web development with ruby - from simple to complex

twitter: @bphoganemail: brianhogan at napcs.comLike this talk? Rate it at http://spkr8.com/t/4773

Web Development With RubyFrom simple to complex

1Sunday, October 10, 2010

http://spkr8.com/t/4751



Ruby developers have greatly influenced web

development.





ASP.Net MVC and NuPack


Pretty hot stuff. Inspired by Rails and RubyGems, two things we Rubyists have used to build quality stuff for years.




With Ruby we can•Make HTML and CSS better•Quickly prototype or build simple web sites•Automate complicated builds or deployments•Build simple micro-apps•Implement Web Sockets servers•Improve communication between customers and developers•while also testing our web sites•Build complex apps that interface with legacy systems





All made possible by the highly dynamic

features of the




So, what is Ruby?• Highly dynamic

• Very high level

• 100% object oriented

• 100% open-source

• Really easy to learn


Highly dynamic, high level, 100% object oriented, 100% open source, and really easy to learn.

twitter: bphoganemail: brianhogan at napcs.com

History

Smalltalk(1983)

C++ (1989)

Ruby(1993)

Java(1995)

VB 6(1996)

C#(2000)


Ruby was created by Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz) in 1993. It’s built on C, and has many implementations, including JRuby, which runs on the JVM, and IronRuby, which runs on the .Net platform.



“How you feel is more important than what you do. “The entire language is designed for programmer productivity and fun.


Basic Ruby





5 + 510 * 10"Hello" + "World"25 / 5


We have numbers, strings, multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division, just like everyone else.




age = 42first_name = "Homer"start_date = Date.new 1980, 06, 05annual_salary = 100000.00


It also helps that the syntax is simple. There are no unnecessary semicolons or curly braces. The interpreter knows when lines end.




Ruby follows the Principle of Least

Surprise.


Principle of Least Surprise - This means The language should behave in a way that is not confusing to experienced developers. It doesn’t mean that it works like your current favorite language! But as you get used to Ruby, you’ll find that you ramp up quickly.




"Brian".length["red", "green", "blue"].length[:first_name => "Brian", :last_name => "Hogan"].lengthUser.find_all_by_last_name("Hogan").length


Ruby achieves this through a consistant API. You won’t find yourself guessing too much what methods are available to you.



Arrays

colors = ["Red", "Green", "Blue"]


The square brackets denote an array.

Hashes (Dictionaries)

attributes = {:age => 25, :first_name => "Homer", :last_name => "Simpson"}


=>


This is the hash symbol, or the hash rocket. Whenever you see this, you’re dealing with a hash.


:foo


When you see these, you’re looking at Symbols. They represent names and some strings. They conserve memory, as repeating a symbol in your code uses the same memory reference, whereas repeating a string creates a new object on each use.

Simple control logic

if on_probation(start_date) puts "Yes"else puts "no"end


Methods (functions) are simple too.

# if start date + 6 months is > todaydef on_probation?(start_date) (start_date >> 6) > Date.todayend


The two arrows (>>) is actually a method on the Date object that adds months. So here, we’re adding six months to the start date and comparing it to today

Notice here that the input parameter is assumed to be a date. There’s no type checking here.

Let Ruby write code for you!

class Person @started_on = Date.today @name = "" def started_on=(date) @started_on = date end def started_on @started_on end

def name=(name) @name = name end def name @name endend

class Person attr_accessor :name attr_accessor :started_onend


Making getters and setters is so common that Ruby can do it for you.

def test_user_hired_today_should_be_on_probation person = Person.new person.hired_on = Date.today assert person.on_probation?end

test_user_hired_last_year_should_not_be_on_probation person = Person.new person.hired_on = 1.year.ago assert !person.on_probation?end


Here we have two tests, one using a person hired today, and another using a person last year.

