OnRails.org

Feature article on Compassionate Communications, a Ruby on Rails website.

Daniel Wanja — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:55:40 +0000

A while back I worked with Lee and Sean on Compassionate Communications which was featured in an interview/article in the San Diego North County Times last week. Read it here.

Check out the Advanced ActiveRecord Envycast

Daniel Wanja — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:54:46 +0000

I just went through the first screencast from the Rails Envy guys’. I wasn’t sure if I would liked the fact that they used a green screen approach, but thought I would support their effort as I really like their weekly podcast. Guess what? It’s a really good screen cast, very informative, high quality and well done. Wait, there is more, they have a cool Cheat Sheet that comes with the download. Well worth the money, go check it out.

Flex from Ford, Power by Microsoft.

Daniel Wanja — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:35:57 +0000

Is Ford is jumping on the Flex bandwagon? And powered by Microsoft?

Flex on Rails: the book - release date?

Daniel Wanja — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:44:50 +0000

As you may know we started a while back with Tony on concocting some of our experiments, war stories, successes, discoveries, real life project experience on using Flex with Rails into a book titled “Flex on Rails: Building Rich Internet Applications With Adobe Flex 3.0 and Rails 2.0”. We are now “code complete”, wrote all the chapters and are in what I suspect (/hope) is the final editing stage. Yea!... well, that may end up being a longer process than I imagined and was told that it may take up to four month once the final manuscript is accepted. Nevertheless it was funny seeing our book appear on different book selling website as pre-order. Being my first (published) book I was curious and did some googling to see when it will be really ready. It’s pretty ‘funny’ to see how the dates are moving as the days go buy, but in short here is a quick overview on when the book will be released according to google…note..we are not totally done yet…so I wouldn’t really announce a date yet, but if google says…then it must be true :-) !!! Well, I was really hoping it hits the shelves earlier than some of these:

1/16/2009 buy.com – $29.70
02/28/2009 amazon.co.uk – $28.79
May 29, 2008 oreilly.com
12/26/2008 biggerbooks.com – $38.21
12/1/2008 loot.co.za – R385.00
12/26/2008 ecampus.com – $38.99
2008/12/2 monoclip.jp
2009/01 bookweb.kinokuniya.jp
2009/01 www.amazon.co.jp – 5,772(税込) この商品は1500円以上国内配送料無料

Flash Player 10 Mobile for iPhone?

Daniel Wanja — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:58:00 +0000

I was viewing the video of the Day 1 Keynote by Mark Anders at 360Flex where he made a reference to a mobile Flash application build in Flex. Mark just skinned a desktop app which turned in into a very iPhone like application which just happen to have the iPhone screen dimensions and behavior. It's 56 minutes in the presentation. Check it out and let me know what you think. I've included a video extract here after (without the sound):

That's when he changed the skin:

That would be cool if we could soon start coding in Flex for the iPhone. Enjoy! Daniel.

What are all the Rails Date Formats?

Lee Marlow — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:54:00 +0000

Ever forget what all the Rails defined Date/DateTime/Time#strftime formats are? Or forget what ones you added to the project yourself?

Ala rake routes comes rake date_formats:

Sample output from a Rails 2.1 app:

Date
====
            db:'%Y-%m-%d'   2008-08-20
  long_ordinal:'&proc'      August 20th, 2008
          long:'%B %e, %Y'  August 20, 2008
        rfc822:'%e %b %Y'   20 Aug 2008
        number:'%Y%m%d'     20080820
         short:'%e %b'      20 Aug

DateTime
========
            db:'%Y-%m-%d'   2008-08-20 16:56:21
  long_ordinal:'&proc'      August 20th, 2008 16:56
          long:'%B %e, %Y'  August 20, 2008 16:56
        rfc822:'%e %b %Y'   Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:56:21 -0600
        number:'%Y%m%d'     20080820165621
         short:'%e %b'      20 Aug 16:56

Time
====
            db:'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'         2008-08-20 16:56:21
  long_ordinal:'&proc'                     August 20th, 2008 16:56
          long:'%B %d, %Y %H:%M'           August 20, 2008 16:56
        rfc822:'%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z'  Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:56:21 -0600
         short:'%d %b %H:%M'               20 Aug 16:56
        number:'%Y%m%d%H%M%S'              20080820165621
          time:'%H:%M'                     16:56

360Flex sessions video - Day one

Daniel Wanja — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:18:54 +0000

Sessions Posted:

TicketMaster Kiosk by Kevin Fauth
Flex Accessibility by Giorgio Natili
Reading the Flex source code by Jonathan Branam
Project Workflow by Axel Jensen
Creating Reusable Components by Ben Clinkbeard

From Ted’s blog.

