Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with rubyonrails

Does anyone know the typeface/font used in the Ruby and Ruby on Rails logos?

MediaJunkie — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:35:26 -0800

Does anyone know the typeface/font used in the Ruby and Ruby on Rails logos?

I want to be a web developer! Maybe!

dougunderscorenelso — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:15:15 -0800

I want to quit designing and become a web developer! Can I? Should I? Where do I start? Background: I've been designing for 8 years, exclusively web for the past 4 years. Picked up CSS/validation/site optimization really fast, jumped in jQuery, moved to general Javascript, and I'm learning it pretty quickly. I work in a Rails shop, and I've been told that I can move into a "buildout developer" role if I want to, which would involve CSS/HTML, but of course, no Rails. I'd like to move further, even if it means going somewhere with lower expectations and pay.

Why developing? I've finally realized that I love making things, learning things, and fixing things. Unfortunately, most graphic designers spend their time "selling things," which sounded sexy at 22, but seems downright icky now. The best part of every workday is when I get to use some Regex or set a session variable, so coding for a living seems attractive.

Is it too late? I work with people who've been on LAMP stacks since age 16, and I can't write a single SQL query. Is there too much a knowledge gap between me and lifelong developers?

Where to start? Going to a framework like Rails immediately sounds like cheating, but what do I know? What should I start playing around with, to get a general idea of how servers/DBs/languages work? What kind of goals ("Write a plugin", "Launch an app") could I reasonable set for myself in a new language?

Thanks in advance!

Which to use: PHP, Django, Rails or something else?

teracloth — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:53:10 -0800

What programming language or framework should I use for my simple Web database project? Here's my project: taking a database of local property assessment data and posting it, searchably and sortably, onto a usable public Web site. Ideally with goodies like a mobile-friendly version, links to Google Maps and so forth.

I want to do this, in part, because I want to learn skills that'll be useful in future public-facing Web projects.

I know HTML and can wrangle PHP about as well as I could speak Spanish after two years in high school. I messed around a little with Django back in 2006, but didn't seem to have the basic programming vocabulary that its creators assumed.

I've been running a couple Wordpress blogs off a Dreamhost server for a couple years, so the hosting is lined up.

There's no deadline, but I'm giving myself one week to work on this full-time.

Right now, I'm thinking of either:

- doing it all in PHP/MySQL (the boring and perhaps sloppy option)
- diving into Django again (the dogged option)
- trying to learn Rails, like the friends keep telling me (the A.D.D./ambitious option)

My questions:

- Are Django and Rails way too overpowered for this project?
- At this point, is Django looking like a dead end? Should I be investing my framework-learning energy in the broader Rails community?
- Should I be considering some other option altogether, such as Drupal?

Webinar solution built on Rails?

aebaxter — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:39:27 -0800

Webinar solution built on Rails? Is there a webinar company/webinar hosting solution that's built on Rails?

Help updating Ruby (on Rails)

theRussian — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:31:55 -0800

How do I update Ruby/get RoR working? (OS X 10.4). Ok, I am generally tech savvy, so this is getting frustrating.

I have Mr. Macky here that had ruby 1.8.2 on him when I got home from work. Thinking I'd get a little web appy with some RoR, so I downloaded RubyGems as instructed here.

When I run sudo ruby setup.rb, I get the following error: Expected Ruby version > 1.8.3, was 1.8.2.
Ok, I think, so I go out to download 1.8.6, and follow the instructions as on the above page. Except that these directions install to the ruby-1.8.6 directory on my desktop.

I google, I go through the instructions to update via fink. No dice. ruby -v still gets me 1.8.2; fink complains that ruby is up to date and refuses to update. After more googling and command-lining I somehow revert to version 1.8.1. Which is where I stand at this moment.

Help! I feel like uber-fail. This should have been a 10 minute task at most. If anyone is up for a step by step help session, my email is in my profile--we can exchange IMs or something.

Thanks in advance, guys.

