Rails Cookbook (Paperback)

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
1. Getting Started
     Introduction
     Joining the Rails Community
     Finding Documentation
     Installing MySQL
     Installing PostgreSQL
     Installing Rails
     Fixing Ruby and Installing Rails on OS X 10.4 Tiger
     Running Rails in OS X with Locomotive
     Running Rails in Windows with Instant Rails
     Updating Rails with RubyGems
     Getting Your Rails Project into Subversion
2. Rails Development
     Introduction
     Creating a Rails Project
     Jump-Starting Development with Scaffolding
     Speeding Up Rails Development with Mongrel
     Enhancing Windows Development with Cygwin
     Understanding Pluralization Patterns in Rails
     Developing Rails in OS X with TextMate
     Cross-Platform Developing with RadRails
     Installing and Running Edge Rails
     Setting Up Passwordless Authentication with SSH
     Generating RDoc for Your Rails Application
     Creating Full-Featured CRUD Applications with Streamlined
3. Active Record
     Introduction
     Setting Up a Relational Database to Use with Rails
     Programmatically Defining Database Schema
     Developing Your Database with Migrations
     Modeling a Database with Active Record
     Inspecting Model Relationships from the Rails Console
     Accessing Your Data via Active Record
     Retrieving Records with find
     Iterating Over an Active Record Result Set
     Retrieving Data Efficiently with Eager Loading
     Updating an Active Record Object
     Enforcing Data Integrity with Active Record Validations
     Executing Custom Queries with find_by_sql
     Protecting Against Race Conditions with Transactions
     Adding Sort Capabilities to a Model with acts_as_list
     Performing a Task Whenever a Model Object Is Created
     Modeling a Threaded Forum with acts_as_nested_set
     Creating a Directory of Nested Topics with acts_as_tree
     Avoiding Race Conditions with Optimistic Locking
     Handling Tables with Legacy Naming Conventions
     Automating Record Timestamping
     Factoring Out Common Relationships with Polymorphic Associations
     Mixing Join Models and Polymorphism for Flexible Data Modeling
4. Action Controller
     Introduction
     Accessing Form Data from a Controller
     Changing an Application’s Default Page
     Clarifying Your Code with Named Routes
     Configuring Customized Routing Behavior
     Displaying Alert Messages with Flash
     Extending the Life of a Flash Message
     Following Actions with Redirects
     Generating URLs Dynamically
     Inspecting Requests with Filters
     Logging with Filters
     Rendering Actions
     Restricting Access to Controller Methods
     Sending Files or Data Streams to the Browser
     Storing Session Information in a Database
     Tracking Information with Sessions
     Using Filters for Authentication
5. Action View
     Introduction
     Simplifying Templates with View Helpers
     Displaying Large Datasets with Pagination
     Creating a Sticky Select List
     Editing Many-to-Many Relationships with Multiselect Lists
     Factoring Out Common Display Code with Layouts
     Defining a Default Application Layout
     Generating XML with Builder Templates
     Generating RSS Feeds from Active Record Data
     Reusing Page Elements with Partials
     Processing Dynamically Created Input Fields
     Customizing the Behavior of Standard Helpers
     Creating a Web Form with Form Helpers
     Formatting Dates, Times, and Currencies
     Personalizing User Profiles with Gravatars
     Avoiding Harmful Code in Views with Liquid Templates
     Globalizing Your Rails Application
6. RESTful Development
     Introduction
     Creating Nested Resources
     Supporting Alternative Data Formats by MIME Type
     Modeling Relationships RESTfully with Join Models
     Moving Beyond Simple CRUD with RESTful Resources
     Consuming Complex Nested REST Resources
     Developing Your Rails Applications RESTfully
7. Rails Application Testing
     Introduction
     Centralizing the Creation of Objects Common to Test Cases
     Creating Fixtures for Many-to-Many Associations
     Importing Test Data with CSV Fixtures
     Including Dynamic Data in Fixtures with ERb
     Initializing a Test Database
     Interactively Testing Controllers from the Rails Console
     Interpreting the Output of Test::Unit
     Loading Test Data with YAML Fixtures
     Monitoring Test Coverage with rake stats
     Running Tests with Rake
     Speeding Up Tests with Transactional Fixtures
     Testing Across Controllers with Integration Tests
