The Rails Way

Name: The Rails Way
Brand: Addison Wesley
Price: 44.56 EUR
Availability: OutOfStock

Obie Fernandez(Author)

Addison Wesley (Publisher)

Published on 29. November 2007

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Paperback/Softback

912 pages

978-0-321-44561-2 (ISBN)

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Content

Chapter 1: Rails Environment and Configurations 1
Startup 2

Default Environment Settings 2

    Bootstrapping 3

    RubyGems 5

    Initializer 6

    Default Load Paths 6

    Rails, Modules, and Auto-Loading Code 7

    Builtin Rails Info 8

    Configuration 9

    Additional Configuration 13

Development Mode 14

    Automatic Class Reloading 15

    The Rails Class Loader 15

Test Mode 17

Production Mode 17

Logging 18

    Rails Log Files 20

    Log File Analysis 22

Syslog 24

Conclusion 25

References 25

Chapter 2 Working with Controllers 27

The Dispatcher: Where It All Begins 28

    Request Handling 28

    Getting Intimate with the Dispatcher 29

Render unto View... 31

    When in Doubt, Render 32

    Explicit Rendering 33

    Rendering Another Action's Template 33

    Rendering a Different Template Altogether 34

    Rendering a Partial Template 35

    Rendering Inline Template Code 35

    Rendering Text 35

    Rendering Other Types of Structured Data 36

    Rendering Nothing 36

    Rendering Options 37

Redirecting 39

Controller/View Communication 42

Filters 43

    Filter Inheritance 44

    Filter Types 46

    Filter Chain Ordering 47

    Around Filters 48

    Filter Chain Skipping 49

    Filter Conditions 50

    Filter Chain Halting 50

Streaming 51

    send_data(data, options = {}) 51

    send_file(path, options = {}) 52

    Letting the Web Server Send Files 55

Conclusion 56

References 56

Chapter 3 Routing 57

The Two Purposes of Routing 58

Bound Parameters 60

Wildcard Components ("Receptors") 61

Static Strings 62

The routes.rb File 63

    The Default Route 65

    Spotlight on the :id Field 66

    Default Route Generation 67

    Modifying the Default Route 68

The Ante-Default Route and respond_to 69

    respond_to and the HTTP-Accept Header 70

The Empty Route 71

Writing Custom Routes 72

Using Static Strings 72

Using Your Own "Receptors" 73

A Note on Route Order 75

Using Regular Expressions in Routes 76

Default Parameters and the url_for Method 76

    What Happened to :id? 77

Using Literal URLs 79

Route Globbing 79

Globbing Key-Value Pairs 80

Named Routes 81

    Creating a Named Route 81

    The Question of Using name_path Versus name_url 82

    Considerations 83

What to Name Your Routes 83

    Argument Sugar 84

    A Little More Sugar with Your Sugar? 85

The Special Scope Method with_options 86

Conclusion 88

References 88

Chapter 4 REST, Resources, and Rails 89

REST in a Rather Small Nutshell 89

REST in Rails 91

Routing and CRUD 92

Resources and Representations 93

    REST Resources and Rails 93

    From Named Routes to REST Support 94

    Reenter the HTTP Verb 96

The Standard RESTful Controller Actions 96

    The PUT and DELETE Cheat 98

    Singular and Plural RESTful Routes 98

    The Special Pairs: new/create and edit/update 99

Singular Resource Routes 100

Nested Resources 101

    Setting :path_prefix Explicitly 103

    Setting :name_prefix Explicitly 103

    Specifying RESTful Controllers Explicitly 105

    All Together Now 105

    Considerations 107

    Deep Nesting? 108

RESTful Route Customizations 110

    Extra Member Routes 110

