Recent notes

Test Example

UserMailerTest Example

class UserMailerTest < ActionMailer::TestCase
  tests UserMailer

  def test_welcome_mail
    user = users(:quentin)

    MyMailer.deliver_welcome_email
    assert !ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.empty?

    sent = ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.first
    assert_equal [@user.email], sent.to
    assert_equal “expected subject”, sent.subject
    assert sent.body =~ /^Welcome to my App/
    assert sent.body =~ /^Username: #{@user.login}$/
    assert sent.body =~ /^Password: [a-z0-9]{10}$/i
  end
end

This example is a modified version of the one in this blog post:

http://sablog.com/archives/2006/03/14/how-to-test-actionmailer-in-ruby-on-rails

resourceful

auto_discovery_link_tag :atom, movies_url(:format=>‘atom’), :title=>‘New movies’

to produce the feed:

respond_to do |wants|
  wants.html
  wants.atom {render :action=>'index',:layout=>false}
end

Better Description

This is really a bitshift left.

:expires_in option

If you need :expires_in functionality in Rails 2.1, you can use this plugin:

http://github.com/nickpad/rails-caches-action-patch/tree/master

unobstrusive label tag

just use

label_tag('a_a','a_a') 

and it works, just not ment for pure decorative labels :)

Turn layout off with render

Thats awkward, but the code below does not turn layout off:

render :action => "short_goal", :layout => nil

you must use false

render :action => "short_goal", :layout => false

removes underscores -> do not use for images etc

example

#does not work
label_tag('aa'+image_tag('x_x.gif')) 

print standard-looking messages during migration

Within a migration file you can use the say_with_time method to print out informational messages that match the style of standard migration messages. See the say method also.

say_with_time "migrate existing data" do
  # ... execute migration sql ...
end
#=> "-- migrate existing data"
#=> "   -> 0.0299s"

print standard-looking messages during migration

Within a migration file you can use the say method to print out informational messages that match the style of standard migration messages. The say_with_time method is also pretty great.

say "migrate existing data"
  #=> "-- migrate existing data"
# ... execute migration sql ...
say "updated all records", :subitem
  #=> "   -> updated 5 records"

:null => false

To not allow a column to have a NULL value, pass :null => false. Seems silly, but that’s it.

Strftime options

http://apidock.com/ruby/Time/strftime

Examples

Some usages:

Code example

Time.new.months_ago(1) # => Wed Aug 13 10:56:32 -0300 2008

Date.today.month_ago(7) # => Qua, 13 Fev 2008

Time.new.months_ago(1).to_s(:db) # => “2008-08-13 10:57:56”

Readable strftime

%a - The abbreviated weekday name (“Sun”)

%A - The full weekday name (“Sunday”)

%b - The abbreviated month name (“Jan”)

%B - The full month name (“January”)

%c - The preferred local date and time representation

%d - Day of the month (01..31) %H - Hour of the day, 24-hour clock (00..23)

%I - Hour of the day, 12-hour clock (01..12)

%j - Day of the year (001..366)

%m - Month of the year (01..12) %M - Minute of the hour (00..59)

%p - Meridian indicator (“AM” or “PM”)

%S - Second of the minute (00..60)

%U - Week number of the current year, starting with the first Sunday as the first day of the first week (00..53)

%W - Week number of the current year, starting with the first Monday as the first day of the first week (00..53)

%w - Day of the week (Sunday is 0, 0..6)

%x - Preferred representation for the date alone, no time

%X - Preferred representation for the time alone, no date

%y - Year without a century (00..99) %Y - Year with century

%Z - Time zone name %% - Literal “%” character t = Time.now t.strftime(“Printed on %m/%d/%Y”) #=> “Printed on 04/09/2003” t.strftime(“at %I:%M%p”) #=> “at 08:56AM”

Information on 'ModelName.transaction'

If you are looking for information about:

ModelName.transaction do
  ...
end

or

transaction do
  ...
end

see ActiveRecord::Transactions::ClassMethods

Information on 'ModelName.transaction'

If you are looking for information about:

ModelName.transaction do
  ...
end

or

transaction do
  ...
end

see ActiveRecord::Transactions::ClassMethods

CSS columns

You can also use this in a partial to create blocks of content into columns without setting a fixed height. This one is two columns.

