The problem

These links only work for users with javascript enabled.

Visitors without javascript enabled the links will actually take them to the show action of your controller (or a 404 if you con’t have a show action), which won’t be what you or they expect.

It’s easy not to notice this behaviour since mostly you test your app with javascript enabled.

For example:

link_to "Delete Image", @image, :method => :delete

Generates

<a href="/images/9" onclick="var f = document.createElement('form');
  f.style.display = 'none';
  this.parentNode.appendChild(f);
  f.method = 'POST';
  f.action = this.href;
  var m = document.createElement('input');
  m.setAttribute('type', 'hidden');
  m.setAttribute('name', '_method');
  m.setAttribute('value', 'delete');
  f.appendChild(m);f.submit();return false;">Delete Image</a>

Take note of all the javascript gymnastics to make this work.

The solution

The easy fix is to use the button_to helper instead.

For example:

button_to "Delete Image", @image, :method => :delete

Generates

<form method="post" action="/images/9" class="button-to">
  <input name="_method" type="hidden" value="put" />
  <input type="submit" value="Delete Image" />
</form>

A nice little submit button with no javascript and no pain.

This may even be a better user experience for all your users (with or without javascript) because the button will indicate to them that they are making a change (either updating or deleting something) rather than just visiting a link.

The solution (part II)

Of course perhaps you used the link_to helper because you wanted it to look like a standard link on the page (rather than a submit button).

One possible solution would be to use CSS but it’s actually very difficult to use CSS to make a submit button look exactly like (rather than just similar to) your other links across a range of browsers.

Another is to use javascript to replace the form generated by the button_to helper with a link. Then javascript enabled visitors will see a link just like if you had used the link_to helper, and visitors without javascript enabled will see a button.

If you are using jQuery then this can be achieved by adding the following javascript to your site.

jQuery.fn.convert_submit_button_to_link = function () {
  this.each( function () {
    var button = jQuery(this);
    button.
      hide().
      after(jQuery('' + button.attr('value') + '').attr('class', button.attr('class')).click(button.attr('onclick')));
  });
  return this;
};

$(document).ready(function () {
  // Convert any input with the class 'submit-link' to a link
  $('input.submit-link').convert_submit_button_to_link();
};

And then any submit button with the class ’submit-link’ will be replaced by a link that will submit the form.

For example the submit button generated by the following would be converted to a link

button_to "Delete Image", @image, :method => :delete, :class => 'submit-link'

So there are no excuses for using link_to for destroy/update actions.

I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to convert this jQuery specific javascript to your favourite javascript library.

Integrity is a great little continuous integration server, even if it is a little rough around the edges.

Out of the box Integrity expects that you will trigger all your builds using github’s post receive hooks – although you need to be aware of this bug which means you have to miss the .git of the end of the project’s git repository URI when setting this up.

I however prefer to poll my project’s repositories for changes so that they do not need to be aware of my Integrity server.

If you are using Integrity v0.2.9 or greater then this can be achieved by adding the following rake task to the Rakefile in your Integrity installation.

desc "Will build the latest commit for any project that has already been built and the latest commit has not already been built"
task :build_new_commits do
  require "init"
  Integrity.log("Checking for new commits at #{Time.now}")
  Integrity::Project.all.each do |project|
    # Don't build if project is just being set up, or a build of 'HEAD' is already outstanding or the latest commit has already
    # been built.
    unless project.blank? ||
        project.last_build.commit.identifier == 'HEAD' ||
        (head = Integrity::Repository.new(project.uri, project.branch, 'HEAD').head) == project.last_build.commit.identifier
      project.build(head)
    end
  end
end

Then set up a cron job by adding the something like the following entry to your crontab. This will to automatically check every 2 minutes to see if there are any outstanding commits of your project to build. You will need to replace the /path/to/ section in each of the paths with appropriate values for your system.

*/2 * * * * cd /path/to/integrity && /path/to/ruby ./bin/rake build_new_commits >> /path/to/cron.log 2>$

Alternatively, if you are using for earlier versions of integrity

• 0.2.0 or greater: use this rake task
• 0.1.1 or greater: use bkoski’s integrity-watcher

Or, if you want to add build triggers to git repositories not on github then take a look at morethanseven’s post commit hook.

If only you could see a screenshot of the whole web page that produced the failure.

The good news for those of you on OS X is that you can.

Just install my cucumber-screenshot gem.

gem install cucumber-screenshot

And follow the set up instructions to start snapping.

Enjoy.

If you are on another platform and want this functionality then feel free to change the code.