Nested to_xml for awesome_nested_set

Daniel Wanja — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:47:04 +0000

I was updating an example build using the better_nested_set to use the awesome_nested_set. One thing that I didn’t find in awesome_nested_set are some helper methods that are returning a full tree of the nested set as one XML document. With better nested set I could do

Category.result_to_attributes_xml(Category.root.ancestors)

So I have added the following full_xml method to my nested active record to recurse all the children. Note that the full_method calls the full_method on the children passing along the xml builder that is created by the to_xml method and passed as the xml variable to block, thus building a nested XML document.

class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :parent, :class_name => "Category"
  acts_as_nested_set     

  def full_xml(builder=nil)     
    to_xml(:builder => builder, :skip_instruct => true) do |xml|
      children.each { |child| child.full_xml(xml) }
    end
  end

end

Obviously it would be nice that the awesome_nested_set provides such a method.

So let’s assume I create the following nested structure:

Category.transaction do
  root = Category.create(:name => "Main Category")

  cameras = Category.create(:name => "Cameras & Photo")  
  cameras.move_to_child_of(root)
  Category.create(:name => "Bags", :qty_in_stock => 2).move_to_child_of(cameras)
  Category.create(:name => "Accessories", :qty_in_stock => 12).move_to_child_of(cameras)
  Category.create(:name => "Analog Cameras", :qty_in_stock => 0).move_to_child_of(cameras)
  Category.create(:name => "Digital Cameras", :qty_in_stock => 5).move_to_child_of(cameras)

  phones = Category.create(:name => "Cell Phones")
  phones.move_to_child_of(root) 
  Category.create(:name => "Accessories", :qty_in_stock => 8).move_to_child_of(phones)
  Category.create(:name => "Phones", :qty_in_stock => 20).move_to_child_of(phones)
  Category.create(:name => "Prepaid Cards", :qty_in_stock => 3).move_to_child_of(phones)

  dvds = Category.create(:name => "Dvds")
  dvds.move_to_child_of(root) 
  Category.create(:name => "Blueray", :qty_in_stock => 10).move_to_child_of(dvds)
  Category.create(:name => "HD DVD", :qty_in_stock => 0).move_to_child_of(dvds)
  Category.create(:name => "DVD", :qty_in_stock => 100).move_to_child_of(dvds)

end

I can now get the whole nested structure in one go:

Category.roots.first.full_xml

And get the following XML in return.