Implement the method

class Person attr_accessor :name, :start_date def on_probation? (start_date >> 6) > Date.today endend


Watch as the tests pass.


haml and sass


HAML

!!!#wrapper.container_12 #header.grid_12 %h1 The awesome site %ul#navbar.grid_12 %li %a{:href => "index.html"} Home %li %a{:href => "products"} Products %li %a{:href => "services"} Services #middle.grid_12 %h2 Welcome #footer.grid_12 %p Copyright 2010 AwesomeCo


HTML <div class='container_12' id='wrapper'> <div class='grid_12' id='header'> <h1>The awesome site</h1> </div> <ul class='grid_12' id='navbar'> <li> <a href='index.html'>Home</a> </li> <li> <a href='products'>Products</a> </li> <li> <a href='services'>Services</a> </li> </ul> <div class='grid_12' id='middle'> <h2>Welcome</h2> </div> <div class='grid_12' id='footer'> <p>Copyright 2010 AwesomeCo</p> </div> </div>


SASS

$the_border: 1px$base_color: #111

#header color: $base_color * 3 border-left: $the_border border-right: $the_border * 2 color: red a font-weight: bold text-decoration: none


CSS

#header { color: #333333; border-left: 1px; border-right: 2px; color: red; }

#header a { font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; }



$the_border: 1px$base_color: #111

#header color: $base_color * 3 border-left: $the_border border-right: $the_border * 2 color: red a font-weight: bold text-decoration: none

#header { color: #333333; border-left: 1px; border-right: 2px; color: red; } #header a { font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; }





Demos





StaticMatichttp://staticmatic.rubyforge.org/




http://staticmatic.rubyforge.org

http://staticmatic.rubyforge.org


src layouts application.haml pages index.html stylesheets application.sass

site index.html images javascripts stylesheets application.css


StaticMatic is a tiny framework for building static websites quickly using HAML and SASS.




Rake





Automation LanguageDeploy with a single command!





Rakefiles have tasks

desc "Copies the site to our remote server"task :deploy do puts "*** Deploying the site via SSH to #{ssh_user}" system("rsync -avz --delete #{upload_files}/ #{ssh_user}:#{remote_root}") FileUtils.rm_rf upload_files rescue nilend

rake deploy





StaticMatic and Rake demo


Let’s put a site online




Sinatrahttp://www.sinatrarb.com/intro


Sinatra is a great way to build simple web apps with Ruby.



http://www.sinatrarb.com/intro

http://www.sinatrarb.com/intro


Great for micro apps




Hello Sinatra!

require 'rubygems'require 'sinatra'

get "/" do "Hello Sinatra!"end


Sinatra is a simple web framework that basically maps incoming requests to backend code that produces responses.


That little bit of code gets us a working web application that handles requests.


Sinatra demos





Composable apps?Sure!





config.ru

require 'rubygems'require 'sinatra' # include our Application coderequire File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'main')require File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'blog') # disable sinatra's auto-application startingdisable :run map "/" do run Mainend

map "/blog" do run Blogend

Sinatra Apps

Mountingto URLs





Testing Web Apps





cucumberWeb application testing

for people first and computers second





Plain Text Scenarios!Feature: an advanced google search with CucumberAs an interested developer who wants to automate tasks with CucumberI want to search GoogleSo that I can find more information on how it works.

Scenario: Advanced searchGiven I go to "http://www.google.com"And I click "Advanced search"And I fill in "as_q" with "cucumber"And I fill in the "any of these unwanted words" field with "pickles"And I select "50 results" from the "Number of results" dropdownAnd I click the Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more sectionAnd I turn on Safe SearchWhen I press "Advanced Search"Then I should see "Cucumber - Making BDD fun"When I click "Cucumber - Making BDD fun" And I click "Wiki" And I click "Gherkin" And I click "Feature Introduction"Then I should see "Feature Introduction"





Express requirementsplainly...





then run real browsers!





Demo?





RadiantContent Management System


Based on Rails, completely modular, easy to install




Web Sockets





NodeJS? NoWai!





EventMachine





Demo?


Fi




Finally, Rails





Opinionated, but flexible.





Demo





“Use The Right Tool”


We hear this a lot.




Most people who advocate that mean

“The right tool is the one I use”





I am a “Web” developer first and a Ruby

developer second.





Ruby is the fastest, best, most productive, and most stable, and lucrative way to build

web stuff...





...for me, for now.


But I still use WordPress for my blogs, I still use PHP for simple web stuff, and I still use Visual Basic to maintain a commercial app I sold years ago. I use ASP




Code examples

http://github.com/napcs/cucumber_watir

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50783/tccc9_ruby_webdev.zip









You have new tools.Go use them.




web development with ruby - from simple to complex

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