Spent too much time yesterday fighting with code. Hope to spend more time writing it instead today.

• What's New in Edge Rails: Cleaner RESTful Controllers w/ respond_with - More DRY coming for your views in Rails 3.0.


• Continuous Integration Spring Cleaning - More sysadmin from GitHub, including their own CI Joe continuous integration server.


• sqrbl - An ETL tool that takes its inspiration from Active Record migrations.


• MORE CUCUMBER - The only prescription for Rails development.


• Getting Ack to see HAML files - I needed this the other night.

Lots of people are excited about Rails and 37Signals being mentioned in Microsoft's annual Form 10-K. I think that's just silly. This isn't any sort of acknowledgement that Microsoft considers us a serious threat; it's a "cover your ass" survey of software and firms whose business overlaps that of Microsoft. For some perspective, go look at other 10-K's; for example, the one for McDonald's says "The Company’s competition in the broadest perspective includes restaurants, quick-service eating establishments, pizza parlors, coffee shops, street vendors, convenience food stores, delicatessens and supermarkets." So, yeah - McDonald's:street vendor::Microsoft:37 Signals. That'd be about right.

NoSQL: If Only It Was That Easy - Look at some of the currently-sexy database alternatives by someone who actually evaluated at heavy load.

Deployment Script Spring Cleaning - New ideas on using Capistrano with git, from the GitHub guys.

Napkee - Convert Balsamiq Mockups to HTML/CSS/JSS/Flex 3 source.

Lone Star Ruby Conference - One more week for registration for this Texas conference at the end of the month.

Cerberus 0.7 - Lightweight continuous integration, now with Bazaar support and better Git support.

RailsBridge BugMash - Contribute to the Rails core - Just a reminder: it's coming up this weekend.

complex-form-examples - Ryan Bates takes a shot at showing ways to manage forms with nested attributes.

va_cache - Simple caching for Active Record virtual attributes.

On the whole, I'm happy I picked Rails to switch to a few years ago.

• Introducing Hashdown - Rails plugin to provide hash-like access for ActiveRecord lookup tables.


• IE6 No More - Yet another attempt to stamp out the world's most hated browser.


• Bodega - Kind of like an app store for OS X desktop apps.


• urlagg - A delicious.com aggregator in Rails, notable because it comes with a full suite of cucumber tests.


• Ruby I don't like #2 - catch(:wtf) { throw :wtf } - Another fine rant from Pratik.


• Server Lining - Mysterious stealth announcement from Rubaidh, who do good stuff.


• Bowline - Crossplatform Ruby GUI framework built on top of Titanium (which in turn builds on Webkit).


• PostgreSQL, Rails, and why you should care - Pretty much sums up why I'm moving my own development over to PostgreSQL despite the learning curve.

I hope a lot of you are planning to participate in the Rails BugMash - it's shaping up to be a lot of fun.

• Psychology of Abundance and Creating a self-organizing environment - A couple of reports from last weekend's Ruby on Rails Outreach Workshop for Women, by Sarah Allen and Ilen Zazueta-Hall.


• Users and Passwords - Basic handling advice from Koz.


• Ruby I don't like #1 - Explicit 'return' - Pratik tackles a style issue.


• Book Review: Rails Freelancing Handbook - Noel Gomez tosses a few kinds words my way.


• phuby - PHP runtime in Ruby. Eek.

My latest production, released over the weekend: Rails Freelancing Handbook.

• cmon - Cutesy HTML preprocessor for columnar/tabular cross-browser layouts


• Bluefeather - Another alternative/extended Markdown converter.


• Bag O'Links - By the way, Elad Meidar is also doing a great link blog, in case Fresh Cup isn't enough for you.


• Installing And Using SQLite With Ruby On Windows - Helpful info for those getting started with Rails.


• Return of Ruboto! - IRB running on Android. Interesting even if I'll probably never need it for anything.


• Firefox/Namoroka - What's coming down the pike next now that 3.5 has shipped. Nightly builds are here if you want to live dangerously.


• lockrun - Tool to prevent cron from launching a new job if an old one hasn't completed yet.