<category>
  <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
  <description nil="true"></description>
  <id type="integer">1</id>
  <lft type="integer">1</lft>
  <name>Main Category</name>
  <parent-id type="integer" nil="true"></parent-id>
  <qty-in-stock type="integer" nil="true"></qty-in-stock>
  <rgt type="integer">28</rgt>
  <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
  <category>
    <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
    <description nil="true"></description>
    <id type="integer">11</id>
    <lft type="integer">2</lft>
    <name>Dvds</name>
    <parent-id type="integer">1</parent-id>
    <qty-in-stock type="integer" nil="true"></qty-in-stock>
    <rgt type="integer">9</rgt>
    <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    <category>
      <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
      <description nil="true"></description>
      <id type="integer">14</id>
      <lft type="integer">3</lft>
      <name>DVD</name>
      <parent-id type="integer">11</parent-id>
      <qty-in-stock type="integer">100</qty-in-stock>
      <rgt type="integer">4</rgt>
      <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    </category>
    <category>
      <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
      <description nil="true"></description>
      <id type="integer">13</id>
      <lft type="integer">5</lft>
      <name>HD DVD</name>
      <parent-id type="integer">11</parent-id>
      <qty-in-stock type="integer">0</qty-in-stock>
      <rgt type="integer">6</rgt>
      <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    </category>
    <category>
      <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
      <description nil="true"></description>
      <id type="integer">12</id>
      <lft type="integer">7</lft>
      <name>Blueray</name>
      <parent-id type="integer">11</parent-id>
      <qty-in-stock type="integer">10</qty-in-stock>
      <rgt type="integer">8</rgt>
      <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    </category>
  </category>
  <category>
    <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
    <description nil="true"></description>
    <id type="integer">7</id>
    <lft type="integer">10</lft>
    <name>Cell Phones</name>
    <parent-id type="integer">1</parent-id>
    <qty-in-stock type="integer" nil="true"></qty-in-stock>
    <rgt type="integer">17</rgt>
    <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    <category>
      <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
      <description nil="true"></description>
      <id type="integer">10</id>
      <lft type="integer">11</lft>
      <name>Prepaid Cards</name>
      <parent-id type="integer">7</parent-id>
      <qty-in-stock type="integer">3</qty-in-stock>
      <rgt type="integer">12</rgt>
      <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    </category>
    <category>
      <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
      <description nil="true"></description>
      <id type="integer">9</id>
      <lft type="integer">13</lft>
      <name>Phones</name>
      <parent-id type="integer">7</parent-id>
      <qty-in-stock type="integer">20</qty-in-stock>
      <rgt type="integer">14</rgt>
      <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    </category>
    <category>
      <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
      <description nil="true"></description>
      <id type="integer">8</id>
      <lft type="integer">15</lft>
      <name>Accessories</name>
      <parent-id type="integer">7</parent-id>
      <qty-in-stock type="integer">8</qty-in-stock>
      <rgt type="integer">16</rgt>
      <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    </category>
  </category>
  <category>
    <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
    <description nil="true"></description>
    <id type="integer">2</id>
    <lft type="integer">18</lft>
    <name>Cameras &amp; Photo</name>
    <parent-id type="integer">1</parent-id>
    <qty-in-stock type="integer" nil="true"></qty-in-stock>
    <rgt type="integer">27</rgt>
    <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    <category>
      <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
      <description nil="true"></description>
      <id type="integer">6</id>
      <lft type="integer">19</lft>
      <name>Digital Cameras</name>
      <parent-id type="integer">2</parent-id>
      <qty-in-stock type="integer">5</qty-in-stock>
      <rgt type="integer">20</rgt>
      <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    </category>
    <category>
      <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
      <description nil="true"></description>
      <id type="integer">5</id>
      <lft type="integer">21</lft>
      <name>Analog Cameras</name>
      <parent-id type="integer">2</parent-id>
      <qty-in-stock type="integer">0</qty-in-stock>
      <rgt type="integer">22</rgt>
      <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    </category>
    <category>
      <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
      <description nil="true"></description>
      <id type="integer">4</id>
      <lft type="integer">23</lft>
      <name>Accessories</name>
      <parent-id type="integer">2</parent-id>
      <qty-in-stock type="integer">12</qty-in-stock>
      <rgt type="integer">24</rgt>
      <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    </category>
    <category>
      <created-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</created-at>
      <description nil="true"></description>
      <id type="integer">3</id>
      <lft type="integer">25</lft>
      <name>Bags</name>
      <parent-id type="integer">2</parent-id>
      <qty-in-stock type="integer">2</qty-in-stock>
      <rgt type="integer">26</rgt>
      <updated-at type="datetime">2008-08-18T14:46:07Z</updated-at>
    </category>
  </category>
</category>

How do you deal with that situation?

iPhone in nearly every state. 147 out of 188 stores.

Daniel Wanja — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:15:11 +0000

From hasiphone.com July 22nd 2pm.

hasiphone.com now with US map

Daniel Wanja — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:17:17 +0000

Thanks to the Degrafa library I was able to add a “US Map of iPhone 3G” Availability in an hour to the hasiphone.com application.

Also I automated the extraction part of the data and check every hour if new data is there. I was assuming that the data changes only once a day and therefore all the delta (the + and – next to the availability) are based on previous day. This morning there were only four stores with iPhones, and hour ago 76 and now 78. So it seems that the data is updated more frequently or I have a bug in my extraction routing. Whatever the situation I am leaving on vacations for the next two weeks and won’t take my notebook with me, so hopefully the data is correct. My good friend Sol will keep an eye on the extraction process to see that we get some daily data. Thanks Sol, ya da man.

Enjoy! Daniel.

is cool