This can be done by simply calling ActiveMerchant every time you need it in the controller but the models again will never be updated without going to ActiveMerchant. So to keep my controllers looking clean here is what i did.

Dirty Controller

I have two models:

• Profile
• Payments

Profile relates to the recurring profile i am creating in Payflow and Payment relates to one time purchases. My controller as of now was making a request to payflow to look up the profile id then update it if needed. Then it would make another request to add another profile if the user needed more then one (in this case the user can have up to 4 profiles). On top of all the payflow requests I also needed to create and or update the database. So the controller method started to get a little crowded.

Clean Controller

To solve this issue and clean up my controller i simply moved the payflow request directly into the model. I took advantage of using before_validation to make a call to a method inside the model on create. The method looks something like this:

def create_profile
        response = Activemerchant.gateway.recurring(price, self.card, {:starting_at => start, :periodicity => self.frequency, :comment => self.comment})
        if !response.success?
            raise StandardError, response.message
        else
            self.profile_id = response.profile_id
        end
end

So now in one swoop i was able to make the ActiveMerchant and DB calls all in the model. In the method above i am simply making the payflow call then if the response is successful i am assigning the profile_id then saving in my controller.

NOTE: i do have ‘validates :profile_id, :presence => true’ so if the request to payflow failed it will not pass validation thus kicking and error back to the user letting them know.

So the solution is not really the “Rails way” but i believe it is the best way to handel this need. If you have questions regarding this or need more information on how to do something like this yourself… Let me know.

In a small project I am working on with a friend i needed to upgrade the rails 3.0.3 application to a rails 3.1.1 application. This is very simple but can create some issues with your config files and any other core files you have edited.

First we need to change your GemFile:

From

gem 'rails', '3.0.3'

to

gem 'rails', '3.1.1'

Next we need to install any missing gems by running:

bundle update

Then we finish by updating rails, NOTE this is the time where you need to make sure you have copy’s of your edited config files. This command will give you the option to overwrite your config files.

rake rails:update

After cherry picking though the change conflicts I ran all my tests and they passed. I restarted the server and everything works!

Hope this helped anyone upgrading your rails app!

I am sure all of us know what Netflix is and may use it every day. Did you know Netflix has an API allowing developers like myself to harness the power of Netflix in any application? Well in a recent project I have been working very closely with this API, so i am going to show you some basics for connecting to this API via Ruby on Rails, the OAuth gem and Crack gem.

Getting Started

First things first, you must register your application with Netflix here. Now that you’re all registered you can start the fun stuff.

Gems

gem "oauth"
gem "crack", :require => "crack/xml"

For my application I had to create a library for the Rails app, as there are just no good Netflix gems available. So first i started with authentication, below is how i setup my library.

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class Netflix
 
    def initialize(user)
        @user = user
        @token = OAuth::Token.new(@user.netflix_accesstoken, @user.netflix_accesstokensecret)
    end
 
    def self.consumer
          @consumer = OAuth::Consumer.new("token", "secret", 
                    {:site => "http://api.netflix.com",
                    :request_token_url => "http://api.netflix.com/oauth/request_token",
                    :access_token_url => "http://api.netflix.com/oauth/access_token",
                    :authorize_url => "https://api-user.netflix.com/oauth/login"})
    end
end

Now we are able to make a call and connect to Netflix by simply calling the library (after requiring it into our controller).

def index
   netflix = Netflix.new(@user)
end

Now we have an instance of “Netflix” authenticated and ready to make a call to the API. So now I added a simple method call info, this method would allow me to get any information about the Netflix user that was returned. NOTE all Netflix responses are in XML so this is where Crack comes into play.

def info
        response = Netflix.consumer.request(:get, "/users/#{@user.netflix_id}", @token, {:scheme => :query_string})
        user = Crack::XML.parse(response.body)
        return user["user"]
 end

Now we can simply call:

def index
   netflix = Netflix.new(@user)
   @user_info = netflix.info
end

More later

I will have more about the Netflix API soon, the above covers the basics of using it and getting information back. Next time i hope to cover the login and register process for getting the Netflix users token and secret for use later.

More information can be found at the Netflix Developer center.

The code

Let’s cover the jQuery first.