Thanks go to Juris Galang for writing the snapurl gem (which actually handles making the screenshots) and to Aslak Hellesoy and Matt Wynne for their help and advice integrating this with Cucumber.

However there is conflicting advice on this (from Gmail and Mac OSX Hints for example), so here’s my definitive guide.

In this guide I assume you have already set up your Gmail account access via IMAP in Apple Mail following these clear instructions for Mail 2.0 or Mail 3.0.

In the guide below I will refer to changing your ‘Mailbox behaviours’ settings, you can find these by

1. Open Preferences in Mail
2. Select the ‘Accounts’ section
3. Select your Gmail account
4. Select ‘Mailbox behaviours’

I will also refer to configuring Mail to treat some of your IMAP mailboxes as ’special’. You can do this by

1. Select the mailbox in your IMAP account you want to make ’special’.
2. Select the ‘Mailbox’ menu
3. Move the mouse over the ‘Use This Mailbox For’
4. Select what you want to use the mailbox for, i.e. ‘Drafts’, ‘Sent’, ‘Trash’, ‘Junk’

Drafts

• In ‘Mailbox behaviours’ tick ‘Store draft messages on the server’
• Select the drafts mailbox in your IMAP account (probably [Googlemail]/Drafts) and set to be used as ‘Drafts’.

These settings ensure that drafts will be stored in your IMAP account and will appear in the standard ‘Drafts’ mailbox in Mail.

Sent Mail

• In ‘Mailbox behaviours’ tick ‘Store sent message on the server’
• Select the drafts mailbox in your IMAP account (probably [Googlemail]/Sent Mail) and set to be used as ‘Sent’.

These settings ensure that sent mail will be stored in your IMAP account and will appear in the standard ‘Sent’ mailbox in Mail.

Junk

• In ‘Mailbox behaviours’
  • Tick ‘Store junk messages on the server’
  • For ‘Delete junk mail when’ select ‘Never’
• Select the junk mailbox in your IMAP account (probably [Googlemail]/Spam) and set to be used as ‘Junk’.
• In Mail Preferences > Junk Mail
  • Tick ‘Enable junk mail filtering’
  • For ‘When junk mail arrives’, select move it to the Junk mailbox

These settings mean that you are using both Mail and Gmail’s spam filters and that you will train them in parallel, i.e. when you mark mail as Junk / Not Junk the information will be passed back to Gmail and will improve their spam filtering too.

I set the Junk mail to never be deleted because Gmail already does this after 30 days and set junk mail to be moved straight to the Junk mailbox so that it doesn’t clutter my inbox (this matches the behaviour on Gmail too).

Note: if you ‘Erase Junk Mail’ in Mail.app it will remove the mails currently in your junk mailbox from Mail’s view of your junk mail box but not actually delete them on the server.

Trash

• In ‘Mailbox behaviours’
  • Tick ‘Move deleted messages to the Trash mailbox’
  • Tick ‘Store deleted messages on the server’
  • For ‘Delete trash when’ select ‘Never’
• Select the trash mailbox in your IMAP account (probably [Googlemail]/Bin) and set to be used as ‘Trash’.

These settings will ensure that mail you delete locally is marked as deleted in the IMAP server, and will leave the actual removal of deleted messages from your IMAP account up to GMail (30 days)

Notes

I don’t use notes so I leave ‘Store notes in Inbox’ unticked in ‘Mailbox behaviours’

Updated – 28 Sep 2009

I double checked storing sent mail on the server at Shad’s suggestion (see comments below), and I have found that it no longer results in multiple copies of sent mail. I am not sure when this was fixed but I have updated the recommendations to suggest you store sent mail on the server as a result.

I’ve also corrected the label on the Notes checkbox to ‘Store notes in Inbox’.

Well it’s just 4 easy steps away.

Step 1: Install Fluid

Download and install Fluid a site specific browser for OS X, that enables you to turn a website into an application.

Step 2: Download the Rails Searchable API Doc

• Visit Rails Searchable API Doc
• Press ’select gems’ and decide which versions of Ruby, Rails and other common gems you want to include in your ruby docs application
• Click download
• Unpack the zip file you download and save it to ‘/Users/you/Library/Application Support/RubyDocs’ say.

I chose the ‘Rails Searchable API Doc’ because it includes a number of other ruby gems, has a good search function and supports keyboard shortcuts.

Of course if you prefer a different rendering of the docs, e.g. Noobkit and RailsBrain then you could download one of those instead.

Step 3: Download a nice icon

Download conekt’s excellent RubyDoc icon.

