Vert Studios Web Design Blog

Multiple .screenrc Configurations | GNU Screen Tutorial

Joseph — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:19:37 +0000

As an extension of my example .screenrc article, this article describes the why and how of multiple .screenrc configurations.

Why Do I Need Multiple .screenrc Configs?

Your workflow can vary greatly depending on the type of project. Sure, all will involve your text editor (such as VIM) as well as some type of version control, such as git. However, that leaves out quite a few requirements. A rails developer will be testing often, thus requiring tabs dedicated to spork, autotest, or other testing tools. Additionally, a screen for running the server locally will be needed. Having multiple screen configurations helps you avoid the hassle of creating new screens and naming each tab over and over again.

How to Add Multiple .screenrc Configs

Create a directory where you plan on storing your screen configuration files. For this tutorial, I’ll use /usr/local/screen

$ sudo mkdir /usr/local/screen
$ cd /usr/local/screen

Now create your configuration files and name them based on your workflow, and place them in the /usr/local/screen directory. For example, “rails”, “flask”, or “javascript”. Here’s my rails screen config file.

rails

# Screen Configuration file for Rails!
# Skip the startup message
startup_message off 

# Display a caption string below, appearing like tabs and
# displaying the window number and application name (by default).
caption always
caption string "%{kw}%-w%{wr}%n %t%{-}%+w"

# j to move down a window, k to move up. Like teh VIM!
bind j focus down
bind k focus up

screen -t VIM
screen -t Test
screen -t Bash
screen -t Git
screen -t Spork
screen -t Server

# Select first screen
select 0

Remember to make sure this file is in your /usr/local/screen directory.

Next, we have to tell screen to load these different configuration files. We’ll make a simple bash function and append it to our ~/.bashrc

# Special screens
# $1 - screen config file name
function scr(){
    screen -c /usr/local/screen/$1
}

Calling the Configurations

Now if we want to use our rails screen configuration file, we execute

$ scr rails

Note that we use “scr” instead of “screen”. Executing “screen” by itself will just load the ~/.screenrc file as its configuration.

It’s important to note that there isn’t any configuration file inheritance going on here. The files located in /usr/local/screen need to be full fledged configuration files, as unfortunate as that is.

Autotest Won’t Work – Just Be Ghetto!

Joseph — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:38:54 +0000

So I somehow managed to botch my Autotest installation I described in this tutorial. After spending many hours trying to get it back up and running again, I’ve decided it’s just not worth it. Here’s a ghetto bash script for semi-auto testing. You just have to press any key and it’ll run the test.

test.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Our ghetto auto-testish thing. User presses any key to test,
# Ctrl-C to get out

function hold(){
    read -n 1 -s
}

function do_test(){
    printf "\nTesting..."
    bundle exec rspec spec/
    printf "\nPress any key to test... \n"
    hold
    do_test
}

do_test

[SOLVED] warning: Insecure world writable dir

Joseph — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:53:21 +0000

I’ve had my face-palm moment for the day.

While searching for how to solve the annoying ruby alert of “Insecure world writable dir”, the fact that I was on a FAT32 partition completely skipped my mind. The chmod/chown commands tutorials told me to execute weren’t working, and my mind was blown. If you’re an Ubuntu user working on a FAT32 partition, you can’t change file permissions!

The Solution

Thanks to Ruby-Forum.com, I found that inserting “$VERBOSE=nil” into my bundler runtime file helped suppress this annoying message. Please be careful with this, and only do this if you work exclusively on a FAT32 partition.

Find your gem path so we can edit the bundler gem. Execute the following in your shell: (credit)

$ ruby -r rubygems -e "p Gem.path"

Navigate to your gem path and cd into the version of bundler currently being used. Now navigate to lib -> bundler and open runtime.rb in your favorite text editor. Add “$VERBOSE = nil” to line 2.

require "digest/sha1"
$VERBOSE = nil 

module Bundler
  class Runtime < Environment
    include SharedHelpers

    def setup(*groups)
      # Has to happen first
      clean_load_path

...

Now that annoying warning should leave you alone.

PyQuery Tutorial: Basic HTML Parsing with PyQuery

Joseph — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 03:29:09 +0000

As Python is my programming language of choice when it comes to getting things done quickly, I need a dead simple XML parser that gets me the data I want and gets the hell out of the way.

