How to Install RVM and Rails 3 on Snow Leopard

Ruby Mac Rails | comments

This is a continuation of my post on installing Ruby version manager or multiple versions of Ruby for Unix. This time it’s about OS X 10.6.1 or the Snow Leopard.

Snow Leopard includes Ruby and Rails by default if you install XCode. The version is 1.8.7 and 2.2.2 for each, respectively. This would not suffice for most developers because we need to start porting to Ruby 1.9 and start experimenting with Rails 3. The goal is to just keep moving forward and use the best version that exists.

Don't Make Rails A Beast

Ruby Rails Opinion Software Development | comments

Ruby on Rails is a beautiful framework. And by that I mean, it is a framework which can help developers create applications with code that is not “obnoxious” or unnecessarily complex.

Ruby on Rails still relies on developers all over the world to make it better. Your application is a reflection of yourself. Although most of the time, your application is a reflection of your client and his/her specifications and your interpretation of those specifications.

How to use multiple versions of Ruby in Ubuntu, Leopard and other Unix Operating Systems using RVM

Ruby Rails Ubuntu Linux Unix RVM | comments

There are many ways on how to run multiple versions of Ruby on Unix. The most simple solution is by creating a shell script.

Michael Greenly wrote a script to do just that and it worked great for me for several months.

Installing Ruby Gems on Dreamhost

Dreamhost Ruby Rails | comments

Before I move on to posting about installation instructions, some people might wonder why I am using Dreamhost.

Would I recommend Dreamhost for Rails hosting?

I wouldn’t recommend it to people with budget and have little patience. You can go for Heroku, Slicehost and Linode. I’ve tried Linode and it’s a very good option for advanced users, a.k.a, Unix nerds. Clients have used Slicehost and other VPS hosts. Point is, VPS rules. Dreamhost has it PS plans but if you are serious about business go for the so-called cloud services offered by Rackspace. (And just an F.Y.I, Rackspace also owns Slicehost).

Capistrano Task For Loading Production Data Into Your Development Database

Capistrano Drupal Sinatra Ruby | comments

Great Sunday. I just finished backing up data of two of my sites. This blog site of mine is using Sinatra DSL which is an alternative to Ruby on Rails framework. Another site of mine runs in Drupal 6. I was able to successfully local production database for both without using PHPMYADMIN. It’s all done via command line. For me, it was a time-saver.

Viral Apps in Rails

Ruby Rails Facebook Programming Happiness | comments

I am not a computer science graduate but probably feel more confident than most due to my experience working for several people with different nationalities and personalities. In retrospect, I would have not chosen Computer Science as my major even if I knew that 6 years later, it would be my job to do web applications. I would have chosen either Commerce (which I did finish) or Psychology. Why Psychology? If you understand people and organizations, you win. And I think I see a lot of companies who are really good at making apps that attempt to understand people including the company that just hired me (Thank you very much to the project manager and CEO for considering me for the job).

Geographical Data For Your Ruby on Rails Application

Ruby Rails Geodata Geonames | comments

Recently found some interesting gems that allow you to search postal codes via Geonames web service. In my case, I need more than just the country names, city names and region names. I need more relevant information like the currency code.

Using Ruby for System Administration

Ruby Rails Linux | comments

What is Sytem Administration?

System Administration is a specialization in the I.T industry. These are people who handle the “dirty stuff.” Some call them janitors while some call them “gods.” Regardless of these perceptions, I think they play a very important role in the industry. They are not doing low-level stuff for sure. They do not care about cross-browser compatibility or making that wretched star blink in flash but they handle things that could probably matter more than you could imagine like working with enterprise data, network monitoring and handling server security. Of course, in small consulting-type companies, they are not even sought.

Hello, Sinatra

Sinatra Ruby Rails Philosohpy | comments

Hello, Sinatra

My post earlier was about porting my blog to Adva CMS. It has a lot of really nice features that I don’t need. I actually don’t need translation feature for my blog. I don’t even need Wordpress. And not even Rails for my purpose. I am venturing into Ruby development, not Rails development. After some digging on Github, I came across “Scanty,” a very simple blog application that’s nearly nothing. It’s up to the developer to extend, hack and modify everything as needed. It was built on Sinatra Framework, yet a another framework for building Ruby apps. Sinatra does not have too many built-in helpers that come with Rails but it does have everything you need to build a web application. The RSpec framework (for Behaviour-driven development) for instance can still be used with Sinatra. RSpec is framework-agnostic and there are several ruby gems out there that are not Rails-centric.

Adva CMS - A new state-of-the-art CMS

Programming Ruby Rails CMS Drupal i18n | comments

Hello. Finally got to blog but I’m still porting some of my old Drupal posts to Adva CMS. And I’ve got to say I am a recovered Drupal addict.

Comparing Drupal with Adva CMS seems to be more appropriate than comparing the Ruby on Rails framework with Drupal. Today I got a facebook message: “how well-versed are you with Drupal?”

Thoughts and tips on using CSS Frameworks

Rails Ruby SASS HAML Blueprint User Interface | comments

Here are my thoughts and tips on using of CSS Frameworks and tools like Compass, Blueprint CSS, 960 GS and many others:

Rails Bridge

Rails Ruby Community | comments

Lately, I’ve been following a group of people on Twitter. Most of them are in the core team of rails. (Should I say the word “geek”?). Anyway these are great people (Mike Gunderloy and others) who invest their time in helping out build the rails framework and now, they’re teaching too!

Behavior-Driven Development for Rails: A Preview of RSpec

BDD Rails RSpec Ruby | comments

Ok lately I’ve been busy working on a content management system that works for edge rails or Rails version 2.3. My purpose is to create something simple and something that would work for at least one or two projects. It should not be something I will struggle with or I will grow to hate because of its inflexibility. The beautiful thing about rails is that it’s self-contained but flexible and allows developers to be as flexible and productive as possible.

Substruct Rails E-commerce Application for Rails version 2.2.2

E-commerce Rails Ruby Programming | comments

Recently, I have made some efforts on upgrading the current Substruct version to be compatible with Rails version 2.2.2. It was previously working with Rails 2.1.0 only. Check on googlecode. Click here to view the CHANGELOG.

Search Engine Friendly Links in Rails

Ruby Rails Programming | comments

If you haven’t read the book “Practical Rails Social Networking Sites” by Alan Bradburne yet, there’s a chapter there which discusses how you can create a simple content management system and create permanent links for every page created.

Rolling back to Ruby 1.8.7 and Moving forward to Rails 2.3

Ruby Rails Linux | comments

Yesterday I was being slightly adventurous and decided to upgrade to Ruby 1.9.1, the first stable release of the Ruby 1.9 series. It has been a challenge trying to make Rails 2.2.2 work with Ruby 1.9.1. Check out this post.