I recently had to implement some recurring items in a Rails application - we'll call them "entries" here though you can use this technique for appointments, bills, or whatever else. After thinking about it for a while, I settled on:

• At any point, we needed to know what the next recurrence date was.


• The potential schedules needed to be data-driven (because the client was unsure what would be needed).

Here's what I came up with. If your needs are different, you'll no doubt need to alter it. First, the schedule model has a schedule_type, an interval, a specific value, and a description. The combination of these things lets me implement Schedule#next_date to return the fate for the next date given a schedule object and the current date. Here's the model:


[sourcecode language='ruby']
class Schedule

has_many :entries

attr_accessible :schedule_type, :description, :interval, :specific

SCHEDULE_TYPE = {:first => 0, :last => 1, :weekly => 2, :monthly => 3}

def next_date(current_date)
case schedule_type
when SCHEDULE_TYPE[:first]
first_day = (current_date + 1.month).beginning_of_month
wday = first_day.wday
if specific >= wday
first_day + specific - wday
else
first_day + 7 + specific - wday
end
when SCHEDULE_TYPE[:last]
if specific == -1
(current_date + 1.month).end_of_month
else
last_day = (current_date + 1.month).end_of_month
wday = last_day.wday
if wday >= specific
last_day - wday + specific
else
last_day - wday - 7 + specific
end
end
when SCHEDULE_TYPE[:weekly]
current_date + interval.weeks
when SCHEDULE_TYPE[:monthly]
current_date + interval.months
end
end
[/sourcecode]

So we can have a schedule that is "first Monday of the month" or "every 3 weeks" among other things. I stock these up using db-populate; here's some of the population file:

[sourcecode language='ruby']
Schedule.create_or_update(:id => 1,
:schedule_type => Schedule::SCHEDULE_TYPE[:monthly],
:interval => 1, :description => "Every month")
Schedule.create_or_update(:id => 2,
:schedule_type => Schedule::SCHEDULE_TYPE[:monthly],
:interval => 2, :description => "Every other month")

Schedule.create_or_update(:id => 4,
:schedule_type => Schedule::SCHEDULE_TYPE[:weekly],
:interval => 1, :description => "Every week")

Schedule.create_or_update(:id => 8,
:schedule_type => Schedule::SCHEDULE_TYPE[:first],
:specific => 0, :description => "First Sunday of every month")

Schedule.create_or_update(:id => 15,
:schedule_type => Schedule::SCHEDULE_TYPE[:last],
:specific => 0, :description => "Last Sunday of every month")

Schedule.create_or_update(:id => 22,
:schedule_type => Schedule::SCHEDULE_TYPE[:last],
:specific => -1, :description => "Last day of every month")
[/sourcecode]

Then the entry model ties into the schedule model. Here are the important (for this purpose) bits of the entry class:

[sourcecode language='ruby']
class Entry < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :schedule
named_scope :ready_to_recur, lambda { |date|
{:conditions => ["recurring = 1 AND next_date <= ? AND schedule_id IS NOT NULL AND next_created = 0", date ]} }
before_save :set_up_recurrence

def make_next_recurrence
if recurring? && !schedule_id.nil? && !next_created?
entry = Entry.create(
:entry_date => next_date,
:reference => reference,

:recurring => true,
:schedule_id => schedule_id
)
update_attribute(:next_created, true)
end
entry
end

def set_up_recurrence
if recurring? && !schedule_id.nil?
self.next_date = Schedule.find(schedule_id).next_date(entry_date)
self.next_created = false if next_created.nil?
end
true
end
end
[/sourcecode]

Finally, the whole thing is driven by a rake task that we run every night. This task finds all the entries that are ready to recur and creates the next entry:

[sourcecode language='ruby']
desc 'Create the recurring entries for today'
task :daily_recurring_entries => :environment do
Entry.ready_to_recur(Date.today).each do |entry|
entry.make_next_recurrence
end
end
[/sourcecode]

A few odds and ends to close off the working week.

• QuickMagick - Another gem for use of ImageMagick by giving a ruby flavor to command-line operations.