Enter PyQuery

PyQuery, as you may have guessed, is a Python port of the extremely popular jQuery JavaScript library. Anyone even remotely experienced with jQuery know how easy it is to select any element you wish from the DOM. Once you move away from JavaScript, many XML parsers become extremely verbose. PyQuery helps us keeps things simple and extract the data we want without wasting any time.

Using PyQuery for Basic Parsing

PyQuery includes many of the jQuery DOM manipulation methods. For this tutorial, we’ll just deal with retrieving data from HTML. Once you can read the HTML to a string via PyQuery, you can instantly apply your knowledge of jQuery and append(), remove(), or whatever you need.

The Setup

This guide uses Python 2.6. If you don’t have virtualenv, grab it now. We’ll use it in a minute to install the PyQuery package.
Now create a project directory for this tutorial. I’ll call it pyquery_tutorial

$ mkdir pyquery_tutorial
$ cd pyquery_tutorial

Now create the virtual environment with your Python executable version of choice (I have only tested this for 2.6 and 2.7)

$ virtualenv env --python=python2.6
Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python2.6
New python executable in env/bin/python2.6
Also creating executable in env/bin/python
Installing distribute.................................................................................................................................................................................done.

Now activate the virtualenv. (You should see (env) beside your prompt if done correctly)

$ . env/bin/activate

Now we install the PyQuery package.

(env) $ pip install pyquery
...
Successfully installed lxml pyquery
Cleaning up...

Woohoo, PyQuery is now ready for use!

Using PyQuery

Using PyQuery for parsing will feel extremely similar to using jQuery. One of the only differences is initializing the jQuery object.

First, create this html file called “index.html” in the project directory.

index.html

PyQuery Test!

PyQuery is AWESOME!

PyQuery is a Python port of the famous jQuery JavaScript library.

What is it Good For?

It makes parsing files a SNAP!
DOM Manipulation is EASY!
You never have to worry about confusing syntax

Now fire up Python. (Make sure your virtualenv is still activated!)

$ python
Python 2.6.6 (r266:84292, Mar 25 2011, 19:36:32)
[GCC 4.5.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

First we import PyQuery from the pyquery package.

>>> from pyquery import PyQuery

Now let’s read in our index.html file and store it to a string.

>>> html = open("index.html", 'r').read()

Now we instantiate a PyQuery object, passing in our html string. To keep things looking familiar, let the instantiating object be named jQuery!

>>> jQuery = PyQuery(html)

Now we can traverse this document using the selectors we’ve grown to love through CSS and jQuery. It might look strange that we’re assigning jQuery to something, but at this point, we use this jQuery variable JUST like we use $ in our JavaScript. For example, let’s get the title tag.

>>> jQuery("title").text()
'PyQuery Test!'

jQuery developers that have created their own plugin may already be comfortable using jQuery in place of $ in their JS. Let’s mess around with PyQuery some more.

>>> jQuery("li").eq(1).text()
'DOM Manipulation is EASY!'
>>> jQuery("a") # The 'jQuery Object' we're used to is now a list
[, ]
>>> for x in jQuery("a"): # We can do for-loops as normal in Python
... print jQuery(x).text()
...
PyQuery
jQuery

Get the HTML of the first li element.

>>> jQuery("ul").children().eq(0).html()
u'It makes parsing files a SNAP!'

Remote Files

Wanna parse a remote file? No problem!

>>> jQuery = PyQuery(url="http://www.vertstudios.com/")
>>> jQuery("title").text()
"Web Design that Doesn't Suck | Vert Studios | Tyler, Texas"

Conclusion

Now that we’ve given you a nice kickstart of PyQuery, your knowledge of jQuery coupled with the PyQuery API provides sufficient power to parse XML/HTML documents.

List of Rails Session Variables

Joseph — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:04:35 +0000

As a rails novice, one of the more frustrating things I’ve encountered with rails is the inability to search for specific method names in its API. This is because a lot of these methods are dynamically generated helpers that you should know by heart once you’ve mastered the “Rails Way.” Unfortunately for me, I’m not at the point of calling myself a Rails guru, so I still need to know what all I have available to me. In my opinion, nothing is more frustrating than not knowing what methods you have at your disposal.

After doing quite a bit of googling, I was able to find a list of session variables by executing the following in Rails Console:

irb(main):001:0> y app.methods.sort

Rails Session Variables List

Here is my list of Rails Session Variables. These will vary across different apps based upon what gems you have installed. For example, you’ll see methods with “refinery” in the list below, which refers to the RefineryCMS we’ve adopted here at Vert. I highly recommend you execute the command above for your own app.

