Lasse Bunk's weblog

Sublime Text: Convert Ruby 1.8 to 1.9 style hash syntax

lassebunk — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:57:11 +0000

Ruby 1.9 and 2.0 has a new hash syntax. In Ruby 1.8 it was:

hash = { :one => "first value", :two => "second value" }

In Ruby 1.9 and 2.0, this can now be written as:

hash = { one: "first value", two: "second value" }

Saving three characters per key.

If you’re using Sublime Text, it’s really easy to do this conversion automatically.

Here’s how to do it – use it at your own risk, and take a backup first:

Go to Find → Find in Files…
Enable Regular expressions – make sure the .* button is activated
In the Find box: :([a-z_\d]+) =>
In the Replace box: \1:
Click the Replace button. This will replace matches in all of your files in Sublime Text. It will also go through non-Ruby files so it might be a good idea to set a Where file pattern to *.rb or *.html.erb. As I said, use at your own risk, and take a backup first.

Enjoy.

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Examples of Ruby on Rails

lassebunk — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 23:35:52 +0000

When I want to learn a new programming language or framework, I usually first try to find some examples to look at. Many times I have found it hard to find a single page with some good examples on how a language works. Not a tutorial, just examples. Here is a basic set of examples I would find nice to read if I wanted to learn about the Ruby on Rails web application development framework. Find more resources for learning the framework at the bottom of the post.

New Rails project

In the shell:

$ rails new example_project
$ cd example_project

Models

In app/models/post.rb:

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :comments, :dependent => :destroy # post.comments with autodelete
  validates_presence_of :title, :content
end

In app/models/comment.rb:

class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :post # comment.post
  validates_presence_of :text
end

Controllers

In app/controllers/posts_controller.rb:

class PostsController < ApplicationController
  def index
    @posts = Post.all
  end

  def show
    @post = Post.find(params[:id])
  end

  def new
    @post = Post.new
  end

  def create
    @post = Post.new(params[:post])

    if @post.save
      redirect_to @post, :notice => "The post was created successfully."
    else
      render :new
    end
  end

  def edit
    @post = Post.find(params[:id])
  end

  def update
    @post = Post.find(params[:id])

    if @post.update_attributes(params[:post])
      redirect_to @post, :notice => "The post was updated successfully."
    else
      render :edit
    end
  end

  def destroy
    @post = Post.find(params[:id])
    @post.destroy

    redirect_to posts_path, :notice => "The post was deleted successfully."
  end
end

Views

In app/views/posts/index.html.erb:

All posts


  <% @posts.each do |post| %>
    <%= link_to post.title, post %>
  <% end %>



  <%= link_to "New post", new_post_path %>
  <%= link_to "Back to homepage", root_path %>

In app/views/posts/show.html.erb:

<%= @post.title %>


  Created: <%= @post.created_at %>



  <%= link_to "Delete post", @post, :method => :delete %>



  <%= @post.content %>


Comments
<% @post.comments.each do |comment| %>
  
    <%= comment.text %>
  
<% end %>

<%= link_to "Back to posts", posts_path %>

In app/views/posts/new.html.erb:

New post

<%= form_for @post do |f| %>
  
    <%= f.label :title %>

    <%= f.text_field :title %>
  

  
    <%= f.label :content %>

    <%= f.text_area :content %>
  

  
    <%= f.submit "Create post" %>
  
<% end %>

View layouts

In app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:


  
    Rails example
  
  
    <% if flash[:notice] %>
      <%= flash[:notice] %>
    <% end %>
    <%= yield %>

View partials

In app/views/shared/_example_partial.html.erb:


  Content of example variable: <%= example_variable %>

In another view:

<%= render "shared/example_partial", :example_variable => "Example content" %>

Rendering other formats

In app/controllers/posts_controller.rb:

class PostsController < ApplicationController
  def index
    @posts = Post.all

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html # index.html.erb
      format.json { render :json => @posts }
    end
  end
end

In the browser:
http://localhost:3000/posts.json

Database migrations

In the shell:

$ rails generate model post title:string content:text

In db/migrate/20121228215855_create_posts.rb:

class CreatePosts < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :posts do |t|
      t.string :title
      t.text :content

      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

In the shell:

$ rails generate model comment post_id:integer text:text

In db/migrate/20121228220327_create_comments.rb:

class CreateComments < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :comments do |t|
      t.integer :post_id
      t.text :text

      t.timestamps
    end

    add_index :comments, :post_id
  end
end

Then, in the shell:

$ rake db:migrate

Routing

In config/routes.rb:

ExampleProject::Application.routes.draw do
  resources :posts do # /posts, /posts/123, etc. => PostsController
    resources :comments # /posts/123/comments, /posts/123/comments/345, etc. => CommentsController
  end

  match "contact" => "home#contact" # /contact => HomeController#contact

  root :to => "home#index" # / => HomeController#index
end

Plugins

In Gemfile:

# To use jQuery
gem 'jquery-rails'

# To use Jbuilder templates for JSON
gem 'jbuilder'

# Deploy with Capistrano
gem 'capistrano'

In the shell:

$ bundle install

Rails development server

In the shell:

$ rails server

To see posts:
http://localhost:3000/posts

To see a single post:
http://localhost:3000/posts/123

To edit a post:
http://localhost:3000/posts/123/edit

Creating a public symlink using Capistrano

lassebunk — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:15:04 +0000

So, I have a folder containing static sitemap files for my site. These sitemaps are generated and saved in my public/sitemap folder. However, I want to keep these sitemap files between deployments.

