MatthewVB

I realize I said a few weeks ago that I’d have a tutorial up for the next step in the ruby member management system. The good and the bad:

The bad: I didn’t get the tutorial done.

The good: I’ve got a system in development that goes live this fall which uses ruser as a platform. I’m super excited because I have some interest and potential investors happening with it! That’ll be news later this summer.

Just a quick note on the upcoming tutorial series. Due to my current work load and spring training of employees, I’ll be launching the tutorial series probably the last week of January.

Also – I updated the ROR tutorials to be tagged with ruby tutorial categories instead of “programming stuff.”

(Probably won’t have many posts till then either…sorry!)

On my latest random quest through the blogosphere that is the world today, I’ve stumbled upon two stats packages that I am intrigued by:

• Mint is a package you can install on your server (uses PHP, Java, and MySQL) for $30. It seems pretty inclusive and has some need functions/features. Additionally, it supports Plugins they call Pepper. I currently don’t have it, but may consider checking it out. I’ll let you know.
• RailsStat is a plugin for ROR that uses some ideas of Mint (and can be added on to Mint. It allows for some basic stat/visitor path tracking in your rails apps. I haven’t done it yet, but plan on implementing it on my upcoming blog release (powered by Ruby on Rails.

Check them out — I’m not sure how good they are, but in the least I’m going to play with the RailsStats to see what it can do for me. I’m sure there’s another dozen Rails stats packages out there, so if you know a better one feel free to share.

I’ve been struggling to find the right log-in script to use with ruby. i’ve tried a few books and codes they provide, but nothing either works right or does the job.

Right now I’m working off Rida Al Barazi’s Rails Tutorial to get started. It’s a work in process, but I’m still looking for the more indepth look at integrating roles and levels.

I guess I find myself debating why should I code it by hand if the solution is there, but why can’t they make it clear how to use the solution for use noobs?

If you know of a tutorial — let me know.  I think I found a screencast from the San Diego Ruby Users Group…so I’ll see what they have to say. Downside is the screensize is wicked small and isn’t scaling well with resolution.

Last night I went to my first NovaRUG (Northern Virginia Ruby User’s Group meeting. Held monthly, they brought a big name speaker in yesterday, Stuart Halloway. Stu is the co-founder of Relevance, a development and consulting company souly devoted to Rails. In his presentation, he talked about his development of Streamlined, a powerful rails development tool.

I thought I was impressed with the power of rails alone, but Streamlined takes it to the next level. Still in early development, Streamlined takes the already redudant-less rails and makes it even less redundant. Streamlined is built off assumptions that there are parts of using Ruby are just givens: having CRUD instruments for example. Using Streamlined, there’s no need to add any CRUD elements to any controller, it’s already there! In addition, the UI isn’t focused on making things pretty, that’s what designers are for, rather usability and practical functionality.

Viewing and editing information never became easier. As Stu and Justin Gehtland continue to develop Streamlined, third-party libraries will be integrated once their quaility and practicality has been tested. They are continuing to release new versions weekly.

What’s the coolest thing in this development aside from the amazing power it has? Stu and Justin implement new changes to Streamlined through a customer-driven method. Just because they think an addition is needed or a group of developers think so, major features are primarily added through a need of a client; proving the practiciality and usability of the product.

Check this stuff out!

Update:

Streamlined Overview Article