Basic Authentication model done…
I managed to get Devise installed on Rails 2.3.x. So I have a basic install with the ability to sign up, sign on, log off, email forgotten passwords and remember me. I could not have gotten this done without the demo on railscast.
Next step is to go through the advanced railscast demo to see how to modify the basic setup. Once I’m comfortable that I have the complete authentication solution configured and understood, then I will move to start the HTML wireframe.
Since I’m still a noob with Rails, I’m attempting to use a plug in for the Authentication model. This will help me understand complex Rails apps, as well as speed up development. Once I get this in place, I’ll start sketching out the HTML layouts for the entire app, then build the rest of the backend.
I’ve chosen Devise, found here: http://github.com/plataformatec/devise
Found this site when trying to learn about restful authentication. I’m hooked! Great site to go through if you want to learn Rails.
Get Real Methodology
In building this new Rails site, I’m trying to stick with the Get Real methodology from the 37signals crew. It definitely has it’s critics, but I like the thought of a very simple app, built quickly. I have to break the beginning rules first since I do need some time to start building the app before the UI since I need to learn Rails to even start.
To that end, I think I am ready to try and install the authentication add ons and at least get a skeleton of an app up that provides user login.
Routes in Rails
Spent a good deal of today learning about Routes in Rails. This is the method Rails uses to control which action from a controller will be called by the interface. I think this is the last thing I need to understand before I can start building the first application I am going to try in Rails.
Scaffolding in Rails
I finished the tutorial today on Scaffolding in the latest Rails (2.3.1). Incredible stuff, you can create a simple database, views and controllers that handle Create, Read, Update and Destroy (CRUD) functions for the database without writing a single line of code. This will give you a simple beginning to an application that gets you pretty far down the path of application development with a very small effort.
The tutorial is here: http://fairleads.blogspot.com/2008/01/this-is-second-part-of-my-series.html
I love how this blog hasn’t been updated since 2008, yet it’s still got a high google rank and is very useful. I wonder if this guy knows that his abandoned blog is still helping people.
I’m fascinated with issues of privacy in the modern world. It stems from a great class I took at Bowling Green that used a textbook written by Esther Dyson from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called Release 2.0.
I read this article today from Matthew Ingram over at GigaOm about Facebook and their ongoing privacy foul up. I think there is a great potiental David versus Goliath moment that could be coming in the social network space. Most of the new innovation seems to be focused on converging your social stream, even building personal CRM apps like Gist. But there could be a chance to go after Facebook right now, in what could be their weakest moment, by attacking the privacy issue. In fact, MySpace is already trying, but we all know that ship has sailed.
The argument that privacy is killing Facebook is too dramatic, I believe. The vast majority of Facebook’s 500 million users really don’t understand or care about any privacy concerns. Like Mark Cuban said, you signed up for Facebook to post pictures and personal data, get over it. But there is a small contingent of users who are generally concerned, and another small number that see the flames being stoked by the tech media and react to it with no real understanding of the issues. There could be an opportunity here for someone to come along and offer the privacy secure option for Facebook and steal away a good chunk of users. Now, of course, by adhering to strict privacy, how could the new site ever make any money?
UPDATE: Furthering my point!
Ruby on Rails book – outdated…
I’m using a wrox book to learn Ruby on Rails. I’ve been slowly grinding through it and actually performing each example. I have just reached the chapter about the scaffold construct only to find out that the latest version of Rails radically changed the scaffold construct.
So I’m taking a detour from the book and going through this great scaffold tutorial I found via google: http://fairleads.blogspot.com/2007/12/rails-20-and-scaffolding-step-by-step.html.