• RailsLab: Scaling Your Database - Part 2 - The latest of Gregg Pollack's screencasts on scaling Rails.


• Working With Multiple Ruby Versions Has Never Been This Easy - Indeed, this looks like a simple way to install and switch between Rubies on OS X or Linux.

Wait, it's still July? This month may never end.

• acts_as_taggable_on_steroids was REALLY slow - A case where having some MySQL knowledge turned out to be critical.


• Embrace Technical Debt - An argument that sometimes writing sloppy code isn't such a bad thing to do.


• Freshlog - Screen capture for OS X that can automatically create Lighthouse or Unfuddle tickets from the result.


• Running Rails performance tests on real data - Pratik Naik explains how to do it.


• The 2009 GitHub contest - You too can help GitHub improve their algorithms.

Nothing like a busy day to cut down on my linking.

• URLAgg - Watch us work - Ever wonder what virtual pair programming looks like? Here's a longish unscripted session from Jeff Schoolcraft and Istvan Hoka.


• WindyCityRails - Early bird pricing for this Chicago-based conference is ending in just a couple of days, time to make up your mind.


• input_css - Rails plugin to automatically add sensible CSS classes to INPUT tags.

Looks like my August hours may be starting to fill out. That was a bit too close for comfort.

• The RailsBridge BugMash - Please do join us August 8-9 if you have any interest in improving the quality of Rails.


• Putting it all together - ResourceTemplates, described_routes and path-to - Plumbing to handle header-based discovery and easier client APIs.


• CheddarGetter - Subscription management and billing as a service.


• MySQL replication and Rails - A primer from Elad Meidar.


• The Ruty Template Engine - An alternative to liquid for adding customer-safe templates to Ruby-based applications.


• Pro Git - Scott Chacon's book on git is available in full under a CC license.


• Programmatically Creating Website Thumbnails - Guide from Rob Bazinet.


• Choosing a non-relational database; why we migrated from MySQL to MongoDB - Long article from the folks at Server Density.

I'm sure someone took the weekend off, but apparently it wasn't anyone whose site I read.

• Cucumber - The official Cucumber site is definitely spiffy these days. Makes me wish I found it to be a useful tool. Maybe I just haven't had the right exposure yet.


• Make your test suite UNCOMFORTABLY FAST! - Thoughtbot gets into the parallel testing act.


• Blackbird - Spiffy console logging for javascript.


• Git, Github, workflow questions - Nice discussion of git branching and deployment strategies, with input from the GitHub folks.


• time-warp - Gem to set the time to a pretend value for testing.


• How do I Flush DNS? - Includes instructions for doing so under OS X, which I recently needed.


• Talking to Wordpress with ActiveRecord - Just in case you need to do that.


• sqlite3-ruby 1.2.5 Released - Version bump, bug fixes, better compatibility for Windows & Ruby 1.9.


• Apple Push Notifications on Rails - Gem that should appeal to the growing overlap of people who do both Rails & iPhone work.


• yardstick - Tool to measure YARD (alternative to RDoc) coverage of ruby code.

This seems like a good time to remind folks that I've got time free for new and interesting Rails contracts, if you're looking to pick up an extra developer.

• rufus-tokyo 1.0.0 - This ruby library for Tokyo Cabinet hits a milestone.

Apparently delay was on people's mind yesterday.

• Do it Later With Delayed Job - Koz discusses the care and feeding of delayed_job.


• Backgrounded - Background Processing Done Right - Meanwhile, here's a new entrant in the background thread sweepstakes.


• Django 1.1 release candidate available - A week till release, barring major problems.


• Consuming OAuth Intelligently in Rails - Generator to make it easier for you to tie in to OAuth.


• Pixel Perfect - Firefox extension to overlay graphics on a developed site so you can see where you're off from what the designer intended.

Life goes on.

• Sunspot - Solr-powered search with Ruby syntax, including drop-in Rails integration.


• Major update to Ruby on Rails OAuth Plugin - Including conversion to a gem.


• My Thoughts on NoSQL - A reasonable look at some of the current contenders in the non-relational database world.