$(document).ready(function(){
	$(".button").button();
 
	$('.back').click(function(){
		parent.history.back();
		return false;
	});
});

Now the HTML

<a class="button back" href="#">Back</a>

The above back link/button is now a functioning back button. Make sure you include both jQuery and jQuery UI.

Below I will cover how to use the Models in the Skoot PHP framework. First a little about Skoot:

This small but powerful PHP “micro” framework is a result from another project. I started using a “micro” framework called NiceDog, NiceDog is a very cool little one file framework that is super simple to use and get started with. It lacks the basic needs such as a database layer and theme helpers but it’s great to use for projects that don’t need a full framework with all the bells and whistles.

The name Skoot comes from my dog “Skooter” he’s a little black MinPin. The Skoot framework adds the basic database layer and layout functions into NiceDog making it more powerful and giving you a big jump start on any small project.

Let’s Start

Looking into the basic setup the “welcome” controller we will see no reference to the model in any way. We can simple do that by building a construct:

function Welcome(){
		$this->UsersModel = new User();
	}

Above we are making a call to the Users model from the welcome controller. You can now access any of your model actions from “$this->UserModel->ACTION”. Let look at how to make sure the model is usable and of correct setup.

The Model

Below is how to construct a model in Skoot PHP framework:

<?php
class Users extends M {
   function test(){
      echo "Test";
   }
}

All models extend the class “M”, just like controllers extend “C”.

Now lets make a call to the model from the controller:

function index(){
   $this->UsersModel->test();
}

The above output would be “Test”.

Don’t have Skoot?

• Get Skoot!
• Skoot Docs

Capistrano loves PHP also!

When I say Capistrano to most PHP developer they think Ruby on Rails right away. This is mostly the case because Capistrano got it’s fame from the Rails community. Capistrano has been good to thousands and thousands of Rails developers so why can it do the same for a PHP developer here or there? Well i have great news for you, it can. In fact you can start using it on your current project today!

Whats needed to start using Capistrano?

Well Capistrano runs as a gem on Ruby, so you will need to install Ruby on your system.

sudo aptitude install ruby build-essential libopenssl-ruby ruby1.8-dev

After you have Ruby installed you can now run a simple command to install one of the greatest gem’s of all time.

sudo gem install capistrano

Now lets setup Capistrano in your project new or existing. To do so lets just run a simple command in the root directory of your project.

capify .

After that lets edit your configuration file; below are the important items you should add or edit.

ssh_options[:keys] = %w(/Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa)
default_run_options[:pty] = true
set :use_sudo, true
set :application, "App Name"
set :repository,  "git@gitpath.git"
set :branch, "master"
 
set :scm, :git
# Or: `accurev`, `bzr`, `cvs`, `darcs`, `git`, `mercurial`, `perforce`, `subversion` or `none`
 
role :web, "url.com"                          # Your HTTP server, Apache/etc
role :app, "url.com"                          # This may be the same as your `Web` server
 
set :deploy_to, "/var/www/app"
 
namespace :apache do
  [:stop, :start, :restart, :reload].each do |action|
    desc "#{action.to_s.capitalize} Apache"
    task action, :roles => :web do
      invoke_command "/etc/init.d/apache2 #{action.to_s}", :via => run_method
    end
  end
end

Now it’s time!

Run the following command to setup the directory structure.

cap deploy:setup

Now lets deploy your code!

cap deploy:cold

What about updates?

Well cap will let you take care of this by simply running update like so:

cap deploy:update

Want more? Checkout this older post: http://wiki.ocssolutions.com/Step-by-step_setup_using_Capistrano_2.0_and_Mongrel

Multiple views!

Did you know you can load multiple views in a Codeigniter controller method? I have always believed it was one view to one action, but that is not the case! CodeIgniter will intelligently handle multiple calls to $this->load->view from within a controller. If more than one call happens they will be appended together. For example, you may wish to have a header view, a menu view, a content view, and a footer view.

Example:

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class Page extends CI_Controller {
 
   function anypage()
   {
      $data['page_title'] = 'Title';
 
      $this->load->view('header');
      $this->load->view('nav');
      $this->load->view('content', $data);
      $this->load->view('footer');
   }
 
}

To make this easier you can store views within sub folders.

Storing Views within Sub-folders

Your view files can also be stored within sub-folders if you prefer that type of organization. When doing so you will need to include the folder name loading the view.

