Considering Rubyonrails

Rails
1

Greetings,

We are considering rubyonrails to implement a forms generator. We are
committed to SQLServer 2005. I’d like to use a database view as the
table ROR works with. The application would allow the user to specify
fields of a new table, but also include existing fields from an (say
demographic) existing table.

The user would enter data on the view and query the view.

Has anyone played with an application like this?

Many thanks, dan

2

The wonders of Ruby will make this sort of meta-programming relatively
easy versus many other programming languages. Designing your solution
for you is beyond the scope of a forum response, but its definitely
possible by extending AR to dynamically collect data from the
meta-tables containing user-defined data + schema.

Let me know if you need help with design/implementation etc.

Cheers
Dr Nic

3

Dr Nic wrote:

The wonders of Ruby will make this sort of meta-programming relatively
easy versus many other programming languages. Designing your solution
for you is beyond the scope of a forum response, but its definitely
possible by extending AR to dynamically collect data from the
meta-tables containing user-defined data + schema.

Let me know if you need help with design/implementation etc.

Cheers
Dr Nic

Thanks for the encouragement, Dr. Nic!

I found a PostGreSQL article by searching on your “extending AR”
comment.

The other main concern of some have raised is the security of ruby web
applications. I’ve read what I can find on ruby security. Is this an
issue any more than other technologies? -Especially if your
applications are internal to a secure network?

Thx,

  • dan
4

Francis C. wrote:

Dan Mullen wrote:

The other main concern of some have raised is the security of ruby
web
applications. I’ve read what I can find on ruby security. Is this an
issue any more than other technologies? -Especially if your
applications are internal to a secure network?

When you talk about security, are you talking about network isolation,
data confidentiality, user authentication, fine-grained authorization,
or all of the above?

All - (except maybe fine-grained authorization) - We are considering
adopting ruby/rails for enterprise applications on an intranet in a
medical environment. Network isolation is handled by a larger group.
Data confidentiality is a high priority. Strong user authentication is
important.

5

Dan Mullen wrote:

The other main concern of some have raised is the security of ruby
web
applications. I’ve read what I can find on ruby security. Is this an
issue any more than other technologies? -Especially if your
applications are internal to a secure network?

When you talk about security, are you talking about network isolation,
data confidentiality, user authentication, fine-grained authorization,
or all of the above?