---
- :!
- :!=
- :!~
- :<=>
- :==
- :===
- :=~
- :__id__
- :__send__
- :_assertions
- :_assertions=
- :_routes
- :`
- :accept
- :accept=
- :acts_like?
- :admin_dashboard_path
- :admin_dashboard_url
- :admin_dialog_path
- :admin_dialog_url
- :admin_disable_upgrade_message_path
- :admin_disable_upgrade_message_url
- :admin_image_path
- :admin_image_url
- :admin_images_path
- :admin_images_url
- :admin_memberships_path
- :admin_memberships_url
- :admin_page_part_path
- :admin_page_part_url
- :admin_page_parts_path
- :admin_page_parts_url
- :admin_page_path
- :admin_page_url
- :admin_pages_path
- :admin_pages_url
- :admin_refinery_setting_path
- :admin_refinery_setting_url
- :admin_refinery_settings_path
- :admin_refinery_settings_url
- :admin_resource_path
- :admin_resource_url
- :admin_resources_path
- :admin_resources_url
- :admin_root_path
- :admin_root_url
- :admin_user_path
- :admin_user_role_path
- :admin_user_role_url
- :admin_user_url
- :admin_users_path
- :admin_users_url
- :as_json
- :assert
- :assert_block
- :assert_dom_equal
- :assert_dom_not_equal
- :assert_empty
- :assert_equal
- :assert_generates
- :assert_in_delta
- :assert_in_epsilon
- :assert_includes
- :assert_instance_of
- :assert_kind_of
- :assert_match
- :assert_nil
- :assert_no_match
- :assert_no_tag
- :assert_not_empty
- :assert_not_equal
- :assert_not_in_delta
- :assert_not_in_epsilon
- :assert_not_includes
- :assert_not_instance_of
- :assert_not_kind_of
- :assert_not_match
- :assert_not_nil
- :assert_not_operator
- :assert_not_respond_to
- :assert_not_same
- :assert_nothing_raised
- :assert_nothing_thrown
- :assert_operator
- :assert_raise
- :assert_raises
- :assert_recognizes
- :assert_redirected_to
- :assert_respond_to
- :assert_response
- :assert_routing
- :assert_same
- :assert_select
- :assert_select_email
- :assert_select_encoded
- :assert_select_rjs
- :assert_send
- :assert_tag
- :assert_throws
- :assigns
- :blank?
- :body
- :breakpoint
- :build_message
- :cancel_user_registration_path
- :cancel_user_registration_url
- :capture_io
- :class
- :class_eval
- :clone
- :controller
- :cookies
- :copy_instance_variables_from
- :count_description
- :create_multiple_admin_page_roles_path
- :create_multiple_admin_page_roles_url
- :create_multiple_admin_user_roles_path
- :create_multiple_admin_user_roles_url
- :css_select
- :debugger
- :default_url_options
- :default_url_options=
- :default_url_options?
- :define_singleton_method
- :delete
- :delete_via_redirect
- :destroy_multiple_admin_page_roles_path
- :destroy_multiple_admin_page_roles_url
- :destroy_multiple_admin_user_roles_path
- :destroy_multiple_admin_user_roles_url
- :destroy_user_session_path
- :destroy_user_session_url
- :display
- :dup
- :duplicable?
- :edit_admin_image_path
- :edit_admin_image_url
- :edit_admin_page_path
- :edit_admin_page_url
- :edit_admin_refinery_setting_path
- :edit_admin_refinery_setting_url
- :edit_admin_resource_path
- :edit_admin_resource_url
- :edit_admin_user_path
- :edit_admin_user_url
- :edit_member_path
- :edit_member_url
- :edit_polymorphic_path
- :edit_polymorphic_url
- :edit_user_password_path
- :edit_user_password_url
- :edit_user_registration_path
- :edit_user_registration_url
- :enable_warnings
- :enum_for
- :eql?
- :equal?
- :exception_details
- :extend
- :find_all_tag
- :find_tag
- :fixture_file_upload
- :flash
- :flunk
- :follow_redirect!
- :freeze
- :friendly_id?
- :frozen?
- :gem
- :get
- :get_via_redirect
- :hash
- :hash_for_admin_dashboard_path
- :hash_for_admin_dashboard_url
- :hash_for_admin_dialog_path
- :hash_for_admin_dialog_url
- :hash_for_admin_disable_upgrade_message_path
- :hash_for_admin_disable_upgrade_message_url
- :hash_for_admin_image_path
