redirect_back_or_default in Rails 2.0

Since they removed redirect_back_or_default in Rails 2.0, and I still had a need to do something like that, I made method you can put under the private portion of your ApplicationController:

def redirect_back_or(path)
redirect_to :back
rescue ActionController::RedirectBackError
redirect_to path
end

and you use it just like the redirect_back_or_default method.

TemplateError, Markaby, HostingRails

Markaby in HostingRails causes some TemplateError. To fix it, in vendor\plugins\markaby\lib\markaby\rails.rb, replace

compile_and_render_template(template_extension, template, file_path, local_assigns)

with

compile_and_render_template(@@template_handlers[template_extension.to_sym], template, file_path, local_assigns)

source: comments section of a posting in the RoR blog.

rSpec and Relationships

I spend a good 3 hours figuring out why my spec tests were failing. Let me explain my scenario to you.


My scenario was pretty much like this: Student belongs to Class.

My test: a student should know what class it belongs to.

My student_spec:

it "should know what class it belongs to"
@student = Student.new
@class = Class.new(:name => "Math")
@class.students << @student
@student.class.name.should == "Math"
end

Failed! Apparently, you cannot insert into the array "<<". You need to do it like this:

@student.class = @class

Well, I'm not that stupid that it'd take me 3 hours to figure that out! My test was longer of course! I just made it simple for example's sake. :P

Rails on Dreamhost

Setting up Rails in Dreamhost is a bit tricky. Dreamhost has a wiki on how to do it but as of today, it doesn't work quite right.

I just installed on and it worked fine so here's how I did it:

1) If you haven't yet, create the user account through their control panel with FCGI enabled.
2) Log on to the user account that you created via shell.
3) type "rails yourappname"
4) type "rm useraccount.dreamhosters.com" since we'll replace it with a symbolic link.
5) type "ln -s yourappname/public/ useraccount.dreamhosters.com"
6) type "cd yourappname"
7) edit public/.htaccess (make sure what you edited isn't the commented line):

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.cgi [QSA,L] to RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.fcgi [QSA,L]

8) After require 'fcgi_handler', change the rest of dispatch.fcgi to read:

class RailsFCGIHandler
private
  def frao_handler(signal)
    dispatcher_log :info, "asked to terminate immediately"
    dispatcher_log :info, "frao handler working its magic!"
    restart_handler(signal)
  end
  alias_method :exit_now_handler, :frao_handler
end

RailsFCGIHandler.process!

9) edit your config/environment.rb and uncomment the line:
ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'production'

10) Your Rails app should be working fine now. You'll need to edit the database.yml and stuff to make sure that you can connect to the database of course.

Goodluck!

Onto Rails and rSpec

Like I mentioned yesterday, I started trying out rSpec. When in Rails, it's a little different. You need to include more stuff. I couldn't get my spec to run properly. Apparently, you have to import a bunch of stuff:

require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../../config/boot'
require "#{RAILS_ROOT}/config/environment"
require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../../app/models/project_management'

The first two lines I got from the codehappy blog post. The third just imports the model I'm testing out.

I may be doing it completely wrong so I'd appreciate any feed back.

Command line Subversion, Rails

Like I mentioned on my earlier post, I'm a slow learner when I read manuals. I like watching much more. Check out episode 36 on Railscasts. It gives a nice quick overview on how it's done on the Mac. It's the same on Linux.

Learning Behaviour Driven Development

I've been doing a bunch of Google searches on Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) but all I've found were long articles and wordy introductions. I suppose some people learn that way but I'm way to lazy.

Thank goodness for screencasts. To dive into it, check out the website smartic.us' screencasts on rSpec.

Obviously, I don't know much. All I know is that rSpec is a gem used for testing. He dives straight into making a class and testing it. Or rather, testing it, then making the class. You'll see. :)