Example:

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$this->load->view('folder_name/view_name');

Thanks for reading, hope this helped!

Skoot a micro framework

This small but powerful PHP “micro” framework is a result from another project. I started using a “micro” framework called NiceDog. NiceDog is a very cool little one file framework that is super simple to use and get started with. It lacks the basic needs such as a database layer and theme helpers but it’s great to use for projects that don’t need a full framework with all the bells and whistles.

The name Skoot comes from my dog “Skooter” he’s a little black MinPin. The Skoot framework adds the basic database layer and layout functions into NiceDog making it more powerful and giving you a big jump start on any small project.

Getting started

After you take a look at the demo code provided in the checkout over at Github you will quickly see that is very easy to use. Creating new methods is as simple as adding a new function like so:

public function index(){
$this->layout_tamplate = 'views/layouts/welcome.php';
echo $this->render('views/welcome/index.php');
}

Database layer

The database layer is much like codeigniter’s. So if your a CI fan like i am then you’ll quickly understand. Below are some basic methods:

// A basic select
$this->db->select('*')->from('users');
$query = $this->db->getQuery();
 
// A more complex query:
$this->db->select('*')->from('users')->where('status', 1);

View more examples here.

Download the framework and start building!

Gem Ystock

A new side project I have been working on is in the financial industry. This project needs to pull stock information such as; price, change, and volume of a any stock. The source i will be getting this information from is Yahoo! Finance. Yahoo produces a cvs file with just the information i need, so it’s good news! The next task is to build something i can use over and over, something portable i can take from this project and implement on the next. In rails 3 plugins seem to be old news so i decided on creating a gem named ‘ystock’ for Yahoo Stock information. (NOTE: I have no affiliation with Yahoo, this gem simply uses their service)

The project is hosted with github: https://github.com/gregwinn/ystock, and the gem is hosted at RubyGems.org: http://rubygems.org/gems/ystock. Below is how to install and use my new gem!

Install

sudo gem install ystock

After installation you can now include this into your Gemfile

gem 'ystock'

Usage

http://github.com/gregwinn/ystock/wiki/Usage

After you have installed the gem and included it into your Gemfile you can now start to use ystock.

1. In a controller you can do the following:

class SomeController < ApplicationController
   def index
      @stock = Ystock.get_stock('appl')
   end
end

2. In your view you may display the results:

<p>The price of Apple stock is: $<%=@stock[:price]%></p>

Available data

<%=@stock[:price]%>
<%=@stock[:change]%>
<%=@stock[:volume]%>

Thanks for reading, i hope this gem is of use to you in any future projects!

jQuery makes it easy to determine if an element is visible or hidden with a simple function ‘is()’ when used in conjunction with the element and a selector ‘:visible’ you can now determine if in fact an element is visible or not. I will cover some basic usage examples and show you how I implemented this in my own application.

Getting started:

Let’s include jquery.

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<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery.js"></script>

Now that jquery is included we can start using it’s wonderful magic! Below is some basic html:

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<div id="holder">
  <p id="warning">This is a warning!</p>
</div>

Let’s say we want to detect if #warning is visible or not we would simply call the element, then use the ‘is()’ function in conjunction with ‘:visible’ like so:

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$(document).ready(function(){
  if( $('#warning').is(':visible') ){
    alert('The Warning is visible');
  }
});

As you see the alert would pop open and tell us the element is visible. It’s also very simply to revers the logic and see if it’s NOT visible:

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$(document).ready(function(){
  if( !$('#warning').is(':visible') ){
    alert('The Warning is NOT visible');
  }
});

How I used this

Well, my example was very similar to how i used this, i was looking for a flash message in rails, if the message was visible to the user then i wanted to to slide up after a few seconds. So i will use the same example above as it’s very close to mine.

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<div id="holder">
  <p id="warning">You have logged in!</p>
</div>

As you see the warning is visible and now below is he JS to handle it:

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$(document).ready(function(){
  if( $('#warning').is(':visible') ){
    // Delay 5 seconds then slide up
    $('#warning').delay('5000').slideUp();
  }
});

You can add ‘delay()’ function to almost anything, it beats out having to use a ‘setTimeOut’ but that’s for another post.