Common Mac Accent Marks

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æ = Option (alt) + ‘
à = Option (alt) + ` + a
â = Option (alt) + i + a
ç = Option (alt) + c
é = Option (alt) + e + e
è = Option (alt) + ` + e
ê = Option (alt) + i + e
ë = Option (alt) + u + e
î = Option (alt) + i + i
ï = Option (alt) + u + i
ô = Option (alt) + i + o
ö = Option (alt) + u + o
ù = Option (alt) + ` + u
û = Option (alt) + i + u
ü = Option (alt) + u + u
« = Option (alt) + \
» = Option (alt) + Shift + \
½ = Option (alt) + ½

Automatically remove files missing from subversion

svn status | grep '\!' | awk '{print $2;}' | xargs svn rm 

Extension of Railscasts Episode 67

============================

Update: [March 12, 2008] This blog post is outdated so if you found this page using google, I'd recommend reading something more up-to-date. Unfortunately, I don't know where else to refer you right now. I shared my thoughts and experience with the plugin at the time I was using it for a project. Living in the now, you can grab Obie Fernandez's Book "The Rails Way". That comes highly recommended!

============================

Ryan showed us how to set up restful_authentication a plugin by Rick Olson with his 67th Railscasts Episode: restful_authentication. Pretty awesome! Now, we will extend it to the activation part.

./script/generate authenticated user sessions --include-activation

With the added --include-activation option, more files and codes will be generated to handle "Activation for a User who just registered".

Shall we break them down in steps... baby steps and with codes. I would be happy to do a screencast for this but I dont own a podcast mic yet so lets do it the old school way. I know we're all spoiled by Ryan's RailsCasts and Geoffrey's PeepCodes. We are the little Brats! :)

After generating the files for restful_authentication, follow the 67th episode set up plus these...

Step 1: All about Environment.rb

Open your environment.rb file and set up the following:

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# First, specify the Host that we will be using later for user_notifier.rb
HOST = 'http://www.yourrailsapp.com'

# Second, add the :user_observer
Rails::Initializer.run do |config|
  # The user observer goes inside the Rails::Initializer block
  config.active_record.observers = :user_observer
end

# Third, add your SMTP settings
ActionMailer::Base.delivery_method = :smtp
ActionMailer::Base.smtp_settings = {
  :address => "mail.yourrailsapp.com",
  :port => 25,
  :domain => "mail.yourrailsapp.com",
  :user_name => "carmelyne@yourrailsapp.com",
  :password => "yourrailsapp",
  :authentication => :login
}

Note: Just a heads up -- if you're on SliceHost like I am, I can't get this to work on just Postfix on Ubuntu. I needed to set up the SMTP settings on the environment.rb file.

Step 2: All about app/models/user_notifier.rb

Now you can see how we set a dryer way to add the HOST via #{HOST}. The codes below is also an example if you've extended it to handle resetting the passwords. Although you will have to add an additional user migration for "password_reset_code" and adding it to your user model/controller codes and more to your routes....
Anyway, code snippets below:

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class UserNotifier < ActionMailer::Base
  def signup_notification(user)
    setup_email(user)
    @subject    += 'Please activate your new account'  
    @body[:url]  = "#{HOST}/activate/#{user.activation_code}"
  
  end
  
  def activation(user)
    setup_email(user)
    @subject    += 'Your account has been activated!'
    @body[:url]  = "Visit #{HOST}!"
  end
  
  def forgot_password(user)
    setup_email(user)
    @subject    += 'You have requested to change your password'
    @body[:url]  = "#{HOST}/reset_password/#{user.password_reset_code}" 
  end

  def reset_password(user)
    setup_email(user)
    @subject    += 'Your password has been reset.'
  end   
  
  protected
    def setup_email(user)
      @recipients  = "#{user.email}"
      @from        = %("/Poke by carmelyne" <CT@yourrailsapp.com>) # Sets the User FROM Name and Email
      @subject     = "[YourRailsApp] "
      @sent_on     = Time.now
      @body[:user] = user
    end
end

Step 3: All about app/views/user_notifier/activation.rhtml

This gets sent out for the activation email so you can change the verbiage to something like this:

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Thank you!

<%= @user.login %>, your account has been activated.  You may now start using the member only features.

<%= @url %>

I think that should be it. :)

I wrote this up to give you an idea for activation. If you extended it way beyond for forgot_password/reset_password, make sure you extend your user model and controller to handle these additional functions. More snippets....