     Testing Controllers with Functional Tests
     Examining the Contents of Cookie
     Testing Custom and Named Routes
     Testing HTTP Requests with Response-Related Assertions
     Testing a Model with Unit Tests
     Unit Testing Model Validations
     Verifying DOM Structure with Tag-Related Assertions
     Writing Custom Assertions
     Testing File Upload
     Modifying the Default Behavior of a Class for Testing by Using Mocks
     Improving Feedback by Running Tests Continuously
     Analyzing Code Coverage with Rcov
8. JavaScript and Ajax
     Introduction
     Adding DOM Elements to a Page
     Creating a Custom Report with Drag and Drop
     Dynamically Adding Items to a Select List
     Monitoring the Content Length of a Textarea
     Updating Page Elements with RJS Templates
     Inserting JavaScript into Templates
     Letting a User Reorder a List
     Autocompleting a Text Field
     Searching for and Highlighting Text Dynamically
     Enhancing the User Interface with Visual Effects
     Implementing a Live Search
     Editing Fields in Place
     Creating an Ajax Progress Indicator
9. Action Mailer
     Introduction
     Configuring Rails to Send Email
     Creating a Custom Mailer Class with the Mailer Generator
     Formatting Email Messages Using Templates
     Attaching Files to Email Messages
     Sending Email from a Rails Application
     Receiving Email with Action Mailer
10. Debugging Rails Applications
     Introduction
     Exploring Rails from the Console
     Fixing Bugs at the Source with Ruby -cw
     Debugging Your Application in Real Time with the breakpointer
     Logging with the Built-in Rails Logger Class
     Writing Debugging Information to a File
     Emailing Application Exceptions
     Outputting Environment Information in Views
     Displaying Object Contents with Exceptions
     Filtering Development Logs in Real Time
     Debugging HTTP Communication with Firefox Extensions
     Debugging Your JavaScript in Real Time with the JavaScript Shell
     Debugging Your Code Interactively with ruby-debug
11. Security
     Introduction
     Hardening Your Systems with Strong Passwords
     Protecting Queries from SQL Injection
     Guarding Against Cross-Site Scripting Attacks
     Restricting Access to Public Methods or Actions
     Securing Your Server by Closing Unnecessary Ports
12. Performance
     Introduction
     Measuring Web Server Performance with Httperf
     Benchmarking Portions of Your Application Code
     Improving Performance by Caching Static Pages
     Expiring Cached Pages
     Mixing Static and Dynamic Content with Fragment Caching
     Filtering Cached Pages with Action Caching
     Speeding Up Data Access Times with memcached
     Increasing Performance by Caching Post-Processed Content
13. Hosting and Deployment
     Introduction
     Hosting Rails Using Apache 1.3 and mod_fastcgi
     Managing Multiple Mongrel Processes with mongrel_cluster
     Hosting Rails with Apache 2.2, mod_proxy_balancer, and Mongrel
     Deploying Rails with Pound in Front of Mongrel, Lighttpd, and Apache
     Customizing Pound’s Logging with cronolog
     Configuring Pound with SSL Support
     Simple Load Balancing with Pen
     Deploying Your Rails Project with Capistrano
     Deploying Your Application to Multiple Environments with Capistrano
     Deploying with Capistrano When You Can’t Access Subversion
     Deploying with Capistrano and mongrel_cluster
     Disabling Your Web Site During Maintenance
     Writing Custom Capistrano Tasks
     Cleaning Up Residual Session Records
14. Extending Rails with Plug-ins
     Introduction
     Finding Third-Party Plug-ins
     Installing Plug-ins
     Manipulating Record Versions with acts_as_versioned
     Building Authentication with acts_as_authenticated
     Simplifying Folksonomy with the acts_as_taggable
     Extending Active Record with acts_as
     Adding View Helpers to Rails as Plug-ins
     Uploading Files with file_column
     Uploading Files with acts_as_attachment
     Disabling Records Instead of Deleting Them with acts_as_paranoid
     Adding More Elaborate Authentication Using the Login Engine
15. Graphics
     Introduction
     Installing RMagick for Image Processing
     Uploading Images to a Database
     Serving Images Directly from a Database
     Creating Resized Thumbnails with RMagick
     Generating PDF Documents
     Visually Displaying Data with Gruff
     Creating Small, Informative Graphs with Sparklines
A. Migrating to Rails 1.2
     Action Controller
     Active Record
     Action View
Index