Step 4: Make your application

Open Fluid

• Put the local URL of your docs, ‘file:///Users/you/Library/Application%20Support/RubyDocs/index.html’, say, in the URL field
• Put ‘RubyDocs’ in the name field
• Select ‘Other’ in the icon field and find your spiffy icon (downloaded in step 3)
• Press the create button.

You’re done. Enjoy.

Most annoying for me were that ‘mate’ and ‘gitx’ stopped working from the command line (with the errors ‘mate: failed to establish connection with TextMate’ and ‘gitx: failed to establish connection with GitX’ respectively).

The screen port @4.0.3_1 (version 4.0.3 revision 1) is free of these problems and, with a little bit of work, you can install this version via MacPorts. The instructions below are based on Joe Horns’ post, install old versions of ports using MacPorts.

Instructions

1. Set up a local port repository. In the file /opt/local/etc/macports/sources.conf, add this line before the rsync line:

   file:///Users/Shared/dports

   and create that directory.

2. Install the old revision of the port into your local repository, revision 45522 specifies screen port @4.0.3_1.

   cd /Users/Shared/dports && svn co --revision 45522 \
   http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/dports/sysutils/screen/ \ sysutils/screen/

3. Run portindex so that ports now finds your new (old) version of Screen.

   portindex /Users/Shared/dports

4. Now you should be able to see two versions of the screen port by running

   port list screen

   However, rather unhelpfully, they will both be listed as version @4.0.3.

5. Install Screen

   sudo port install screen @4.0.3_1

   and you should be up and running.

I am a sucker for anything that reduces typing so I put together a mysql_tasks rails plugin for my MySQL backed applications which makes it as easy as

rake mysql:refresh_from_production

Which makes a tar gzipped snapshot of the production database, downloads it into my development box and loads it into my development environment.

If you want to give it a go yourself then read these installation instructions for the mysql_tasks plugin.

This was inspired by the real Nate Clark.

Inspired by the Paul Lutus’s ruby beautifier script and Tim Burks’s post on making it into a Textmate bundle I’ve put together a Code Beautifier Textmate bundle

It only supports Ruby at present but does improve upon Textmate’s indent functionality, in particular it is better at indenting multiline statements and cleans up white space.

It’s all hosted on Github so if you want to make improvements then please fork away.

Installation

Run this:

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles
git clone git://github.com/mocoso/code-beautifier.tmbundle.git Code\ Beautifier.tmbundle

Then select ‘Bundles > Bundle Editor > Reload Bundles’ from Textmate’s menus

Updated on 21 May 2009

Changed the URL of the repository on GitHub to http://github.com/mocoso/code-beautifier.tmbundle/tree/master to fix a typo in the name (oops).

I’ve put together a Screen Textmate Bundle to make it easy to configure and open per project screen sessions.

Installation

Run this:

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles
git clone git://github.com/mocoso/screen.tmbundle.git Screen.tmbundle

Set up your screen configuration for a project

Create a .screenrc file in your project directory if you want to specify a particular configuration for your project.

For example for a Ruby on Rails project you might create a .screenrc file in your project directory like this

# Have the server running in screen 1
#
# Stuff is used so that when you exit the stuff-ed program, you drop back
# to the bash shell for that screen instead of immediately exiting that
# screen. This is useful for "^c, up-arrow, enter" restarting of programs.
screen -t server 1
stuff "script/server\012"

# Have autotest running in screen 2
screen -t autotest 2
stuff "autotest\012"

# Have the console running in screen 3 
screen -t console 3
stuff "script/console\012"

# Finally have a command line prompt at the project root in screen 4
screen -t project_root 4

Usage

Use this bundle’s ‘Start Session’ command (ctrl-shift-s) to start (or reconnect to) your project’s screen session.

If you have created a .screenrc file in your project directory then this will be used to initialize the new session.

Update (14th Sep 2008)

On Jonathon Palardy’s suggestion I’ve added a ‘Send to Screen’ command (ctrl-alt-c) that copies selected text (or current line if no selection made) to your project’s screen session. If you have multiple windows open in the session then it will paste to the currently selected window.

Update (22nd Jan 2009)

If you want similar functionality without learning screen then check out Nick Rutherford’s Rails Workbench

It does this by providing a little bit of plumbing gubbins to make a custom template handler from the FasterCSV gem.

So if you want to export data in CSV format from your rails app then install it like this

sudo gem install fastercsv
./script/plugin install git://github.com/econsultancy/csv_builder.git

This plugin was developed as part of project that I have been working on with Econsultancy.com.