    Extra Collection Routes 111

    Considerations 112

Controller-Only Resources 113

Different Representations of Resources 115

    The respond_to Method 116

    Formatted Named Routes 117

The RESTful Rails Action Set 117

    Index 118

    Show 121

    Destroy 121

    New and Create 123

    Edit and Update 124

Conclusion 125

Reference 126

Chapter 5 Reflecting on Rails Routing 127

Examining Routes in the Application Console 127

    Dumping Routes 128

    Anatomy of a Route Object 129

    Recognition and Generation in the Console 132

    Named Routes in the Console 134

Testing Routes 135

The Routing Navigator Plugin 136

Conclusion 137

References 137

Chapter 6 Working with ActiveRecord 139

The Basics 140

Migrations 142

    Creating Migrations 143

Naming Migrations 144

Migration Pitfalls 145

    Migration API 146

    Defining Columns 149

Macro-Style Methods 155

    Relationship Declarations 155

    Convention over Configuration 156

    Pluralization 157

    Setting Names Manually 158

    Legacy Naming Schemes 159

Defining Attributes 160

    Default Attribute Values 160

    Serialized Attributes 162

CRUD: Creating, Reading, Updating, Deleting 163

    Creating New ActiveRecord Instances 163

    Reading ActiveRecord Objects 164

    Reading and Writing Attributes 166

    Accessing and Manipulating Attributes Before They Are Typecast 168

    Reloading 169

    Dynamic Attribute-Based Finders 169

    Custom SQL Queries 171

    The Query Cache 172

    Updating 174

    Updating by Condition 176

    Updating a Particular Instance 176

    Updating Specific Attributes 177

    Convenience Updaters 177

    Controlling Access to Attributes 178

    Deleting and Destroying 178

Database Locking 179

    Optimistic Locking 180

    Pessimistic Locking 182

    Considerations 183

Advanced Finding 183

    Conditions 183

    Ordering of Find Results 186

    Limit and Offset 186

    Select Option 187

    From Option 188

    Group By Option 188

    Locking Option 189

    Joining and Including Associations 189

    Read Only 189

Connections to Multiple Databases in Different Models 189

Using the Database Connection Directly 191

    The DatabaseStatements Module 191

    Other Connection Methods 194

Other Configuration Options 196

Conclusion 197

References 198

Chapter 7 ActiveRecord Associations 199

The Association Hierarchy 199

One-to-Many Relationships 201

    Adding Associated Objects to a Collection 203

    AssociationCollection Methods 204

The belongs_to Association 207

    Reloading the Association 208

    Building and Creating Related Objects via the Association 208

    belongs_to Options 209

The has_many Association 215

    has_many Options 216

    Proxy Methods 224

Many-to-Many Relationships 225

    has_and_belongs_to_many 225

    has_many :through 233

    has_many :through Options 238

:source 238

One-to-One Relationships 241

    has_one 241

    has_one Options 244

:Unsaved Objects and Associations 246

    One-to-One Associations 246

    Collections 247

Association Extensions 247

The AssociationProxy Class 249

reload and reset 249

proxy_owner, proxy_reflection, and proxy_target 249

Conclusion 250

References 251

Chapter 8 ActiveRecord Validations 253

Finding Errors 253

The Simple Declarative Validations 254

    validates_acceptance_of 254

    validates_associated 255

    validates_confirmation_of 256

    validates_each 256

    validates_inclusion_of and validates_exclusion_of 257