.clear { clear: both;}
.block { float:left;width:200px;}

<div class="block">

<p>Content Item</p>

</div>
<%= cycle("", "<div class=\"clear\"></div>") -%>

Actual superclass

This class’s actual superclass is Net::HTTPRequest, for some reason that isn’t linked in here.

Be careful with overriding dynamic attribute based finders

don’t try something like this:

class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
  def self.find_by_bar(*args)
    foo = super(*args)
    raise SomeCustomException unless foo
    foo
  end
end

In newer versions of rails, method_missing defines find_by_bar when you first use it. By calling super, you’re triggering method_missing and overwriting your custom definition! It will work the first time then break! Manually write the call to find!

Reset a form

To reset a form easily you can do the following:

page["formid"].reset

Custom collection local variable name

Regarding the previous note from hoodow about using :variable_name to create a custom local variable name when rendering a collection with a partial, the argument should be :as instead of :variable_name, so:

render :partial => “video_listing”, :collection => @recommendations, :as => :video

Require 'strscan'

To use the StringScanner class,

require 'strscan'

This method has moved

To help anyone else looking, this method is now on the ActionView::Template class.

Testing protected controllers

When testing controllers which are protected with #authenticate_or_request_with_http_basic this is how you can supply the credentials for a successful login:

@request.env["HTTP_AUTHORIZATION"] = "Basic " + Base64::encode64("username:password")

Must be set before the request is sent through #get or whatever method.

Doc in ActionView::Helpers::FormHelper

See ActionView::Helpers::FormHelper’s check_box for documentation.

Creating additional cache stores

This method can be used to create additional cache stores for your application:

# creates a new Memory Store
mem_store = ActiveSupport::Cache.lookup_store
# creates a new MemCache Store
mem_cache_store = ActiveSupport::Cache.lookup_store :mem_cache_store, 'localhost:11212', :namespace => 'other_stuff'

The method takes the same arguments as the cache_store config. For more information about that go to ActionController::Caching.

Useful in migrations

The most common usage pattern for this method is probably in a migration, when just after creating a table you want to populate it with some default values, eg:

class CreateJobLevels < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :job_levels do |t|
      t.integer :id
      t.string :name

      t.timestamps
    end

    JobLevel.reset_column_information
    %w{assistant executive manager director}.each do |type|
      JobLevel.create(:name => type)
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :job_levels
  end
end

ActiveRecord::Base.include_root_in_json

From Rails 2.1 onwards, the variable

ActiveRecord::Base.include_root_in_json

affects how the JSON is generated. If this is true (default), then the JSON isn’t like the one above. Instead you’ll get:

konata = User.find(1)
konata.to_json
# => { "user": { "id": 1, "name": "Konata Izumi", "age": 16,
      "created_at": "2006/08/01", "awesome": true}}

(Note the model name is included as a root of the JSON object)

For Rails 2.1 generated projects, you’ll see this in the config/initializers/new_rails_defaults.rb file. You’ll need to set the value to false if you want the old behaviour.

ActiveRecord::Base.include_root_in_json = false

Always pass a block

I highly recommend always taking a block and passing it back up the chain if you use alias_method_chain, even if the original method does not. Otherwise you’re keeping anyone later in the chain from adding support for blocks.

http://tech.hickorywind.org/articles/2008/08/29/always-pass-a-block-when-using-alias_method_chain

Brazilian Real (R$ 1.200,95)

helper:

def number_to_currency_br(number)
  number_to_currency(number, :unit => "R$ ", :separator => ",", :delimiter => ".")
end

Get year to show in descending order (Today to 1920 for example)

The way people think of time start and end would be 1920 to today. This made me think “but I want it show the current year first then down.” Well it’s as simple as swapping the start_year and end_year.

date_select :date, :start_year => Date.current.year, :end_year => 1920

# => 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 ... 1920