for the account. However the article does not provide the following tips:

The website design makes it very difficult to navigate. Find the link for Home Solutions on the left navigation and go to "Official Macintosh/OS X Update Client". Download this and install it. Follow the instructions on the article I have mentioned above.

The update client will automatically map the dynamic IP of the machine to the host name you have selected.

Now you can enjoy working on your machine when you are away from home!!!

Subversion, RadRails, Subclipse and Eclipse

Installed Eclipse 3.2, Subclipse, and Eclipse Plugin for RadRails. You must install the RDT before installing RadRails, So grab this first http://updatesite.rubypeople.org/release and then this http://radrails.sourceforge.net/update

Otherwise you will get error message that the dependent library is not found.

The new version of standalone RadRails 0.7 is just out. I think it will be available for download anytime.

I don't know how to get rid of the missing JavaHL library in standalone RadRails. This prevented me from configuring the Subversion. This problem is happening in the other configuration also.

Got some help from Rails mailing list. Select the JavaSVN (Pure Java) as the SVN interface. The error message disappeared.

Upgrading old rails application for new rails version

Run the following command from your application directory:

rake rails:update

This will update all the configs, scripts and javascripts to the latest
version.

JSP 2.0, MySQL Server and Tomcat 5.5

Installed JDK 1.5 by making it the first entry in the path variable. Oracle was pointing to JRE 1.3.
Installed Tomcat 5.5. This version runs as a windows service and does not have the usual start and stop tomcat features. Wonder why.
Installed the MySQL server. Created an admin account with admin as the password. My SQL server runs on port# 3306. During the creation of the account it failed to connect to the MySQL server because windows was blocking the port.
To allow the connection to the MySQL server port go to control panel -> firewall -> advanced and new configuration. Name the description of service as MySQL server and provide the name of your computer (or just say localhost, windows automatically changes it to the name of your computer). Enable the TCP/IP by giving the external port number as 10061 and internal port number as 3306. Save it. Now the configuration assistant will complete with no problem when you click on the "Retry" button.

Created a test table by following the Data Source configuration instructions for Tomcat 5.5. You have include a Context entry in the server.xml with data source configuration settings. You must also create a web.xml file. Deploy the test.jsp as war file. You will be able to run it and see the output of the JSTL tags which queries the table and shows the data in the table.

If you get exception related to JSTL tags then you must copy the JSTL tag related libraries to your WEB-INF/lib directory.

The new features of JSP and JSTL allows rapid development of dynamic web pages driven by database. This is a perfect solution for web apps that are just reporting tools with no business logic. In this case the application is simple and does not need a domain model, intergration tier etc.

JSF on Mac OS X

1) Installed the open source JSF plug-in for Eclipse.
2) Installed Tomcat and Sysdeo plug-in.

I was able to run simple login app using JSF. It is very easy to use the JSF XML editor. It gives context help. Defining the navigation is also very easy by using the Palette feature of plug-in. This lends itself for visual development. It generates all the XML code for navigation rules etc.

Also looked at using WSAD 5.1.2 with its inbuilt JSF capabilities. Decided not to use it. Mainly because it generates a lot of IBM extensions in the generated code. This is not acceptable, since portability is very important. Clients who want to use open-source tools must be able to run my apps.

Year End Tax Planning for the Self Employed

Ways to minimize tax deductions:

1. Send december invoice to your client on Jan 01.
2. Pay your accounts payable in advance (even those that are due in jan). Could be your accommodation for the month of Jan.
3. Buy equipment for your business and take a deduction for upto $17,000. Of course this must be required by the business so that it gives you an competitive edge in the market and generates cash flow in the future.
4. Spend money to accelerate your corporate growth. I love this one. I might buy a high-end laptop and Webtrend pro by the end of this year.

These ideas are good if you have a good cash flow. You either postpone your income or prepone your expenses to minimize taxes. This is helpful because, it helps you during the transition to a new contract when you have to wait for 45 days or more for the first payment. So tax planning helps to get through the bumps ahead in the first quarter of next year. Don't over do or abuse it. It is reasonable to do it for the right reasons.

Consult a CPA and get advice for your scenario. I called a CPA and the fees are too much for me. He quoted $1600 for his services.

You could also apply for a solo 401k before the end of the year. But you don't have to fund your account by the end of the year. Because only after the end of the year you will be able to compute the amount of money you can contribute to this account. It is computed only for the amount you earned on 1099. You have to exclude any w2 income. Solo 401k allows you to get loan against your account for upto 50% of your account (maximum is $50,000). This way you can have your cake and eat it too. You get the tax benefit, the remaining money in your account act as an emergency fund and you are able to access half of the account and use it for your business or personsal expenses.

How to calculate your hourly rate

I accidentally found a new way to find your hourly rate for your consulting services. As many of you already know that the rate depends on the geographical location. Search for salary calculator in Google and go to the homefair.com website.

1. Calculate the salary based on your present location to the new location. Let's say it is 160k /yr.
2. Do a job search on Dice and check out the salary or hourly rate for that area and your level of experience. Lets say this is 95-145k/year.
3. Go to Candlewood suites website and check out the daily room rate for 30 days or more. For example this can be 80/night.

As you can see #1, #2, #3 all confirm each other. (160/2=80)

So your hourly rate for the new location should be $80/hr

Time Management

1. Do few things and do them well.
2. Learn few long lasting things very well.
3. Minimize delegation to others as much as possible. Eliminating this dependency increases reliability.
4. Don't expect to do lot of activities during your spare time. Just relax.
5. Clear out the clutter on your desk and focus on accomplishing one task at a time. Set your ego aside and leave multitasking to Bill Gates.
6. Set your priorities to help you choose things that must be done.
7. Consider maintenance costs in time and money before spending money on any item.
8. Reduce learning curve by focusing your learning on few things that are stable and does not change too fast.

auto login

Step 1 : Include this :

JavaScript begin tag

function autoSubmit(form){
document.forms[0].submit();
}
End javascript tag

begin [body onLoad='autoSubmit()']
begin html:form action="/LoginLogout.do?method=login">

Step 2 : Hard code the user id and password in the value attributes.

From Use cases to code in a Struts project

Notes on going from Use cases to code for Struts. Joe Seilman and Struts in action.

1. Gather requirements.
2. Determine the data captured and displayed to the user. Screen requirements.
3. Find all the possible paths to the screen.
4. Design Action Mappings from the workflow of the application.
5. Create Action Form classes from the screen.
6. Create Action classes to implement the Action Mappings.
7. Develop the business logic by implementing the Business Delegate.
8. Develop the JSP and the presentation tier components.
9. Configure the components - struts-config.xml, web.xml resource bundle etc.
10. Build - Deploy - Test.