# Ruport 1.6 and Murdoch 1.0

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruport-1-6-and-murdoch-1-0/197076>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [April 14, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruport-1-6-and-murdoch-1-0/197076 "2008-04-14T18:55:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/e47774/32.png) [@naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/naething)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruport-1-6-and-murdoch-1-0/197076/1 "2008-04-14T18:55:53Z")

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Hi folks,

After a silent release of Ruport 1.6.0, I’m happy to announce Ruport  
1.6.1 and Murdoch 1.0.

Although 1.6.1 is just a README update, this announcement will serve  
as the 1.6.0 release notes as well.

Most of the changes are shifts in the internals, which will mostly be  
of interest to our more hardcore users, but there are some goodies for  
everyone.  
If you want to see some of the new stuff in action, the fastest way  
may be to take a look at this article written by Mike Milner and I:

[http://oreillynet.com/pub/a/ruby/2008/04/08/ruport-business-reporting](http://oreillynet.com/pub/a/ruby/2008/04/08/ruport-business-reporting)…

It is a bit basic but shows off some of the new features and gives a  
general intro to Ruport.

== Introducing Ruport’s Murdoch meta-gem

Because of Ruport’s rolling release schedule, it is sometimes  
difficult to keep up with which combinations of ruport, ruport-util  
and acts\_as\_reportable  
are compatible with each other. To help with this, we’re now  
providing a meta-gem that will grab the currently supported set of  
these three packages.

If you’re not sure exactly which parts of Ruport you want to use but  
want it all to be there just in case, all you need to do is install  
this gem:

gem install murdoch

Then, in your reports:

require “ruport/murdoch”

You can be sure that when you do this, you’ll get packages that don’t  
conflict with each other.  
You can also of course use gem locking, as needed. This will  
hopefully provide an easy way for people to grab our stable packages  
all in one fell swoop.

If you want more fine grain control, there is no need to use this gem,  
you can continue doing things as you have been.

However, if you plan on using Murdoch, here’s how the versioning  
scheme will work:

(a+k).b.c : Changes to core ruport have been made, possible API  
breakage  
a.(b+k).c : Changes to our support libs (AAR / ruport-util) have been  
made, possibel API breakage  
a.b.(c+k) : A bug fix release, no _external_ API changes present

Of course, these are just to give you a sense of what’s changed at the  
glance, always check the relevant release notes. 🙂

== Ruport 1.6 Changes ==

# API Changes

- Ruport::Renderer has been renamed Ruport::Controller. This will  
break most code, but is trivial to fix.

- The formatting helper render\_data\_by\_row has been removed. Users  
will need to explicitly call row  
renderers or create their own helpers for this.

- Table#rename\_columns() no longer creates an error when you attempt  
to rename a column that  
is not present in the table

# New Features

- Much faster CSV, Text, and HTML output

- Table#pivot() for grouping summaries based on the pivot operation

- A new ‘finalize’ hook in formatters that will be called after all  
other stages have been processed.

We’ve made use of this in our built in formatters so having to  
needlessly call render\_pdf is a thing of the past.  
(See Ruport::Formatter::PDF#finalize for an example)

- Anonymous formatters for lazy bastards:

class BookReport \< Ruport::Controller

stage :list

def setup  
self.data = Book.report\_table(:all)  
end

formatter :html do  
build :list do  
output \<\< textile(“h3. Book List”)  
output \<\< data.to\_html  
end  
end

formatter :pdf do  
build :list do  
pad(10) { add\_text “Book List” }  
draw\_table data  
end  
end

formatter :csv do  
build :list do  
output \<\< data.to\_csv  
end  
end

end

== Aknowledgements

During our work on Ruport 1.6, we’ve picked up two developers, Ryan  
Platte and Brian C…  
They were the ones who did most of the cool stuff here, so please  
direct your mad propz to them.

== Shameless Plug

The Ruport Book is now updated to cover Ruport 1.6. You can browse  
the HTML version for free at:

[http://ruportbook.com](http://ruportbook.com)

If you like what you see and/or want to support the project, consider  
purchasing a PDF or print copy:[http://www.lulu.com/content/1700117](http://www.lulu.com/content/1700117)

Users who purchase either are entitled to unlimited PDF updates with  
proof of purchase. There is no  
need to buy both the PDF and the Print version.

25% of revenue goes to a charity we think is really cool:  
Engineers Without Borders, USA ([http://ewb-usa.org](http://ewb-usa.org)).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/e47774/32.png) [@naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/naething)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruport-1-6-and-murdoch-1-0/197076/2 "2008-04-14T23:48:28Z")

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Gregory B. wrote:

> require “ruport/murdoch”

I tried that, but now I can’t seem to browse any news sites except fox.

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**Author:** ![naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/e47774/32.png) [@naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/naething)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 11:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruport-1-6-and-murdoch-1-0/197076/3 "2008-04-14T23:53:09Z")

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Joel VanderWerf wrote:

> Gregory B. wrote:
> 
> > require “ruport/murdoch”
> 
> I tried that, but now I can’t seem to browse any news sites except fox.

Try the London Times and Wall Street Journal.

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**Author:** ![naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/e47774/32.png) [@naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/naething)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruport-1-6-and-murdoch-1-0/197076/4 "2008-04-15T01:08:55Z")

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> require “ruport/murdoch”

Haha I will not fall for this, FOX!

Take that:  
require “michael/moore/documentation”

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**Author:** ![naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/e47774/32.png) [@naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/naething)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruport-1-6-and-murdoch-1-0/197076/5 "2008-04-15T20:05:48Z")

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On Apr 14, 5:48 pm, Joel VanderWerf [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Gregory B. wrote:
> 
> > require “ruport/murdoch”
> 
> I tried that, but now I can’t seem to browse any news sites except fox.

Think of it as a hidden feature.

-g