New RadRails tutorial using AWDWR book

Rails
1

Hello there,

I am basically a J2EE refugee fascinated with Rails.

I have been using the Spring framework (a lightweight J2EE java
framework
with some special characteristics) but I am so impressed with RoR that I
am
porting over many applications.

In order to “dive into Rails”, of course the second thing to do was get
myself an IDE, and since I’ve been using Eclipse for the past two years
or
so, well, RadRails http://www.radrails.org/ was a natural. I have
found
this great environment to make a great Ruby on Rails even greater and
more
appealing.

Following the old, (somewhat unfair, to teachers, anyway) adage “them
that
know, do; … the others, teach”, I have documented my diving into
Rails,
and RadRails in an instiki Wiki on Site5, my hosting provider.

I said the second thing to do was get myself an IDE. The first thing I
did
was to get myself a Bible! of course.

So I dutifully purchased the PDF version of
AWDWRhttp://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails/index.htmland
got cracking.

I have documented (with graphics) everything I have been doing since, in
the
form of an illustrated tutorial of going through the Demo and the Depot
apps
from the AWDWR
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails/index.htmlbook,
but with two extensions.

The first, given my CMMI and RUP background, was to embellish a few of
the
tutorial sections (and parts of the resulting wiki) with rather a lot to
say
about ***Object Oriented
Processhttp://wiki.awebfactory.com.ar/awebfactory/published/ObjectOrientedProcess
*, which I believe is joined at the hip to Rails, given that it is a
patterns oriented (MVC, and others too) framework.

I do chide
AWDWRhttp://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails/index.htmla
bit for its downplaying of process (Agile or otherwise), although I
want
to make it clear that I think it’s a wonderful Bible, and I do
understand
that it has to stick to the subject of Rails and the code, and present
it in
a pedagogic manner.

The second “extension” to the book is that I try to show how to use the
various aspects of RadRails http://www.radrails.org/ functionality (I
illustrate this with graphics) as one works with a Rails project.

I have peppered the examples with just a tad of UML diagrams to see
things
more clearly also.

I am writing this mail In the hopes that all this may be of use or of
interest to some folks. If so, here are the links:

Starting from the top (
http://wiki.awebfactory.com.ar/awebfactory/published/RadRailsTutorials
):

I. Installation of RadRails through Eclipse Update (
http://wiki.awebfactory.com.ar/awebfactory/published/InstallRadRails
)
II. 3-part tutorial on the initial “demo” app from the book:
**

III. Then comes my own ranty *Thorough critique of Chapter
5http://wiki.awebfactory.com.ar/awebfactory/published/Thorough+critique+of+Chapter+5
*http://wiki.awebfactory.com.ar/awebfactory/published/Thorough+critique+of+Chapter+5
IV. An approach to redressing some problems I found in this excellent
book,
in terms of *** Object Oriented
Processhttp://wiki.awebfactory.com.ar/awebfactory/published/ObjectOrientedProcess

FittingDepotStoryboardsWithRailshttp://wiki.awebfactory.com.ar/awebfactory/published/FittingDepotStoryboardsWithRails
*

It may not be entirely apparent to many why parts III-V need to exist,
but
the thing is I feel that you can’t waltz into an MVC framework like
Rails
without ObjectOrientedProcess, I think the two things are joined at the
hip,
otherwise you just won’t have any idea of how to actually make use of
any of
this yourselves on your own projects. This is, of course, just my
opinion.

VI. What many are looking for, the actual nitty gritty of using many
facets
of RadRails with the Depot App itself, as developed in the book: ***
Depot
App With Rad
Railshttp://wiki.awebfactory.com.ar/awebfactory/published/DepotAppWithRadRails(
http://wiki.awebfactory.com.ar/awebfactory/published/DepotAppWithRadRails
)*

I have already finished a considerable portion of the book, out of 17
“iteratons”, I have 11 tutorials, on which I really would like to get
some
feedback, including info on any errors I may have made, parts which are
not
clear, etc.

Here is the table of contents of this part:

Setup

Chapter 6: Task A: Product Maintenance

Chapter 7: Task B: Catalog Display

Chapter 8: Task C: Cart Creation

  • : Handling Errors

Chapter 9: Task D: Checkout!

True to my character, I add a bit of UML in the last two parts!

I am planning on doing another tutorial based somewhat on a project I
will
be doing this week. Wanted to get some feedback on these first.

Cheers!

Victor K.
http://awebfactory.com.ar

2

On 3/15/06, Victor K. [email protected] wrote:

Hello there,
The first, given my CMMI and RUP background, was to embellish a few of the
tutorial sections (and parts of the resulting wiki) with rather a lot to say
about Object Oriented Process, which I believe is joined at the hip to
Rails, given that it is a patterns oriented (MVC, and others too) framework.

Speaking as someone who imbibes the OO kool-aid, who sometiems dreams
in objects, and has participated in more than my fair share of
heavyweight architecture-first design processes… there’s something
wrong with the phrase “Object Oriented Process”. Those terms do not
belong together. Every project needs a process, however agile or
heavyweight. And many projects benefit from Object-Oriented Design
(we wouldn’t be using Ruby if we didn’t think so). But OO is just a
tool in your development process. It is not the process. “Object
Oriented Process” suggests an inflexible and ideological development
philosophy in which the tools drive the architecture, rather than
vice-versa. I find that troubling.

Also, I have a little experience with CMMI and similar management
fadsAHEM methodologies, and I can pretty confidently say that they
have nothing to do with OO. They require you to document your tools
and techniques and learn from your mistakes; but they don’t specify
what those tools and techniques should be.

Just my $0.02.

~Avdi

3

You make quite a few good points, undeniably.

Still, I stand by the term Object Oriente Process, since I am talking
about
object oriented software engineering, not OOD or OOP; it’s a paradigm
shift
with respect to the process itself, with respect to class discovery in
component reuse within the process, and the whole question of per
project
process instantiation itself. So as a result, it has deep meaning for
me,
which I may or may not be successful in communicating to others.

Rails, for example, is apparently born of such a paradigm in the context
of
process.

Victor

4

Victor K. wrote:

Hello there,

I am basically a J2EE refugee fascinated with Rails.

I have been using the Spring framework (a lightweight J2EE java
framework
with some special characteristics) but I am so impressed with RoR that I
am
porting over many applications.

Hello Victor, I’m basically a PHP refugee (yuck !) definitely wanting to
use ROR as a PHP replacement and looking for a Java counterpart…

What do you mean by “lightweight” ? I’ve investigated several Java
frameworks before putting my hands (happily) in RoR : struts, jsf,
webwork (this one was the least worst) and I would appreciate your
advice about Spring compared to RoR.

May be little off topic but…

5

On 3/16/06, Victor K. [email protected] wrote:

Hello there,

Hey, nice write-up Victor. Thanks. Although i’m using textmate but i
like your UML and explanation.

–
Dawn Taylor
dawntayl (at) gmail (dot) com