The
Palm
Civet

i’ve been very persuaded by john nunemaker’s passionate writing that mongo db might be the next new thing i have to try. sure, sql databases are the norm, but mongo’s document-based database format rings truer to me the more of a rubyist i become.

gridfs is mongo’s way of storing file uploads within the database and with the release of its new ruby driver, using grid FS is faster and easier. check the simplicity in this example code =>

db = Mongo::Connection.new.db('testing')
grid = Mongo::Grid.new(db)

# returns object id
id = grid.put(File.read('mr_t.jpg'), 'mr_t.jpg')

# get the file using object id
file = grid.get(id)

# read the file from grid fs
puts file.read

# delete the file
grid.delete(id)

the active development of john’s mongomapper gem for rails models and grip plugin for gridfs should definitely be on anyone’s radar who is exploring nosql options.

more rails development means more time in the script/console and irb, but it can quickly become a headache with doing ugly things like returning activerecord objects. for that, hirb’s table view is a lifesaver. check out this example output =>

irb>> Tag.last
+-----+-------------------------+---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+
| id  | created_at              | name          | namespace | predicate | value |
+-----+-------------------------+---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+
| 907 | 2009-03-06 21:10:41 UTC | gem:tags=yaml | gem       | tags      | yaml  |
+-----+-------------------------+---------------+-----------+-----------+-------+
  1 row in set
  =>true

if you want to get more snazzy, you can define your own views for a more custom output. git it at hirb’s github page.

to enable hirb by default in any local rails application, add this to your ~/.irbrc file =>

if ENV['RAILS_ENV']
  require 'rubygems'
  require 'hirb'
  Hirb.enable
end

a brilliant idea: porting the ruby on rails and jquery api’s to osx dictionaries, so you can do all sorts of system-wide things with them. you can search the api’s with spotlight, or if you use launchbar you can highlight a function name and trigger the ‘instant send’ action for opening with dictionary.app. you can also use the ⌘+control+d system-wide shortcut when hovering over a function name to get a small pop-up reference window.

when a clients needs a website, depending on the the level of control they will need over it i usually see two development routes:
- take an open-source publishing platform like textpattern, wordpress, or radiant and create a template for it, or (gulp):
- roll my own ruby on rails application. but the classic deterrent here is that building an admin is a pain in the ass.

enter typus, my new sugar momma. aimed at letting “trusted users editing structured content”, typus is a rails plugin for quickly creating a way for authenticated users to create and update the stuff they need to access.

first, take your time and define your application’s models and their attributes through migration files, then run the following commands =>

script/plugin install git://github.com/fesplugas/typus.git
script/generate typus
rake db:migrate

this will install the plugin, generate the database migrations and configuration files, then load up the database with the fields for your authenticated users. then, create the first user by going to 0.0.0.0/3000/admin in your browser and you are on your way.

not only are the list of core features both minimal yet comprehensive, but the amount of flexibility and configuration is quite amazing. since i’ve been watching it on github, the number of watchers has over quadrupled and for good reason.