What I need is a symlink from public/sitemap that’s pointing to shared/sitemap.

I use Capistrano for my deployments, so I need the following task (I renamed my sitemap namespace and folder to better reflect other needs you might have):

after "deploy:update_code", "my_namespace:symlink"

namespace :my_namespace do
  desc "Create symlink"
  task :symlink do
    run "rm -rf #{release_path}/public/my_folder"
    run "mkdir -p #{shared_path}/my_folder"
    run "ln -nfs #{shared_path}/my_folder #{release_path}/public/my_folder"
  end
end

This will remove any existing public/my_folder folder (e.g. if it was deployed from your development repository), create the shared/my_folder folder (if it doesn’t exist), and at last create the symlink from public/my_folder to shared/my_folder.

As easy as that :-) Hope you can use it.

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Translate your Ruby on Rails models and database tables using acts_as_translatable

lassebunk — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:32:39 +0000

acts_as_translatable is a plugin for easy translation of your Ruby on Rails models and database tables.

Installation

In your Gemfile:

gem 'acts_as_translatable'

Install the new gem:

bundle install

Example

Generate translations for a category model with name and description fields, with default locale set to ‘en’ (English):

$ rails generate acts_as_translatable en category name description

This will create the necessary migration. Then run:

$ rake db:migrate

Then add to app/models/category.rb:

class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_translatable_on :name, :description
  ...
end

And play around with I18n:

I18n.locale = "en"
Category.first.update_attribute :name, "English name"

I18n.locale = "de"
Category.first.update_attribute :name, "Deutsche Name"

Also try in combination with my translate_acts_as_translatable_models plugin to automatically translate your acts_as_translatable enabled models.

Have fun! Please send comments and suggestions to lassebunk@gmail.com, and issues at GitHub, please :)

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Translate your Ruby on Rails YAML files using Bing

lassebunk — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:44:06 +0000

I have created a plugin named bing_translate_yaml that allows you to simply translate your Ruby on Rails YAML files into any language using Bing. The plugin takes your YAML files from the config/locales folder and converts them to any language of your choice.

In your Gemfile:

gem 'bing_translate_yaml'

Then run:

$ bundle install

Make sure you have your translation files in e.g.:

config/locales/en.yml (English)
config/locales/de.yml (German)
config/locales/es.yml (Spanish)

Then run:

$ rake translate from=en to=es

This will create (or update) the following file:

config/locales/es.yml

Simple as cake! Enjoy :-)

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Creating your own WordPress plugin database migration framework

lassebunk — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:58:42 +0000

So, how do you migrate changes to your database structure from one version to another (like you may know it from Ruby on Rails) when you are writing a WordPress plugin? Here’s one way to do it.

Let’s assume that the database migration should take place when the plugin is activated. Assuming your plugin is named myplugin, put this code in the myplugin.php file:

register_activation_hook(__FILE__, 'myplugin_install');

This makes WordPress execute the myplugin_install() method when the user activates your plugin.

Next, add this method:

function myplugin_install() {
  myplugin_migrate();
}

And our migration method:

function myplugin_migrate() {
  global $wpdb;

  $migs = myplugin_migrations();

  $current_migration = get_option('myplugin_current_migration', 0);
  $needed_migration = count($migs);

  for ($i = $current_migration; $i < $needed_migration; $i++) {
    $mig = $migs[$i];
    $wpdb->query($mig);
  }

  if ($current_migration == 0) {
    add_option('myplugin_current_migration', $needed_migration);
  } else {
    update_option('myplugin_current_migration', $needed_migration);
  }
}

What this does is that it runs through database statements (queries) returned from the myplugin_migrations() method. Let’s implement the actual migrations – add this method:

function myplugin_migrations() {
  global $wpdb;

  $migs = array();

  // Create example table
  $migs[] = '
  CREATE TABLE '.$wpdb->prefix.'myplugin_examples (
    id int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    name varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (id)
  )';

  // Add examples
  $migs[] = "INSERT INTO ".$wpdb->prefix."myplugin_examples SET name='First example'";
  $migs[] = "INSERT INTO ".$wpdb->prefix."myplugin_examples SET name='Second example'";

  // Return the migrations
  return $migs;
}

That would create an example table and insert some values.