- :hash_for_admin_image_url
- :hash_for_admin_images_path
- :hash_for_admin_images_url
- :hash_for_admin_memberships_path
- :hash_for_admin_memberships_url
- :hash_for_admin_page_part_path
- :hash_for_admin_page_part_url
- :hash_for_admin_page_parts_path
- :hash_for_admin_page_parts_url
- :hash_for_admin_page_path
- :hash_for_admin_page_url
- :hash_for_admin_pages_path
- :hash_for_admin_pages_url
- :hash_for_admin_refinery_setting_path
- :hash_for_admin_refinery_setting_url
- :hash_for_admin_refinery_settings_path
- :hash_for_admin_refinery_settings_url
- :hash_for_admin_resource_path
- :hash_for_admin_resource_url
- :hash_for_admin_resources_path
- :hash_for_admin_resources_url
- :hash_for_admin_root_path
- :hash_for_admin_root_url
- :hash_for_admin_user_path
- :hash_for_admin_user_role_path
- :hash_for_admin_user_role_url
- :hash_for_admin_user_url
- :hash_for_admin_users_path
- :hash_for_admin_users_url
- :hash_for_cancel_user_registration_path
- :hash_for_cancel_user_registration_url
- :hash_for_create_multiple_admin_page_roles_path
- :hash_for_create_multiple_admin_page_roles_url
- :hash_for_create_multiple_admin_user_roles_path
- :hash_for_create_multiple_admin_user_roles_url
- :hash_for_destroy_multiple_admin_page_roles_path
- :hash_for_destroy_multiple_admin_page_roles_url
- :hash_for_destroy_multiple_admin_user_roles_path
- :hash_for_destroy_multiple_admin_user_roles_url
- :hash_for_destroy_user_session_path
- :hash_for_destroy_user_session_url
- :hash_for_edit_admin_image_path
- :hash_for_edit_admin_image_url
- :hash_for_edit_admin_page_path
- :hash_for_edit_admin_page_url
- :hash_for_edit_admin_refinery_setting_path
- :hash_for_edit_admin_refinery_setting_url
- :hash_for_edit_admin_resource_path
- :hash_for_edit_admin_resource_url
- :hash_for_edit_admin_user_path
- :hash_for_edit_admin_user_url
- :hash_for_edit_member_path
- :hash_for_edit_member_url
- :hash_for_edit_user_password_path
- :hash_for_edit_user_password_url
- :hash_for_edit_user_registration_path
- :hash_for_edit_user_registration_url
- :hash_for_insert_admin_images_path
- :hash_for_insert_admin_images_url
- :hash_for_insert_admin_resources_path
- :hash_for_insert_admin_resources_url
- :hash_for_link_to_admin_pages_dialogs_path
- :hash_for_link_to_admin_pages_dialogs_url
- :hash_for_member_path
- :hash_for_member_url
- :hash_for_members_path
- :hash_for_members_url
- :hash_for_new_admin_image_path
- :hash_for_new_admin_image_url
- :hash_for_new_admin_page_part_path
- :hash_for_new_admin_page_part_url
- :hash_for_new_admin_page_path
- :hash_for_new_admin_page_url
- :hash_for_new_admin_refinery_setting_path
- :hash_for_new_admin_refinery_setting_url
- :hash_for_new_admin_resource_path
- :hash_for_new_admin_resource_url
- :hash_for_new_admin_user_path
- :hash_for_new_admin_user_url
- :hash_for_new_member_path
- :hash_for_new_member_url
- :hash_for_new_user_password_path
- :hash_for_new_user_password_url
- :hash_for_new_user_registration_path
- :hash_for_new_user_registration_url
- :hash_for_new_user_session_path
- :hash_for_new_user_session_url
- :hash_for_page_path
- :hash_for_page_url
- :hash_for_rails_info_properties_path
- :hash_for_rails_info_properties_url
- :hash_for_refinery_root_path
- :hash_for_refinery_root_url
- :hash_for_refinery_update_menu_positions_path
- :hash_for_refinery_update_menu_positions_url
- :hash_for_root_path
- :hash_for_root_url
- :hash_for_test_email_admin_pages_dialogs_path
- :hash_for_test_email_admin_pages_dialogs_url
- :hash_for_test_url_admin_pages_dialogs_path
- :hash_for_test_url_admin_pages_dialogs_url
- :hash_for_update_positions_admin_pages_path
- :hash_for_update_positions_admin_pages_url