    validates_existence_of 257

    validates_format_of 258

    validates_length_of 259

    validates_numericality_of 260

    validates_presence_of 261

    validates_uniqueness_of 261

RecordInvalid 263

Common Validation Options 263

    :allow_nil 263

    :if 263

    :message 263

    :on 264

Conditional Validation 264

    Usage and Considerations 265

Working with the Errors Object 266

    Manipulating the Errors Collection 267

    Checking for Errors 267

Custom Validation 268

Skipping Validations 269

Conclusion 270

Reference 270

Chapter 9 Advanced ActiveRecord 271

Callbacks 271

    Callback Registration 272

    Matched before/after Callbacks 274

    Halting Execution 274

    Callback Usages 275

    Special Callbacks: after_initialize and after_find 278

    Callback Classes 279

Observers 282

    Naming Conventions 283

    Registration of Observers 283

    Timing 284

Single-Table Inheritance (STI) 284

    Mapping Inheritance to the Database 286

    STI Considerations 288

    STI and Associations 288

Abstract Base Model Classes 291

Polymorphic has_many Relationships 292

    In the Case of Models with Comments 293

    Considerations about has_many 296

Modules for Reusing Common Behavior 296

    A Review of Class Scope and Contexts 299

    The included Callback 300

Modifying ActiveRecord Classes at Runtime 301

    Considerations 303

    Ruby and Domain-Specific Languages 303

Conclusion 305

References 305

Chapter 10 ActionView 307

ERb Basics 308

    ERb Practice 308

    Tightening Up ERb Output 310

Commenting Out ERb Delimiters 310

Conditional Output 311

RHTML? RXML? RJS? 311

Layouts and Templates 312

    Yielding Content 313

    Template Variables 315

    Protecting the Integrity of Your View from User-Submitted Content 319

Partials 320

    Simple Use Cases 321

    Reuse of Partials 322

    Shared Partials 323

    Passing Variables to Partials 324

    Render Collections 325

    Logging 327

Caching 327

    Caching in Development Mode? 328

    Page Caching 328

    Action Caching 328

    Fragment Caching 330

    Expiration of Cached Content 333

    Automatic Cache Expiry with Sweepers 335

    Cache Logging 337

    Action Cache Plugin 337

    Cache Storage 338

Conclusion 340

References 340

Chapter 11 All About Helpers 341

ActiveRecordHelper 342

    Reporting Validation Errors 342

    Automatic Form Creation 344

    Customizing the Way Validation Errors Are Highlighted 346

AssetTagHelper 348

    Head Helpers 348

    For Plugins Only, Add Default JavaScript Includes 352

BenchmarkHelper 353

benchmark(message = "Benchmarking", level = :info) 353

CacheHelper 353

CaptureHelper 354

capture(&block) 354

content_for(name, &block) 354

DateHelper 355

    The Date and Time Selection Helpers 355

    The Individual Date and Time Select Helpers 356

    Common Options for Date Selection Helpers 359

    distance_in_time Methods with Complex Descriptive Names 359

DebugHelper 361

FormHelper 362

    Creating Forms for ActiveRecord Models 362

    How Form Helpers Get Their Values 370

FormOptionsHelper 371

    Select Helpers 371

    Option Helpers 373

FormTagHelper 378

check_box_tag(name, value = "1", checked = false, options = {}) 378

end_form_tag 378

file_field_tag(name, options = {}) 378

form_tag(url_for_options = {}, options = {}, *parameters_for_url, &block) 379

hidden_field_tag(name, value = nil, options = {}) 380

image_submit_tag(source, options = {}) 380

password_field_tag(name = "password", value = nil, options = {}) 380

