Ruby Forum Ruby on Rails > Use Rails to develop websites that frequently change layout

Posted by Ruby Girl (rubyongirl)
on 29.08.2008 18:53
Hi experts!

I would like to develop a website using rails that projects can do the
following things.
*  Designers can freely and frequently design and change layout of pages
(HTML,XHTML format) with a lot of  dinamic data...

Which is the good way to use Rails to build website like that?

Waiting for your advices.
Thank you very much.
Posted by Abel (Guest)
on 29.08.2008 20:24
(Received via mailing list)
Could you elaborate a little on what you mean by "changing layout
frequently"?
Rails is perfect for this as it lets you design views and layouts
containing these views and everything is neatly organized and clean,
but perhaps you are looking for something more specific like themes a
la wordpress, with Rails handles via plugins.

On Aug 29, 6:53 pm, Ruby Girl <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-s.net>
Posted by CPerry (Guest)
on 29.08.2008 22:26
(Received via mailing list)
Ruby Girl, are you asking if Rails can handle being more like
WordPress or something where there are installed themes that can be
switched to easily?

As for the actual design (and the changing there of), I think Rails is
great for that with the way it handles partials and views.

--Cory

On Aug 29, 12:53 pm, Ruby Girl <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-s.net>
Posted by Ruby Girl (rubyongirl)
on 30.08.2008 04:29
Sorry experts for my unclearly question.
Now I show you an example and hope that you will understand exactly.
Example:
You have develop a website on mobile for company.
Your company has many designers(design website, image, they can wire 
html), their's work are update content, change layout...of pages by 
using CMS.
And you have to build a CMS for designer to create/update pages.
I also define many parameters for designer to use and program will reply 
that params with real data (Ex. list of songs, top raking song...).

How can I apply Rails to build website like that?

Waiting for your advices.
Thank you very much.
Posted by Huw Collingbourne (huw)
on 30.08.2008 11:41
It sounds as though you are looking for a way for your designers to do 
full page visual design. Our product, Ruby In Steel Developer, is the 
only Ruby IDE that has a full page drag and drop design environment for 
Rails. it assembles and translates Rails (Erb) templates into editable 
HTML pages. You can drag and drop buttons, text fields etc onto the 
pages and apply CSS styling. When you like the design, Ruby In Steel 
automatically splits up the HTML pages and translates them back to their 
original form as multiple ERb templates (layouts, views, partial).

Some info here:
http://www.sapphiresteel.com/A-Brief-Guide-To-The-Visual-Rails
http://www.sapphiresteel.com/A-Brief-Guide-To-The-Visual-Rails,235

Moreover, if your designers prefer to use 3rd party tools such as 
Dreamweaver, it takes care of exporting your page designs in editable 
format (to Dreamweaver, Expression Web or whatever) and importing them 
back when the designers have finished.

More info on that here:

http://www.sapphiresteel.com/Visual-Rails-Workbench-The-Import

best wishes
Huw Collingbourne

SapphireSteel Software
Ruby and Rails In Visual Studio
http://www.sapphiresteel.com
Posted by Ruby Girl (rubyongirl)
on 01.09.2008 18:08
Thank you for your answer.
My Project just for my designer input HTML/XHTML (They use 3rd party 
tools to design).
I'm worried about .erb(views part) is difficult for my designer!? and 
should  I keep the format erb or not?

I have once more question here.
I have to separate the view into many group(base on User Agent).
How can I do that in Rails.

Best regards.
Waiting for your advices.

Ruby Girld.
Posted by Phillip Koebbe (pkoebbe)
on 02.09.2008 01:38
You might want to have a look at RadiantCMS. Maybe it will do what you 
need and you won't have to develop a new app.

Peace.
Posted by dudeman (Guest)
on 02.09.2008 16:30
(Received via mailing list)
You may also be interested in dynamically generating layouts as
demonstrated on Ryan Bates' screencast: 
http://railscasts.com/episodes/125-dynamic-layouts

karmen

On Sep 1, 4:38 pm, Phillip Koebbe <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-s.net>