- :hash_for_user_password_path
- :hash_for_user_password_url
- :hash_for_user_registration_path
- :hash_for_user_registration_url
- :hash_for_user_root_path
- :hash_for_user_root_url
- :hash_for_user_session_path
- :hash_for_user_session_url
- :hash_for_wymiframe_path
- :hash_for_wymiframe_url
- :head
- :headers
- :host
- :host!
- :host=
- :html_document
- :html_safe?
- :https!
- :https?
- :initialize_clone
- :initialize_dup
- :insert_admin_images_path
- :insert_admin_images_url
- :insert_admin_resources_path
- :insert_admin_resources_url
- :inspect
- :instance_eval
- :instance_exec
- :instance_of?
- :instance_values
- :instance_variable_defined?
- :instance_variable_get
- :instance_variable_names
- :instance_variable_set
- :instance_variables
- :is_a?
- :kind_of?
- :link_to_admin_pages_dialogs_path
- :link_to_admin_pages_dialogs_url
- :load
- :load_dependency
- :member_path
- :member_url
- :members_path
- :members_url
- :message
- :method
- :method_missing
- :methods
- :mu_pp
- :new_admin_image_path
- :new_admin_image_url
- :new_admin_page_part_path
- :new_admin_page_part_url
- :new_admin_page_path
- :new_admin_page_url
- :new_admin_refinery_setting_path
- :new_admin_refinery_setting_url
- :new_admin_resource_path
- :new_admin_resource_url
- :new_admin_user_path
- :new_admin_user_url
- :new_member_path
- :new_member_url
- :new_polymorphic_path
- :new_polymorphic_url
- :new_user_password_path
- :new_user_password_url
- :new_user_registration_path
- :new_user_registration_url
- :new_user_session_path
- :new_user_session_url
- :nil?
-  bject_id
- :page_path
- :page_url
- :pass
- :path
- :polymorphic_path
- :polymorphic_url
- :post
- :post_via_redirect
- :presence
- :present?
- :pretty_inspect
- :pretty_print
- :pretty_print_cycle
- :pretty_print_inspect
- :pretty_print_instance_variables
- :private_methods
- :protected_methods
- :psych_to_yaml
- :psych_y
- :public_method
- :public_methods
- :public_send
- :put
- :put_via_redirect
- :rails_info_properties_path
- :rails_info_properties_url
- :redirect?
- :redirect_to_url
- :refinery_root_path
- :refinery_root_url
- :refinery_update_menu_positions_path
- :refinery_update_menu_positions_url
- :refute
- :refute_empty
- :refute_equal
- :refute_in_delta
- :refute_in_epsilon
- :refute_includes
- :refute_instance_of
- :refute_kind_of
- :refute_match
- :refute_nil
- :refute_operator
- :refute_respond_to
- :refute_same
- :remote_addr
- :remote_addr=
- :request
- :request_count
- :request_count=
- :request_via_redirect
- :require
- :require_association
- :require_dependency
- :require_library_or_gem
- :require_or_load
- :reset!
- :respond_to?
- :respond_to_missing?
- :response
- :response_from_page_or_rjs
- :returning
- :root_path
- :root_url
- :send
- :session
- :silence_stderr
- :silence_stream
- :silence_warnings
- :singleton_class
- :singleton_methods
- :skip
- :status
- :status_message
- :suppress
- :suppress_warnings
- :taint
- :tainted?
- :tap
- :test_email_admin_pages_dialogs_path
- :test_email_admin_pages_dialogs_url
- :test_url_admin_pages_dialogs_path
- :test_url_admin_pages_dialogs_url
- :to_dragonfly_unique_s
- :to_enum
- :to_json
- :to_param
- :to_query
- :to_s
- :to_yaml
- :to_yaml_properties
- :trust
- :try
- :unescape_rjs
- :unfriendly_id?
- :unloadable
- :untaint
- :untrust
- :untrusted?
- :update_positions_admin_pages_path
- :update_positions_admin_pages_url
- :url_for
- :url_options
- :user_password_path
- :user_password_url
- :user_registration_path
- :user_registration_url
- :user_root_path
- :user_root_url
- :user_session_path
- :user_session_url
- :with_options
- :with_routing
- :with_warnings
- :wymiframe_path
- :wymiframe_url
-  hr
-  ml_http_request
- :y