• Insurance on Rails - Some tips on rewriting legacy green-screen COBOL apps into Rails. Scary.


• Gestalt - Ruby and Python embedded scripts in web pages via Silverlight. No thanks.


• RubyGems 1.3.5 - Another version bump for gems. Looks like just a couple of small bug fixes.


• Redmine Kanban Plugin - Makes Redmine rather similar to Pivotal Tracker's one-page view of everything.

Yup, 500 of these things. A bit hard to believe.

• Rails 2.3.3: Touching, faster JSON, bug fixes - No huge changes, but some important fixes and a few minor features. The current plan is for 2.3.x to update every six weeks until 3.0 comes out.


• Better rake:routes - Better because it lets you specify a controller and only prints the matching routes if you do.


• Inquiry - Managed service to handle FAQs for your application. Not clear this is something I'd choose to outsource, but that appears to be the way of the future.


• constructor - Named argument style initialization for any Ruby class. Not new, but potentially useful.


• Ruby 1.9.2 preview 1 released - And the march of progress continues.


• What would you like in a code quality tool? - Cogent is planning a tool that you can just point at your repo. Fill out their survey for free access to the product when it exists.


• Git User's Survey 2009 - In case you'd like to offer the git developers some detailed feedback on your use of their tool.

Another productive weekend - may have a new project to announce shortly.

• What do we need to get on Ruby 1.9? - Wycats inquires. For me, the fact that I can't run a Rails app with a database using mainstream gems is a showstopper. Not interested in science projects when I'm trying to do paying work.


• Memcached 1.4.0 - Now released, including dead-simple Amazon EC2 AMIs for those who want to cache in the cloud.


• Nmap 5.0.0 released - I used port scanners a lot more when I was on Windows, but I still keep some eye at what's going on.


• Kii - A new entrant in the open-source Rails wiki sweepstakes.


• Test::Unit 2.0.3 - Huh, I hadn't realized T::U was still under active development.


• The Lazy developer: Tweak your MySQL - Elad offers some memory tuning suggestions.


• Big Old Rails Template - I've done some updating to this template, which I talked about here.

Early morning with small child and thunderstorms.

• Passenger/Nginx much better than Mongrel (at least for StatSheet) - Not clear how much of this is stack and how much is application style, but it's an interesting data point.


• The Great Ruby IDE Smackdown of '09 - Chad Woolley puts a few through their pages, and likes RubyMine.


• Critical JavaScript vulnerability in Firefox 3.5 - If you upgraded, you need to be aware of this. Personally, I run NoScript to squash such things.


• Five Features from Mercurial That Would Make Git Suck Less - Personally, I don't find git that sucky, but there are some useful ideas here from topfunky.

Up late deploying stuff last night, so just a couple of quick links this morning.

• snail - Start of an ambitious attempt to build a plugin to format international mailing addresses.


• Firebug 1.4.0 - Officially released, and nicer than 1.3. Of course those of us on the bleeding edge have moved to 1.5 alpha builds already.

It looks like the Fairy Godmother Department's lunch hour may be over.

• Many Ways to Tag Taggables - Tobias hunted down all the Rails tagging libraries he could find. Looks like he settled on acts_as_taggable_on, which is the one I use too.


• fleakr - Flickr API integration gem recommended by a couple of my readers.


• read_from_slave - Read your Rails data from a MySQL slave database, while ensuring that writes go to the master database.


• Programming Contest! Win iPhone 3GS & $2,000 Cloud Credit - Engine Yard is planning a contest that is going to make Twitter even more annoying for a while.


• Choosy - OS X utility ($12) to let you choose a browser when you click on a link.


• Ruby Versions - SSH access to a bunch of new and archived flavors of Ruby.

Time to get back on the daily sales and marketing wagon. Contract, where are you?

• Build Guild - Spreading social/technical gathering of web folks. I'd be tempted to start an Evansville/Newburgh chapter if I actually knew any other web folks around here.


• wikicloth - Mediawiki markup for Ruby.


• flickr_fu - I may need a flickr interface in Ruby soon. This one looks promising.