Help me pick a web dev language to learn.

the_dude — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:31:15 -0800

I am trying to decide which web language + framework to focus on for learning this summer. I am stuck between PHP, Python (with Django maybe) or Ruby (on Rails). Basically, I am asking for people's input on all languages. They all have their ups and downs and I'm pretty sure I'll have to learn all of them at some point but I have start somewhere. Here is my initial perspective on all. Correct me, add relevant info and make suggestions.

PHP
+I actually have a passing knowledge of PHP. Not enough maybe to create something big but I have added small features, worked on cleaning other people's code
+It's very common.
-It somewhat seems unprofessional, probably because I feel like everyone and their mom has done something with it.

Ruby
+It's the new cool.
-It's the new cool.
+It seems very elegant and easy to learn, especially for developing something for the web with Rails.
+For some reason, the RoR community seems very friendly and I approve of their ideas a lot.

Python
+It's a lot more serious than Ruby, I feel like. It might be more useful for other things too as a standalone language
+Similar outlook on stuff with RoR community.
-Maybe not as big community for learning as it is with PHP and RoR. Not sure about this but others definitely have a lot of stuff.

Anyway, thanks a lot for reading along.

Also, if you would care to make a suggestion, I'd appreciate some books or websites to start things off with.

How to report?

d4nj450n — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:10:43 -0800

I need to create a web interface to both static and dynamic reports, how should I go about this? So I generate reports, these days mostly using crystal reports, but I can do my own with perl and sql and such. I have been tasked with creating a reporting hub that can host static and on-demand queries.

Here are some requirements:

-I need to give access to people both in and outside the company
-Granular security to the level of document and login, ideally with groups
-Static documents that are already generated automatically by programs
-Dynamic documents that query a database based on user supplied input probably with some additional processing
-Free or very low cost
-Windows or RedHat Linux (preferably linux)
-Setup-able in a reasonable amount of time

And here are my ideas for going about it:

-Build my own using the web-server security, html docs and cgi's
I can do this. Have the skills.

-Learn Ruby on Rails and build a system with that.
Would be fun and educational to learn. I am told RoR is a snap, but I don't really know what can and cannot be done.

-Get a CMS that allows this sort of thing
Could be more flexible in the long run. There has been some interest some simple project management tools. No idea which cms (sorta looking at webgui). No idea how hard these are to setup and manage.

Anybody ever do any thing like this? If CMS can you recommend a system?

Rails broke my AJAX!

Alterscape — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:25:04 -0800

Please help me get a Javascript embedded in an SVG talking to a Javascript embedded in an XHTML page, when they're both in a Ruby on Rails RHTML template. Works fine when the HTML page is a flatfile, not so well in RoR. I'm in the process of building a relatively simple AJAX (well, AJAS) script that loads the contents of an SVG document from a server-generated JSON file via an XMLHTTPRequest -- the page javascript loads the json, parses it into objects, and runs a series of calls on the SVG javascript to draw the proper image. I can't just move the javascript all into the SVG, because there are some other user-interface elements outside the SVG that need to pass data into it later, and the SVG script needs to call functions in the HTML too! I have a prototype built in a HTML flatfile running on an apache server where the functionality works as I want using the "window.funcCall()" function described in the inter-document communication section of the SVG.org wiki. However, when I move my code into a RoR view, the window.funcCall(data) call generates a javascript "function not found" error in FireBug.

I'm 99% sure that I've properly loaded all the related CSS and javascript files into my Rails application -- javascripts into public/javascripts/, etc. Other javascript functions on the page and in the SVG that don't rely on communication between the two function properly. The only potential issue I see is that I'm inserting the <> tag at the top of my RHTML template, which means the javascript isn't being loaded in the tag, which isn't xhtml compliant..

Any thoughts how to resolve this issue? I know I'm not using 100% correct Rails design patterns, and I do plan to refactor my code to make it more Rails-friendly, but I need to get the basic functionality working ASAP. I never imagined that integrating it into Rails would break things, since a RHTML file is rendered as just another HTML document to the browser?