radio_button_tag(name, value, checked = false, options = {}) 380

select_tag(name, option_tags = nil, options = {}) 380

start_form_tag 380

submit_tag(value = "Save changes", options = {}) 381

text_area_tag(name, content = nil, options = {}) 381

text_field_tag(name, value = nil, options = {}) 381

JavaScriptHelper 381

button_to_function(name, function, html_options={}, &block) 381

define_javascript_functions() 382

escape_javascript(javascript) 382

javascript_tag(content, html_options={}) 382

link_to_function(name, function, html_options={}, &block) 382

NumberHelper 383

human_size(size, precision=1) 383

number_to_currency(number, options = {}) 383

number_to_human_size(size, precision=1) 384

number_to_percentage(number, options = {}) 384

number_to_phone(number, options = {}) 385

number_with_delimiter(number, delimiter=",", separator=".") 385

number_with_precision(number, precision=3) 385

PaginationHelper 386

    will_paginate 386

    paginator 387

    Paginating Find 388

RecordIdentificationHelper 388

dom_class(record_or_class, prefix = nil) 389

dom_id(record, prefix = nil) 389

partial_path(record_or_class) 389

RecordTagHelper 390

content_tag_for(tag_name, record, *args, &block) 390

div_for(record, *args, &block) 391

TagHelper 391

cdata_section(content) 391

content_tag(name, content = nil, options = nil, &block) 391

escape_once(html) 392

tag(name, options = nil, open = false) 392

TextHelper 393

auto_link(text, link = :all, href_options = {}, &block) 393

concat(string, binding) 393

cycle(first_value, *values) 394

excerpt(text, phrase, radius = 100, excerpt_string = "...") 395

highlight(text, phrases, highlighter = `\1') 395

markdown(text) 396

pluralize(count, singular, plural = nil) 396

reset_cycle(name = "default") 397

sanitize(html) 397

simple_format(text) 398

strip_links(text) 398

strip_tags(html) 398

textilize(text) 399

textilize_without_paragraph(text) 399

truncate(text, length = 30, truncate_string = "...") 399

word_wrap(text, line_width = 80) 400

UrlHelper 400

button_to(name, options = {}, html_options = {}) 400

current_page?(options) 401

link_to(name, options = {}, html_options = nil) 401

link_to_if(condition, name, options = {}, html_options = {}, &block) 403

link_to_unless(condition, name, options = {}, html_options = {}, &block) 403

link_to_unless_current(name, options = {}, html_options = {}, &block) 403

mail_to(email_address, name = nil, html_options = {}) 404

url_for(options = {}) 405

Relying on Named Routes 406

Writing Your Own Helpers 407

    Small Optimizations: The Title Helper 407

    Encapsulating View Logic: The photo_for Helper 408

    Smart View: The breadcrumbs Helper 409

Wrapping and Generalizing Partials 410

    A tiles Helper 410

    Generalizing Partials 414

Conclusion 417

References 417

Chapter 12 Ajax on Rails 419

Prototype 420

    FireBug 421

    The Prototype API 421

    Top-Level Functions 422

    Class 424

    Extensions to JavaScript's Object Class 425

    Extensions to JavaScript's Array Class 426

    Extensions to the document Object 428

    Extensions to the Event Class 428

    Extensions to JavaScript's Function Class 430

    Extensions to JavaScript's Number Class 432

    Extensions to JavaScript's String class 433

string.dasherize() 434

string.escapeHTML() and string.unescapeHTML() 434

string.evalScripts() and string.extractScripts() 434

string.gsub(pattern, replacement) and string.sub(pattern, replacement, count) 434