Start VIM in File Navigation Mode

Joseph — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:31:48 +0000

I often find myself doing the following:

vim .

to open up VIM and then explore my files. Because I’m lazy, here’s a way to open up VIM in file navigation mode if no files are specified when running VIM.

Append the following to your .bashrc

function vim(){
    vimpath=`which vim`
    if [ "$#" -gt 0 ]
    then
        $vimpath $@
    else
        $vimpath .
    fi
}

Overcome Programming Apathy

Installing RSpec, Autotest, and Spork on Ubuntu/OS X

Joseph — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:30:50 +0000

I’m an Ubuntu lover in the process of learning Ruby on Rails. I’ve spent a good majority of my time “learning” rails trying to get Rspec, Spork, and Autotest to play nicely. Unfortunately, our designer is an Apple fanboy, so my testing suite needs to perform on OS X as well. It’s extremely frustrating to spend so many hours trying to get these gems to work, just so you can continue on with the tutorial! Thus, to save you all the heartache I endured, here is a definitive guide to integrating Spork and Autotest with Rspec for Ubuntu AND Mac OS X!

Time Required

15 – 30 minutes

The Main Problem: Gemfile Hacks

The main issue with most of the tutorials I’ve followed is that they require you to list gems such as autotest in Gemfiles, and this can cause a huge array of conflicts between the different operating systems. So our philosophy throughout this tutorial is knowing when a gem should be executed via its binary (autotest) or via bundle exec (bundle exec autotest). Most of the time executing via binary or through bundle exec doesn’t make any difference. However, in this context, autotest and spork react much differently based upon which way you call them. Thus, in order to keep our project portable, we aim to eliminate any OS-specific hacks in the Gemfile.

Get the Project Template

First, we’ll pull a rails project template file that has rspec preconfigured.

$ git clone git://github.com/joequery/Rails-Template.git

Now rename the app to whatever you want

$ rails g rename_to YourApp

Now execute the following

$ bundle install
$ gem install ZenTest
$ gem install autotest-rails

(You may need to use sudo for your gem install, depends on your setup)

Now we move on to OS-Specific implementations.

Ubuntu Configuration

(Skip to OS X)
Credit most of the Ubuntu instructions to Ykyuen

First, execute

$ sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin

Now create an autotest configuration file in the home directory (~/.autotest) and paste in the following:

#!/bin/ruby

#require 'redgreen'
require 'autotest/timestamp'

module Autotest::GnomeNotify
def self.notify title, msg, img
system "notify-send '#{title}' '#{msg}' -i #{img} -t 1500"
end

Autotest.add_hook :ran_command do |at|
	image_root = "~/.autotest_images"
	results = [at.results].flatten.join("\n")
	results.gsub!(/\\e\[\d+m/,'')
	output = results.slice(/(\d+)\sexamples?,\s(\d+)\sfailures?(,\s(\d+)\spending?|)/)
	full_sentence, green, failures, garbage, pending = $~.to_a.map(&:to_i)
	if output
		if failures > 0
		notify "FAIL", "#{output}", "#{image_root}/fail.png"

		elsif pending > 0
		notify "Pending", "#{output}", "#{image_root}/pending.png"

		else
		notify "Pass", "#{output}", "#{image_root}/pass.png"

		end
	end
end

end

Now create an ~/.autotest_images folder and extract these images to it.

Everything is now configured. Jump to Testing Your Setup

Mac OS X

First, execute

$ gem install autotest-growl

(You may need to use sudo, based upon your setup).

Edit the ~/.autotest file (create it if it does not exist), and paste the following in

require "autotest/growl"

Everything is now configured. Jump to Testing Your Setup

Testing Your Setup

The Ubuntu Nerds and the Apple Fanboys reunite! It's time to test our installations.

First, lets generate a controller to test.

$ rails generate controller Pages home contact

You'll see a bunch of files created. Let's get rid of some of the unnecessary files rspec made

$ rm -rf spec/helpers
$ rm -rf spec/views

Now let's run our test without autotest. We should have 2 success and 0 failures at this point.