Rails/Java XML-RPC Filter

Alterscape — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:12:47 -0800

Railsfilter: I need to write an addition to an already-existing Rails app to allow it to accept large files (and some trivial metadata) uploaded from a Processing (Java) client I've written. The Rails app already supports this behavior via a web interface. I can see a few of the trees, how do I fit them into the forest and get a pair of working apps? I think I understand basic XML-RPC, but file uploading seems to be a different beast. There's also the question of XML-RPC vs. SOAP vs. REST -- REST seems to be the de facto Rails standard, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of Java REST APIs, so I'm looking at XML-RPC as the path of least resistance because of its' support through Action Web Service.

So, the question is, can someone please explain to me how file uploads through XML-RPC work? I've read about multi-part forms, base64 encoding and so forth but I'm not really sure how to put it all together.

The Rails app is using file_column for uploads, if that helps.

Help Grokking Controllers (It's not as gross as it sounds.)

jxpx777 — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 09:18:55 -0800

Looking for guidelines, principles, etc. for grokking the decision process for splitting up a Ruby on Rails application into controllers. So, I'm learning Ruby on Rails. I get the model and view part of MVC quite well. But the controller aspect still eludes me some. When I watch various screencasts and read the Agile book, the decisions make sense to me, but when I start to create an application, the decisions about controllers aren't as readily apparent to me.

So, how do you think about controllers when you are developing an application in Ruby on Rails? What sort of guidelines or cues do you keep in mind that make you know you should create a new controller as opposed to a new action in an existing controller?

I hope that makes sense. My ability to express the question cogently clearly corresponds to and confirms my uncertainty.

Help me find a platform for new video/blogging social network (YouTube clone)

simpleperson — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 11:24:13 -0800

Can anyone recommend a social networking platform for building a self-hosted, professional interactive video/blog sharing site? I am working on an exciting project for a multimedia startup, we are trying to build an interactive video and content sharing social network (like YouTube, but with a niche focus).

We are looking for a platform that will offer a nice balance: easy to set up, but easy to configure and customize, and with a decent feature set.

We are looking for the basics: user blogs, comments, profiles, tagging, as well as some advanced abilities -- hopefully content rating/recommendations and a strong ability to customize down the road. We are looking for a YouTube clone, more or less, although the finished product will probably look and work very differently.

We need this to be self-hosted, but we are willing to switch platforms if need be (current we are a .NET shop)

We are looking at a variety of off the shelf packages, including MS Community Server. Anybody have much experience with Community Server? Is it robust and easily customizable enough to survive as a full-on community network? Or would it be too limiting as time goes on?

Alternatively we are thinking Ruby on Rails would be the best development platform for this, but we don't want to start from scratch. Are there any strong open-source ROR social network packages out there? Or something not open, but strong?

Thanks for any input!

Ruby on Rails email automation

srboisvert — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 09:05:51 -0800

What is the best way to automatically send emails from a ruby on rails website on a schedule such as weekly or daily based on stored user info?

Data from Javascript to Rails?

jxpx777 — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:49:56 -0800

How can I pass data created via javascript to my Rails application? I am working on a Rails application that relies on user input for some data that needs to store in the database. The data is created by the user clicking inside a div at various points, and the data that I need to store is the mouse coordinates where the user clicks.

So, the view loads and the user clicks various places. Of course, capturing the mouse position is easily accomplished. Where I am stuck is in how to pass the array of data that I created wtih Javascript to my Rails controller for processing.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Ruby on Rails vs LAMP?

xmutex — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:58:59 -0800

Why should I look at Ruby on Rails for development of applications instead of the traditional LAMP stack, especially given the advancements in PHP since 5.0? I realize this is a bit open-ended, but I'm very curious in the advantages of Rails. The only thing I can seem to glean is that defining your business objects also defines and creates their dependent database objects.

So I guess I'm also asking: is Ruby on Rails > PHP?

"There's no place like home...."

Afroblanco — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 10:55:07 -0800

Need a tinker-free Linux/MySql install for Ruby On Rails. Also, seeking advice for getting started in RoR. Ok, I'll start this out by saying that I have little-to-no interest in operating systems. I've run Windows for the past decade or so because (for me, anyway) it's a no-effort solution that requires the least tinkering possible.

