Ruby on Rails Planet

Know When to Fold 'Em »

Created at: 04.11.2009 02:22, source: RailsTips - Home, tagged: gems

I have a lot of projects. Each time I feel pain or inspiration, I’ll whip together a new library and release it as a gem. It is fun and I love it. It is even more fun when people come along and use those projects to do cool stuff. This in turn, inspires me to write more code and release more projects. It is a vicious cycle.

A while back, I caught myself making jokes about how I don’t even use my projects. I can barely remember the last time I actually used HTTParty, HappyMapper, or the Twitter gem. Not too long ago, I came across Dr. Nic’s Future Ruby talk on Living with 1000 open source projects.

In the presentation, he says that you should maintain the projects you use everyday and abandon the rest. Good advice. Over the past few months, I have been seeding maintenance and new features to other talented developers for several of my projects.

HTTParty

The first to go was HTTParty. I believe it was the Ruby Hoedown where I ran into Sandro. He mentioned some HTTParty bugs and asked him if he was interested in taking over. He accepted and the last release (0.4.5) was all him.

HappyMapper

Brandon Keepers, a good friend of mine, has a client project that uses HappyMapper, so the fact that he actually uses it made him a logical choice to help with the maintenance of it. He did a bunch of namespace work for the 0.3 release and now has commit rights.

The Twitter Gem

The last gem that was beginning to feel like a burden was the Twitter gem. Wynn Netherland has built several apps that rely on the Twitter gem, so I gave him commit rights and he recently added lists to it.

Conclusion

I can’t say that I am abandoning these projects, as I am sure from time to time I’ll feel inspired and spend some time on them. I just know that I am no good for them if I am not using them. I can’t feel the pain or know what is needed if I am not using the code.

I’m posting about this for two reasons. First and foremost to give some credit to the people who are doing the work now. Second, just setting some expectations that I probably won’t be snappy in responses for these projects as I’m not actively working on them anymore.

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Planet Argon Podcast, Episode 1: Shin Splints »

Created at: 23.10.2009 02:50, source: Robby on Rails, tagged: Ruby on Rails PLANET ARGON podcast authlogic gems machinist faker less css textorize

We’re currently waiting to get our new podcast approved by Apple, but have uploaded episode 1 to tumblr in the meantime.

In this short episode, we cover the following topics:

We’re planning to keep this short and focused to a few topics. Once it’s posted on iTunes, we’ll let you know.

Please consider subscribing to the podcast. Enjoy!

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Getting Started With MongoMapper and Rails »

Created at: 24.07.2009 01:17, source: RailsTips - Home, tagged: gems mongodb mongomapper video

In which I show how to get up and running with MongoMapper and Rails in both text and video formats.

I have had a few requests for tips on getting started with MongoDB and Rails so I thought I would drop some quick knowledge. It is actually really easy to get going, but Rails always does everything for you so when something comes along that doesn’t, you sometimes feel lost.

rails mongomapper_demo
cd mongomapper_demo

Now that your Rails shell is created, let’s add MongoMapper to the mix. Open up environment.rb. First, configure it as a gem, then remove ActiveRecord from the mix, and lastly, point it at a database.

Rails::Initializer.run do |config|
  config.gem 'mongomapper', :version => '>= 0.2.1'
  config.frameworks -= [:active_record]
end

MongoMapper.database = "myappname-#{Rails.env}"

As of now there are no fancy generators for your models (gasp!) so you can just create a new file in app/models and an accompanying file in test/unit. Or, if you like, you can use script generate like so and just adjust your model after it is created (until I or some kind soul gets around to generators).

script/generate model Note --skip-migration

Then you can just change your app/models/note.rb file to be something like this:

class Note
  include MongoMapper::Document

  key :title, String
  key :body, String
end

I’d like to say there is more to it, but there isn’t. :) Don’t worry about creating your database or migrating it. It all happens on the fly.

Video

For those that prefer visual learning, I’ve even whipped together a short screencast where I install MongoDB on OSX, fire it up, and build a really basic note app. Enjoy!

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Getting Started With MongoMapper and Rails »

Created at: 24.07.2009 01:17, source: RailsTips - Home, tagged: mongodb mongomapper gems video

Warning: This is currently out of date as it was based on an older version of MongoMapper.

I have had a few requests for tips on getting started with MongoDB and Rails so I thought I would drop some quick knowledge. It is actually really easy to get going, but Rails always does everything for you so when something comes along that doesn’t, you sometimes feel lost.

rails mongomapper_demo
cd mongomapper_demo

Now that your Rails shell is created, let’s add MongoMapper to the mix. Open up environment.rb. First, configure it as a gem, then remove ActiveRecord from the mix, and lastly, point it at a database.

Rails::Initializer.run do |config|
  config.gem 'mongomapper', :version => '>= 0.2.1'
  config.frameworks -= [:active_record]
end

MongoMapper.database = "myappname-#{Rails.env}"

As of now there are no fancy generators for your models (gasp!) so you can just create a new file in app/models and an accompanying file in test/unit. Or, if you like, you can use script generate like so and just adjust your model after it is created (until I or some kind soul gets around to generators).

script/generate model Note --skip-migration

Then you can just change your app/models/note.rb file to be something like this:

class Note
  include MongoMapper::Document
  
  key :title, String
  key :body, String
end

I’d like to say there is more to it, but there isn’t. :) Don’t worry about creating your database or migrating it. It all happens on the fly.

Video

For those that prefer visual learning, I’ve even whipped together a short screencast where I install MongoDB on OSX, fire it up, and build a really basic note app. Enjoy!

more »

Howdy Rip! »

Created at: 11.06.2009 20:35, source: Robby on Rails, tagged: Ruby on Rails ruby programming ruby rubygems gems git github rubyonrails development

Chris Wanstrath (@defunkt) just posted the following on twitter.

“Hello Rip – http://hellorip.com/“

The Rip project describes itself as, “an attempt to create a next generation packaging system for Ruby.”

One of the cool features is that it supports multiple environments. For example, you can have different Rip environments (with different gem versioning) that are targeted towards specific applications. I have to dig around more through the project, but this looks fascinating.

Check it out at http://hellorip.com/

I’m also curious as to how you think you might be able to start using this.

What are some ways that you could use Rip—http://heybrainstormr.com/t/pgte

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bgror