string.scan(pattern, iterator) 434

string.strip() 435

string.stripScripts() and string.stripTags() 435

string.parseQuery() and string.toQueryParams() 435

string.toArray() 435

string.truncate(length, truncationString) 435

string.underscore() 436

    The Ajax Object 436

    Ajax.Responders 437

    Enumerable 437

    Hash 443

    ObjectRange 444

    The Prototype Object 445

The PrototypeHelper Module 445

    link_to_remote 445

    remote_form_for 449

    periodically_call_remote 451

    observe_field 451

    observe_form 453

RJS-Writing Javascript in Ruby 453

    RJS Templates 455

<<(javascript) 456

    [](id) 457

    alert(message) 457

    call(function, *arguments, &block) 457

    delay(seconds = 1) { ... } 458

    draggable(id, options = {}) 458

    drop_receiving(id, options = {}) 458

    hide(*ids) 458

    insert_html(position, id, *options_for_render) 458

    literal(code) 459

    redirect_to(location) 459

    remove(*ids) 459

    replace(id, *options_for_render) 460

    replace_html(id, *options_for_render) 460

    select(pattern) 460

    show(*ids) 460

    sortable(id, options = {}) 460

    toggle(*ids) 461

    visual_effect(name, id = nil, options = {}) 461

JSON 461

Drag and Drop 463

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Sortable 465

Autocompleter 466

In-Place Editors 467

Conclusion 467

References 468

Chapter 13 Session Management 469

What to Store in the Session 470

    The Current User 470

    Session Use Guidelines 470

Session Options 471

    Disabling Sessions for Robots 472

    Selectively Enabling Sessions 473

    Secure Sessions 473

Storage Mechanisms 473

    ActiveRecord SessionStore 473

    PStore (File-Based) 474

    DRb Session Storage 475

    memcache Session Storage 475

    The Controversial CookieStore 476

Timing Out and Session Life Cycle 478

    Session Timeout Plugin for Rails 478

    Tracking Active Sessions 479

    Enhanced Session Security 480

    Cleaning Up Old Sessions 481

Cookies 481

    Reading and Writing Cookies 482

Conclusion 483

References 483

Chapter 14 Login and Authentication 485

Acts as Authenticated 486

    Installation and Setup 486

    The User Model 487

    The Account Controller 496

    The Current User 499

Logging In During Testing 501

Conclusion 502

References 502

Chapter 15 XML and ActiveResource 503

The to_xml Method 503

    Customizing to_xml Output 505

    Associations and to_xml 507

    Advanced to_xml 508

    Dynamic Runtime Attributes 509

    Overriding to_xml 510

    Learning from Array's to_xml Method 510

The XML Builder 513

Parsing XML 515

    Turning XML into Hashes 515

    XmlSimple 516

    Typecasting 518

ActiveResource 519

Find 519

    Create 522

    Update 524

    Delete 524

    Headers 526

    Customizing 527

    Hash Forms 528

Conclusion 529

Chapter 16 ActionMailer 531

Setup 531

Mailer Models 532

    Preparing Outbound Email Messages 533

    HTML Email Messages 536

    Multipart Messages 537

    File Attachments 539

    Actually Sending an Email 540

Receiving E-Mails 540

    TMail::Mail API Reference 541

    Handling Attachments 543

Configuration 543

Conclusion 544

References 544

Chapter 17 Testing 545

Rails Testing Terminology 546

    So Much for Isolation... 547

    Rails Mocks? 548

    Real Mocks and Stubs 549

    Integration Tests 550

    Dealing with the Confusion 551

Test::Unit 552

    Running Tests 553

Fixtures 554

    CSV Fixtures 555

    Accessing Fixture Records from Tests 556

    Dynamic Fixture Data 556

    Using Fixture Data in Development Mode 557

    Generating Fixtures from Development Data 558

    Fixtures Options 559

    Everybody Hates Fixtures 560

    Fixtures Really Aren't That Bad 562

Assertions 562

    Basic Assertions 562

    Rails Assertions 566

    One Assertion per Test Method 566

Testing Models with Unit Tests 568

    Model Testing Basics 568

    Deciding What to Test 570

Testing Controllers with Functional Tests 570

    Structure and Setup 570

    Functional Test Methods 571

    Common Assertions 572

Testing Views with Functional Tests 576

assert_select(selector, [*values, equality, message, &block]) 577

assert_select(element, selector, [*values, equality, message, &block]) 577

Optional Block Parameter 577

Selector Reference 578

Equality Tests 580