HOWEVER, I've recently been teaching myself Ruby On Rails, and it seems that RoR is most comfortable in a Unix/MySql environment. So here are the questions -

1) Am I correct in the assumption that the standard RoR setup is Unix/MySql? Is this what RoR is most comfortable with? Has anyone successfully run RoR on WinXP/SqlServer?
2) What Linux installation requires the least tinkering to get it to work properly?
3) Which Linux installation has the best community support?
4) Is there a way to install linux as a dual-boot on my WinXP system without reformatting, repartitioning, and reinstalling everything? Bonus points for solutions that involve only free tools.
5) What are some good MySql resources? Specifically, I'm looking for guides to dealing with installation and administration. Also, what are the best MySql community sites?
6) What resources would you suggest for someone starting out in RoR? I'm currently reading Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby as well as Agile Web Development In Rails. Are there any other books or guides that you would suggest? Are there any places where I can get some good sample code to play around with? What are some good community sites? (I should mention that I'm an experienced programmer, so I'm specifically looking for help with Ruby, not programming in general)

Sorry for the ton and a half of questions. If you could answer *any* of the above, your help will be greatly appreciated.

Knocked Out Before The Bell Rang

boombot — Tue, 16 May 2006 07:18:36 -0800

I'm encountering what I imagine is an entirely rudimentary SQL error, but am baffled as to how to solve it. I've just installed MySQL 4.1.18-standard on my Mac (10.4.6) to work along with David Heinemeier Hansson's _Agile Web Development with Rails_. I'm absolutely new to MySQL and Ruby, and right out of the box (literally, like the fourth page after things really start getting instructive) I've encountered the following error after the command mysql -u root -p

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

During installation I never set a password. I've input 'admin', 'root' and other guesses in as the password - the error is always the same. If I provide a carriage return without entering anything, the error changes slightly:

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

I've found interesting stuff by searching, but some sources seem to contradict others, or take for granted an expertise I don't possess - I have absolutely no background in MySQL or the command line. I'm looking for absolutely thorough and remedial steps for remedying this problem.

Local delicacies happily mailed to the home of the kind soul that gets me through this.

If MeFi was on rails, it wouldn't be hosted here.

furtive — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 19:37:31 -0800

Textdrive seems to be a good hosting company for my Ruby code, but I'm rather put off by their no dev/tinkering sandboxing policy. Any alternate suggestions?

I don't pretend to be a unix or any kind of expert

lackutrol — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 16:26:21 -0800

Dumb question about curl and setting up Ruby on Rails from an extreme novice. Here's the question, and I'll follow with some more background information: is curl supposed to just stop when it's done? I am using curl to download readline. Curl says it has downloaded everything, but keeps running. I quit out of curl and attempt to unzip readline. I get the following error:



gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file

tar: Read 1655 bytes from readline-5.1.tar.gz

tar: Unexpected EOF in archive

tar: Unexpected EOF in archive

tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

What am I doing wrong?

Background information: I have been doing marketing and (lately) technical writing for the Web for a long time. I have enough html knowledge to build a basic site, but was kind of curious to see if I could do any programming, sort of as a lark. Since everyone is talking about Ruby and AJAX and all that nifty stuff, I decided to try with that program. But I am stuck setting it up (see this tutorial).

How do I write arbitrary SQL queries in Ruby on Rails?

smackfu — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 13:49:50 -0800

How do I write arbitrary SQL queries in Ruby on Rails? I'm sort of learning as I go, but I can't figure this one out. All my current queries are something like MyObject.find(various conditions). That returns an array of MyObjects, and is sufficent for most purposes. But now I want to create a list of the most popular items, with a query like "select name, count(*) from MyObjects group by name order by 2". That's not going to return MyObjects, that's going to return arbitrary data columns. So how do I do that?

Good web host for Ruby on Rails?

shinji_ikari — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 20:12:22 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good inexpensive web hosting company that would have Ruby on Rails installed or would be easy to install on (already has the latest version of Ruby and probably Gems)? I'm aware of TextDrive already, which I would assume would have Rails installed since they're recommended on the Ruby on Rails site. I just wanted to see if anyone knew of any hosts they would recommend over them.