Developer:Get Started

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Getting Started with myExperiment, for Developers

Note: this page is outdated.

By Sergejs Aleksejevs, 6th October 2008    /    Last updated 17th February 2009


Note: this page is outdated.

Preparation

Setting up the development environment

  • Software installation (Eclipse, RadRails, Instant Rails, mySQL, phpMyAdmin, SVN, <something else?> )
 1) Ruby on Rails
    * InstantRails (Windows only -- http://instantrails.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl)
      (then add this to PATH environment variable: C:\InstantRails\ruby\bin;C:\InstantRails\php;C:\InstantRails\mysql\bin)
      - it is likely that a message box saying "Either Apache of MySQL cannot run because another program is using it's port"
        will appear; this can be caused by Skype (which then needs to be switched off or switched to 'offline' mode prior to
        starting InstantRails) or IIS Service (which needs to be stopped - also prior to launching InstantRails);
    
    * Locomotive (MacOS 10.4 Tiger -- http://sourceforge.net/projects/locomotive)     
    * Not required (MacOS 10.5 Leopard and above, as Ruby Rails already included into the installation within develoment tools)
    
    * RubyWorks (Ubuntu -- http://studios.thoughtworks.com/rubyworks/download-ruby-production-stack)
    * FiveRuns (Linux / MacOS -- http://www.fiveruns.com/products/rm/install)
    
    * For more info on installing Ruby on Rails on different OSs, see: 
      http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/
      (scroll down to the pages starting with "RailsOn<whatever_OS_you_run>")
 
 2) Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/)
    -- Window -> Preferences -> General -> Capabilities -> Switch on "Classic Update"
 
 3) Git for Eclipse (built in)
  myExperiment repository is located at: https://github.com/myExperiment/myExperiment.git
 
 4) Aptana Studio Plugin for Eclipse
 (http://www.aptana.com/docs/index.php/Plugging_Aptana_into_an_existing_Eclipse_configuration)
  -- AptanaStudio (http://update.aptana.com/install/studio/3.2/)
 
 5) RadRails Plugin for Eclipse
  -- RadRails (http://update.aptana.com/install/rails/3.2/)
  -- point Eclipse to the correct Ruby Interpreter folder:
     Eclipse -> Window -> Preferences -> Ruby -> Installed Interpreters
  • For commits, either send Github pull requests or ask to become a myExperiment team member on GitHub.
  • Checking out latest trunk
  • Setting up servers in Eclipse
  • Copying & updating config files (\config\environment_private.rb, \config\database.yml, \config\captcha.yml)
  • Launching Mongrel server in Eclipse for myExperiment project
  • Launching web-browser to check if everything's working


Useful links

myExperiment

Development Software

Ruby, Javascript, CSS and YUI Documentation


Getting Familiar with the Codebase

Model / View / Control :: the idea & relevant folders where these reside:

  • Model
    • for support of the business rules;
    • keeping the data structure;
    • and interactions with DB;
    • (names of Models are related to names of tables in the DB: all Models by convention should have their names in singular form; for each model that needs to perform data management and interaction with the DB, there exists a corresponding table in the DB, that has a plural form of the name of the related Model as its name).
  • View
    • Views are to be kept as simple and clear as possible;
    • Possible to achieve dynamic content display with in-line Ruby, by enclosing Ruby statements within <% %> and <%= -%>.
  • Control
    • methods in the Controllers are used to invoke Views and talk to Models;
    • default action for each Controller is 'index', when other is not specified.


How these MVC components (+Helpers) interact together:

  • Model can be accessed from everywhere;
  • instance variables from Models are available in the Controllers through <object_name>.<variable_name> (following the principles of object orientation);
  • instance variables from the Controllers are available in the Views;
  • methods from Helpers are available just in the Views;


What are the rest of folders meant for:

  • \lib\ - modules that are created by myExperiment team for re-use in multiple places around the code;
  • \vendor\plugins\ - modules that are available for reuse, which may / may not be customised (but not written entirely) by us;
  • \public\ - index page (not served by Rails) and stylesheets;
  • \config\ - all the important configuration files;
  • \db\migrate\ - DB migration files;


Routes in Rails

  • \config\routes.rb
  • RESTful routes (Create, Read, Update, Delete actions)
  • named routes
    • available only in the Views and Controllers
    • difference between "user_path(<user_id>)" and "user_url(<_user_id>)": the former produces a partial path to the required resouce (/users/<user_id>), the latter does the same, but prepends the base URI to its output;
    • difference between 'map.resources' & 'map.connect': the former is used to create all RESTful routes for the resource, but the latter attaches just one defined action for that resource and won't allow named routes to work;
    • attaching actions to :collection and :member in map.resources
    • structure of a route with an action attached to the object:
      membership_invite_group_path(<group_id>)

      +++++++++++++++++ %%%%% $$$$

      (pluses standing for action name within controller, percent signs for controller name, dollar signs for choice between 'path' and 'url')
  • nested routes
    • /users/1/memberships/123
    • created with two IDs: "membership_path(<user_id>, <membership_id>)" or "membership_url(<user_id>, <membership_id>)"


Config files (environment_private.yml & database.yml)

  • environment_private.yml - used to declare constants universally accessible around the application; also mailing settings.
  • database.yml - used for defining which databases to uses in different modes (development/production/testing) and how to connect to them;


Where and in Which Order to Search Through Documentation and Codebase for Unknown Methods

  • GotAPI (or any other Ruby documentation);
  • \helpers\application_helper.rb - for methods in any of the Views;
  • \controllers\application.rb - for methods in any of the Controllers or Views;
  • \lib - for our own reusable libraries;
  • \vendor\plugins - for the external libraries that we make use of.


Difference between 'render' and 'redirect_to'

  • 'render' preserves the parameter hash and loads the desired page (just as a standard way of sending response to the users browser after processing some action);
  • 'redirect_to' erases anything that tied the previous page to some state (i.e. clears flash[:error/notice] object, erases all parameters in the hash, etc) and loads the desired page from scratch.
  • good explanation of this can be found here (see last comment at the end of the page): http://www.rubyonrailsexamples.com/rails-tips/rails-render/
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