Now imagine that two months later you need a description field in your examples table. What do you do? It’s as easy as adding one line of code to the migrations:

// Add description field to examples
$migs[] = "ALTER TABLE ".$wpdb->prefix."myplugin_examples ADD description VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL";

Deactivate and activate the plugin, and you table now has an extra field. Easy as cake! :)

Share your thoughts, opinions, and suggestions below.

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How to split test themes using A/B Test for WordPress (video)

lassebunk — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:01:31 +0000

In this presentation I’m demonstrating how to use the A/B Test for WordPress plugin to split test WordPress themes on your site:

Visit the plugin page: A/B Test for WordPress

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Split testing button colors using A/B Test for WordPress (video)

lassebunk — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:31:57 +0000

In this presentation I’m demonstrating how to use the A/B Test for WordPress plugin to split test button colors on your WordPress site:

Visit the plugin page: A/B Test for WordPress

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Using the A/B Test for WordPress plugin to split test between themes

lassebunk — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:30:21 +0000

I recently created the A/B Test for WordPress plugin which enables the WordPress blog or site owner to easily split test content, stylesheets, javascripts, and, what we’ll be discussing today, themes.

Let’s say you have a blog and you have been using the standard WordPress Twenty Eleven theme for a while but now you saw this great looking theme that’s just a must have. How do you find out if this new theme will make your site perform better or worse, and how will it affect outbound link clicks to your new book at Amazon? Let’s find out :-)

WordPress comes with the Twenty Eleven theme, so we’ll split test between this and another theme. Let’s install the free Adventure Journal theme:

For information on how to install themes, visit Using Themes on the WordPress site.

Then intall the plugin and activate it in Plugins:

Click the A/B Testing link right below Settings:

Click Create new experiment:

Enter “Split testing my theme” as Name and select Theme as Experiment type:

Click Create experiment.

Click Edit below Experiment 1:

Select the Adventure Journal theme:

Click Update variation.

Do the same for Variation 2 where you select Twenty Eleven as the theme.

Click Back to experiments at the bottom of the page:

Now we’re going into Debug mode to test our variations. About the Debug mode:

“Normally, when a user first sees a variation to an experiment, this variation is locked for this user so that – in this session – she always sees the same variation.
If you want to test your experiments without this variation lock taking place for you (and only you), you can enable debug mode. Also, when entering debug mode, all tracking will be disabled for your session.”

Click Enter debug mode in the top right corner of the screen:

Debug mode is now on:

Now go to the front page of your site, and you’ll see one of the themes being displayed:

Now click Refresh a couple of times, and you’ll see that the theme changes:

Neat, eh? :-)

Back into the admin interface, click Exit debug mode:

We’ll now set up a link and track when this link is clicked. We’ll use a link to a book on Amazon to simulate an author site with a “Buy my book” link.

Click Split testing my theme and scroll down to Goals:

Click Get tracking code right below Goal 1 and you’ll see this screen:

Select the javascript code below To track a link and copy it to the clipboard using CMD + C (on a Mac) or CTRL + C (on a PC):

We’ll now create a widget with our link to Amazon.

Click Appearance and then Widgets in the menu to the left:

Insert a widget by dragging a Text box from the Available Widgets box:

Onto the Main Sidebar on the right:

Enter “Buy my book” as Title and insert this code below:
Buy my book on Amazon

Like this:

Notice how we’re using the onclick="abtest.trackGoal(1, this);" code? That’s what’s tracking our link when we click it.

Click Save.

Now go back onto the front page and you’ll see that the widget has been inserted into your site:

So far so good.

Try clicking the link.
You have now tracked a goal completion!

Back into the admin interface, click on the experiment and you’ll see that it has tracked a goal completion:

Nice! Now you just need to wait and see which theme performs better.

For more info, installation instructions, and tutorials, visit the A/B Test for WordPress plugin page.

Also, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

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Introduction to the A/B Test for WordPress plugin (video)

lassebunk — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:28:48 +0000

A/B Test for WordPress is a WordPress plugin that makes it easy to A/B split test your WordPress blog or site.

Lasse Bunk's weblog

Sublime Text: Convert Ruby 1.8 to 1.9 style hash syntax

Examples of Ruby on Rails

New Rails project

Models

Controllers

Views

All posts

<%= @post.title %>

Comments

New post

View layouts

View partials

Rendering other formats

Database migrations

Routing

Plugins

Rails development server

See also

Creating a public symlink using Capistrano

Translate your Ruby on Rails models and database tables using acts_as_translatable

Installation

Example

Translate your Ruby on Rails YAML files using Bing

Creating your own WordPress plugin database migration framework

How to split test themes using A/B Test for WordPress (video)

Split testing button colors using A/B Test for WordPress (video)

Using the A/B Test for WordPress plugin to split test between themes

Introduction to the A/B Test for WordPress plugin (video)