    Testing RJS Behavior 581

    Other Selection Methods 582

    Testing Routing Rules 582

Rails Integration Tests 584

    Basics 584

    The Integration Test API 585

    Working with Sessions 586

Rake Tasks Related to Testing 587

Acceptance Tests 588

    Acceptance Test First? 588

Selenium 589

    Basics 589

    Getting Started 591

RSelenese 592

Conclusion 593

References 594

Chapter 18 RSpec on Rails 597

Introduction to RSpec 597

    Should and Expectations 598

    Predicates 599

    Custom Expectation Matchers 601

    Multiple Examples per Behavior 603

    Shared Behaviors 604

    RSpec's Mocks and Stubs 607

    Running Specs 610

    Installing RSpec and the RSpec on Rails Plugin 613

The RSpec on Rails Plugin 613

    Generators 614

    Model Specs 614

    Controller Specs 617

    View Specs 621

    Helper Specs 623

    Scaffolding 623

RSpec Tools 624

    Autotest 624

    RCov 624

Conclusion 625

References 626

Chapter 19 Extending Rails with Plugins 627

Managing Plugins 628

    Reusing Code 628

T he Plugin Script 629

    Subversion and script/plugin 633

Using Piston 636

    Installation 636

    Importing a Vendor Library 637

    Converting Existing Vendor Libraries 638

    Updating 638

    Locking and Unlocking Revisions 639

    Piston Properties 639

Writing Your Own Plugins 640

    The init.rb Hook 640

    The lib Directory 642

    Extending Rails Classes 643

    The README and MIT-LICENSE File 644

    The install.rb and uninstall.rb Files 645

    Custom Rake Tasks 647

    The Plugin's Rakefile 648

    Testing Plugins 649

Conclusion 649

References 650

Chapter 20 Rails Production Configurations 651

A Brief History of Rails In Production 652

Some Basic Prerequisites 652

The Stack Checklist 654

    Server and Network Environment 655

    Web Tier 656

    Application Tier 656

    Database Tier 656

    Monitoring 657

    Version Control 657

Installations 657

    Ruby 658

    RubyGems 658

    Rails 659

    Mongrel 659

    Mongrel Cluster 659

    Nginx 659

    Subversion 660

    MySQL 660

    Monit 661

    Capistrano 661

Configurations 661

    Configuring Mongrel Cluster 662

    Configuring Nginx 663

    Configuring Monit 667

    Configuring Capistrano 670

Configuring init Scripts 670

    Nginx init Script 670

    Mongrel init Script 672

    Monit Configuration 673

Deployment and Launch 675

Other Production Stack Considerations 675

    Redundancy and Failover 676

    Caching 676

    Performance and Scalability 676

    Security 677

    Maintainability 678

Conclusion 678

References 679

Chapter 21 Capistrano 681

Overview of Capistrano 681

    Terminology 682

    The Basics 682

What Do I Need to Do to Use Capistrano? 682

What Does Capistrano Expect? 683

    What Has Capistrano Done and What Hasn't It? 684

Getting Started 684

    Installation 684

    "Capify" Your Rails Application 685

    Configuring the Deployment 687

    A Little Spin, Please... 688

    Set Up the Deployment Machine 689

    Deploy! 691

Overriding Capistrano Assumptions 691

    Using a Remote User Account 691

    Customizing the SCM System Used by Capistrano 692

    Working without SCM Access from the Deployment Machine 692

    What If I Don't Store database.yml in My SCM Repository? 693

    What If My Migrations Won't Run from 0 to 100? 696

Useful Capistrano Recipes 696

    Variables and Their Scope 696

    Exercise #1: Staging 698

    Exercise #2: Managing Other Services 701

Multiserver Deployments 702

Transactions 703

Proxied Access to Deployment Machines 705

Conclusion 706

References 706

Chapter 22 Background Processing 707

script/runner 708

    Getting Started 708

    Usage Notes 709

    script/runner Considerations 710

DRb 710

    A Simple DRb Server 711

    Using DRb from Rails 711

    DRb Considerations 712

    Resources 713

BackgrounDRb 713

    Getting Started 713

    Configuration 714

    Understanding BackgrounDRb 715

    Using the MiddleMan 715

    Caveats 717

    BackGrounDRb Considerations 718

Daemons 719

    Usage 719

    Introducing Threads 720

    Daemon Considerations 722

Conclusion 722

References 722

Appendix A ActiveSupport API Reference 723

Appendix B Rails Essentials 805

Afterword What Is the Rails Way (To You)? 815

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