$ bundle exec rspec spec/

Now open two terminal windows or tabs and cd back to your project directory in both of them.
In one tab, execute

$ bundle exec spork

You may see a bunch of warning messages. It's safe to ignore these for the time being. If everything went well, you should see

Preloading Rails environment
Loading Spork.prefork block...
Spork is ready and listening on 8989!

In the other tab you opened, simply execute

$ autotest -c

Once again, you may see a bunch of warning messages in the terminal, and these are also safe to ignore for now. More importantly, you should see a pop up notification that shows that the tests passed. You'll also see

Finished in 0.xxxx seconds
2 examples, 0 failures

in the window/tab where you executed autotest.

Now, to see if the autotest is working properly, lets open spec/controllers/pages_controller_spec.rb. The file contains the following:

require 'spec_helper'

describe PagesController do

  describe "GET 'home'" do
    it "should be successful" do
      get 'home'
      response.should be_success
    end
  end

  describe "GET 'contact'" do
    it "should be successful" do
      get 'contact'
      response.should be_success
    end
  end

end

Lets make the test fail by changing all occurances of "contact" in the second describe block to "about".

require 'spec_helper'

describe PagesController do

  describe "GET 'home'" do
    it "should be successful" do
      get 'home'
      response.should be_success
    end
  end

  describe "GET 'about'" do
    it "should be successful" do
      get 'about'
      response.should be_success
    end
  end

end

We should get a pop up saying that the test failed, and you can find the details in the tab with autotest running.

Finished in 0.07293 seconds
2 examples, 1 failure

Failed examples:

rspec ./spec/controllers/pages_controller_spec.rb:13 # PagesController GET 'about' should be successful

# Waiting since 2011-09-13 14:19:31

If this shows up along with the pop up, congratulations, you've successufully integrated Spork and Autotest into RSpec!

Note: Sometimes spork can get kind of screwy. If you're ever in a situation where you KNOW a test should pass or should fail, you should restart spork and see if that helps.

Do I have to do this EVERY TIME?!?!

Nope! For subsequent projects, your procedure should be as follows:

$ git clone git@github.com:joequery/Rails-Template.git
$ cd Rails-Template
$ rails g rename_to MyApp
$ bundle install

In a separate window/tab

$ bundle exec spork

In another separate window/tab

$ autotest

And that's it!

Feedback

Did the tutorial help? Did you find parts of the tutorial unclear? Let us know in the comments below!

Rails Singular/Plural Reference Chart

Joseph — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:03:13 +0000

I’ve begun my descent into pure Rails. The whole naming convention idiom is hard to remember while I’m just learning, so here’s a reference chart for myself and for any other Rails noobs.

# Routes
resources: users

# Controllers
users_controller.rb
class UsersController < ApplicationController
@users = User.all

# Models
user.rb (model)
class User < ActiveRecord::Base

Snippet: What Linux Distro is Running?

Joseph — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:26:46 +0000

Quick snippet here for you guys! You’re a dev SSHing into various VPS’s and you need to know what linux distro you’re running. Simply execute

cat /etc/*release

For example, on Media Temple (dv), the following comes up

CentOS release 5.5 (Final)

Avoiding the AJAX New Line Pitfall

Joseph — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:11:40 +0000

Here, my friends, is a JavaScript pitfall that has plagued entire workdays. It’s small and simple, but menacing … you’d do well to heed this warning!

Beware of Trailing New Lines!

If you’re retrieving information via AJAX, you have two easy options for retaining your sanity:

Make sure the document sending a response to your AJAX request has no trailing Newline. This includes all the files that may be included or required in a php file.
Sanitize the server response with a whitespace trim function

Why is that? Let’s take a look at an example.

Example of the Pitfall

Let’s execute a simple jQuery.post request to see how this can happen.


	
		jQuery AJAX Pitfall

Now we have a file ajax.php

The file whitespacetrap.php is simply a file with a newline. (Just open up notepad and press enter once and save).

You’ll see “false” as the alert when you load up the html file. Now comment out the require file in ajax.php, and reload the html file. It’s now true! That new line is concatenated with the echo and returned. This will completely screw up any string comparisons with the response message.

Moral of the Story

Use console.log or alert to echo print the value the server sends. If your string comparisons fail when you KNOW they shouldn’t, make sure there are no stray newlines in the files associated with an AJAX request.

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