Plugins book?

Rails
1

Hello,
can anyone recommend good tutorials for Rails plugin development with
best practices, etc. I am thinking on purchasing “Rails Plugins (Digital
Short Cut): Extending Rails Beyond the Core”. Is it good? Any other
recommendation?

thanx,
Bojan

Bojan M.
Informatika Mihelac, Bojan M. s.p. | www.informatikamihelac.com
→ tools, scripts, tricks from our code lab: http://source.mihelac.org

2

On 11/10/06, Bojan M. [email protected] wrote:

Bojan M.
Informatika Mihelac, Bojan M. s.p. | www.informatikamihelac.com
→ tools, scripts, tricks from our code lab: http://source.mihelac.org

There’s a plugins chapter in Rails Recipes by Chad F… It’s an
excellent book all around, as well.

Pat

3

Pat M. wrote:

Bojan M.

.

Thanks Pat, I am considering purchasing more books on rails beside Agile
development which is great, so I would consider Rails Recipes, it looks
it has some great recipes I didnt see covered elsewhere. Looking table
of contest I have impression plugins topic is not analyzed in details?

Bojan

–
Bojan M.
Informatika Mihelac, Bojan M. s.p. | www.informatikamihelac.com
→ tools, scripts, tricks from our code lab: http://source.mihelac.org

4

On 11/10/06, Bojan M. [email protected] wrote:

Bojan

Bojan
Not sure what kind of detail you’re looking for. Plugins aren’t very
complex at all.

No offense to James A. at all - he’s done a lot of work to make
Rails more extendable - but I don’t think it warrants a 123 page
minibook. The best way to learn how to write plugins is just to
actually write a few. They’re easy, and if you read the chapter in RR
you won’t be wasting time.

Pat

5

Pat M. wrote:

Bojan

complex at all.
I’d like to extract common functionalities of dealing with active
records (selecting rows, actions for rows, sorting, etc.) from existing
rails application so I would be able to reuse it in another apps as well
as maintaint this funcionality only on one place. This at least includes
writing extensions both to ActiveRecord and ActionPack, and copying .js,
.css and other non-rails documents to directory structure. I already
have knowledge of writing simple plugins.

No offense to James A. at all - he’s done a lot of work to make
Rails more extendable - but I don’t think it warrants a 123 page
minibook. The best way to learn how to write plugins is just to
actually write a few. They’re easy, and if you read the chapter in RR
you won’t be wasting time.

I saw James A. wrote RailsEngines, what is current status of engines,
is using of them discouraged like components are?

best,
Bojan

6

On 11/10/06, Pat M. [email protected] wrote:

Not sure what kind of detail you’re looking for. Plugins aren’t very
complex at all.

No offense to James A. at all - he’s done a lot of work to make
Rails more extendable - but I don’t think it warrants a 123 page
minibook. The best way to learn how to write plugins is just to
actually write a few. They’re easy, and if you read the chapter in RR
you won’t be wasting time.

None taken, Pat :slight_smile: Plugins are certainly simple creatures, but there
can be a pretty steep curve figuring out the conventions commonly used
(various modules and hooks that Ruby provides), especially for
acts_as_* plugins. If you’re intimately familiar with Ruby and the
interactions between modules and objects, then you’re probably fine.
If not, you’ve got some exploring ahead of you.

What you’ll get in the plugins short-cut I wrote is basically a
no-stone-unturned examination of each aspect of plugins that you can
take advantage of, along with discussions of common ‘patterns’ of
implementation. Hopefully the discussions in there can help make
existing plugin source code more accessible, and leave the reader in a
better position to take inspiration from what’s already out there.

Certainly, there’s nothing that any enterprising hacker could’ve
figure out given time and effort, but some might appreciate paying a
few dollars to hit the ground running :slight_smile:

–

  • J *
    ~
7

Certainly, there’s nothing that any enterprising hacker could’ve
figure out given time and effort, but some might appreciate paying a
few dollars to hit the ground running :slight_smile:

–

  • J *
    ~

It certainly saves time in experimentation. I bought the book yesterday.
I
like the book because it has structure and gives all the information
about
plugins in one package. It also gives confidence since you know that it
will
work.

8

I have just come accross this very good tutorial :

http://www.railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=682

It won first prize in the RailsForum.com October tutorial contest :
more details here : http://railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=1117

I hope it helps.

Hamza

9

Thanks Pat, I am considering purchasing more books on rails beside Agile

development which is great, so I would consider Rails Recipes, it looks
it has some great recipes I didnt see covered elsewhere. Looking table
of contest I have impression plugins topic is not analyzed in details?

Bojan

I bought Ruby Way second edition and Ruby in a Nutshell yesterday. I
like
the Ruby Way, it covers all the basics and also covers metaprogramming.
You
can learn how to develop your own DSL which is important if you want to
write your own plugins.

10

On 11/10/06, Bala P. [email protected] wrote:

~

It certainly saves time in experimentation. I bought the book yesterday. I
like the book because it has structure and gives all the information about
plugins in one package. It also gives confidence since you know that it will
work.

I’m glad you like it :slight_smile:

Also be sure to check out http://www.pluginaweek.org Basically
they’re discussing and releasing around 80 plugins I think…so far
they’ve covered plugin assets and migrations. I have a feeling we’ll
get some very cool stuff from that site.

Pat

11

Thanx for all the answer I think I would try both Ruby Way and Digital
shortcut ebook.

best regards,
Bojan M.

12

The plugin book is excellent. I bought it a month ago and I recommend
that
to anyone who is not a ruby expert.

-=-

13

I’m glad you like it :slight_smile:

Also be sure to check out http://www.pluginaweek.org Basically
they’re discussing and releasing around 80 plugins I think…so far
they’ve covered plugin assets and migrations. I have a feeling we’ll
get some very cool stuff from that site.

Pat

I am almost done with the book. It is freakin or shall we say thumpin
awesome. I will be giving a presentation based on the book for my
local Ruby users group soon. So excited about showing off my demo and
presentation!

More free publicity for your book! See how quality can make marketing
very easy?