Extras

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# more for routes
map.forgot_password '/forgot_password', :controller => 'users', :action => 'forgot_password'
map.reset_password '/reset_password', :controller => 'users', :action => 'reset_password'

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# app/models/user_observer.rb
class UserObserver < ActiveRecord::Observer
  def after_create(user)
    UserNotifier.deliver_signup_notification(user)
  end

  def after_save(user) 
    UserNotifier.deliver_activation(user) if user.recently_activated?
    UserNotifier.deliver_forgot_password(user) if user.recently_forgot_password?
    UserNotifier.deliver_reset_password(user) if user.recently_reset_password?   
  end
end

Update

But of course, there's a much better resource for the plugins, I was just referred to it after this long post from the man himself => Rick's Stikipad for Acts As Authenticated and RESTful authentication.

The additional methods for activation/forgot_password/reset_password does not fall under REST.

New tools new tool new tools

1. Aliases in bash

I'm a mac newbie. It sounds like a bad thing but it's not. Many moons ago, I only watched people type ss on their terminals and tada! it magically starts the built in webrick/mongrel server. I've been meaning to get aliases working since I converted but never got around to actually doing it. Thankfully, John Nunemaker posted his I Can Has Command Line? article. I can do bash magic now. My bash talk: ss sc a e et sup wu omg inbd idk my bff jill tinf! I think I'll use those for shortcuts anyway. ;p

2. Growl

I am a happy peepcoder. I recently saw the RSPEC Basics PeepCode. Geoffrey had a happy face/ sad face flashing bar on his screen when he would run tests. Oh, I so want. I want! You'll just have to buy the peepcode now, dont you? Anyway, it was Growl. I installed Growl but can't get it to work with autotest. Now I just do "a" to run autotest but I get this error: "177 examples, 0 failures sh: line 1: growlnotify: command not found". Obviously, I missed something here. I copied the .autotest file to ~
I'm off to search for a fix and will post it here too as an update.....

Update:

I knew I was missing something. I had to install growlnotify that came with the install files. (http://growl.info/documentation/growlnotify.php). I got my happy/sad bars now!

3.RSpec

New to RSpec and would you hold it against me if I said lazy with writing test? Ok then no, I love writing tests!!! Learning RSpec makes it easier to do test. I find that I do like BDD. I'm no expert but it's very fun to do, that I can say.

High to low precedence of Ruby operators

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::
[]
**
-(unary) +(unary) ! ~
*  /  %
+  -
<<  >>
&
|  ^
>  >=  <  <=
<=> == === != =~ !~
&&
||
.. ...
= += -=...
not
and or

Source:
http://migo.sixbit.org/papers/Introduction_to_Ruby/slide-21.html
http://www.meshplex.org/wiki/Ruby/Variables_Datatypes_Operators4

Rule Of Thumb:
Use logical operator for logical statements use logical composition sparingly.

ID + permalink. The id gets a to_i

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# using .join
def to_param
  [id, permalink].join('-')
end

# just another way to do it
def to_param
  "#{id}-#{permalink}"
end

Generates a gem's list

gem list | egrep -v "^( |$)"

Quick cheat method to see errors on production mode without the Exception Notifier plugin or having to look at the production log.

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# application.rb
# replace "XXX.X.X.1" with your IP in the local_request method below

protected

def local_request?
  request.remote_ip == "XXX.X.X.1"
end  

Peekabooo. Oooops wha? I don't see you.

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<cfoutput>
#repeatString("*",len(qPayment.CreditCardNumber))#
</cfoutput>

Halt who goes there!

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<cfif CGI.REMOTE_HOST IS NOT "127.0.0.1" 
  AND CGI.REMOTE_HOST IS NOT "192.168.0.1">
  <cfabort>
</cfif>

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// mathematical operators
+  addition
-  subtraction
*  multiplication
/  division
%  modulus (this is the remainder when you divide something)

//comparison operators
>   Greater Than
<   Less Than
>=  Greater Than or equal to
<=  Less Than or equal to
==  Equal to
!=  Not equal to 

Note:
("=" sign assigns a value to a variable, "==" compares two values for equality.)

'A'..'Z' paging cause I'm being lazy & I don't want to mess around with default paginate.

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# Starts with 'A'..'Z' Paginate / model
def self.sort(sort)
  if sort
    find(:all, :conditions => ['name LIKE ?', "#{sort}%"])
  else
    find(:all, :order => 'name')
  end  
end
  
# index action / controller
@models = Model.sort(params[:sort]) 
 
# Sort link A-Z / view
<a href="models?sort=A">A</a>

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case foo
   when 1    then puts "Foo is equal to 1"
   when 2..9 then puts "Foo is between 2 and 9"
   when 10   then puts "Foo is equal to 10"
end

Source: http://railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?pid=27834#p27834