PeepCode Products

XMPP/Jabber with Ruby

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:26:51 +0000

Technical editing by Joshua Sierles, sysadmin at 37signals.

Content by Geoffrey Grosenbach in collaboration with Casimir Saternos.

Part of our job at PeepCode is to research new and upcoming technologies that alpha geeks are talking about. XMPP/Jabber instant messaging has been getting more buzz recently. What is it? What does it do? How can you use it to enhance your applications?

XMPP is an open, real-time instant messaging platform that is useful for sending and receiving notifications between servers and humans. You can use it to receive administrative notifications from your website or to push notifications to subscribers much more efficiently than current poll-based solutions such as RSS.

After viewing this 48 minute screencast, you’ll be able to work with XMPP from Ruby, including:

Connect to a Jabber server
Send presence notifications and update the user icon
Receive message notifications and friend requests
Use DRb (distributed Ruby) together with Jabber to send messages from a Rails application

Available to all PeepCode Unlimited subscribers, or at a discount during the month of Peepvember!

Now with 25% more pixels than the competition! Uses a full 1000×600 of screen real estate with smoother, high frame rate animations.

Thinking Sphinx PDF

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:07:22 +0000

MySQL (or Postgres) does a fine job when querying specific rows, but it’s not so great when it comes to searching on large text fields. Sphinx is a search service that makes full text searching quite easy and throws in extra features like boolean search (“rails OR merb”), word proximity, and custom filtering.

Pat Allan is the author of the popular Thinking Sphinx plugin for Rails (and Merb apps that use ActiveRecord!). He also wrote the Riddle gem for lower level interaction with Sphinx. Pat starts out by introducing the basic features of Sphinx, then dives straight into installation on popular platforms.

In this 60-page PDF you’ll learn to build an address book with Thinking Sphinx starting with simple searches then progressing onto filtered, sorted, and delta-based searches. You’ll learn about the geo-searching features of Sphinx, including integration with Google Maps.

He closes out the book with a 20-page reference that you’ll want to keep close as you use the more advanced features of Sphinx.

If you use MySQL or Postgres databases with text fields, this book will teach all you’ll need to know to work confidently with Sphinx.

Included for all PeepCode Unlimited subscribers or available as a single purchase for only US$9!

Chapters

Understanding Sphinx
Installation
Building an Address Book with Sphinx
Reference
Additional Resources

Unobtrusive Prototype.js

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:20:48 +0000

By Jarkko Laine, workshop teacher and author of the Apress book Beginning Ruby on Rails E-Commerce

Modern web developers have learned to organize their server-side code into model, view, and controller.

Your front-end development can also benefit from organization into content and behavior, which is much easier to accomplish than you might think. Dare I say that it makes front-end web programming as easy as Visual Basic’s object and event hooks?

Jarkko Laine steps through the features of Dan Webb’s Low Pro library to help you attach functionality to HTML elements and events. You’ll see how Prototype.js can drive a full-featured application and give you organizational tools to keep your Javascript code maintainable.

Chapters include:

Towards Accessible Javascript
Brief History or Javascript on Rails
Introducing Low Pro
Refactoring an Existing Rails Application
Going DRY With Multiple Elements
Bubbling Performance with Event Delegation
More on Behavior Classes

Refactoring your front end code will make it easier to work with, easier to extend, and easier to use. Get the scoop with this PeepCode PDF book.

Available to all PeepCode Unlimited subscribers or as a single purchase for only US$9.

CouchDB with Rails

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:33:48 +0000

Technical editing by CouchDB committers Jan Lehnardt and Chris Anderson

Imagine a world where there is no SQL. Your database doesn’t have a schema. You don’t have to worry about indexes. Replication is built-in. Scaling is part of the plan from day one.

This is the world promised to you by CouchDB, an Apache Foundation incubator project in the genre of Amazon’s SimpleDB (but open source!). This 60 minute screencast clearly explains the forward-thinking features of CouchDB and shows you how to use CouchDB with Rails.

This screencast is the product of months of research, a trip across the world to Berlin, hours of coding on the CouchRest gem, and technical editing by a pair of CouchDB committers.

You’ll learn how to install CouchDB from source, how to use the CouchRest gem, and you’ll build a personal notes application that uses CouchDB. You’ll learn about different ways to serialize Ruby objects to JSON. You’ll write custom views in Javascript and synchronize them to your database. Oh, and you’ll also learn a bit about the daring personal history behind the CouchDB project!

Whether you’re planning to use CouchDB on an upcoming Ruby project or just want to be informed about current developments in database technology, you’ll find it in this screencast.

The code used in the screencast is included. A typed transcript is also included with the code download. Video is in our new extra-wide 1000×600 format!

Available to PeepCode Unlimited Subscribers or alone for only US$9.

Rails on Facebook

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:39:35 +0000

by Facebooker plugin committers Shane Vitarana and David Clements

People are spending an increasing amount of time on social networks. Facebook is arguably the most popular worldwide social network and offers a simple API for offering your applications to tens of millions of users with Facebook accounts.

This 67 page PDF will get you up and running with the Facebooker plugin. You’ll learn to install and configure the plugin. You’ll send HTML, Javascript, and images to Facebook (with caching). You’ll learn about the parts of Facebook that you can augment. Finally, you’ll learn how to write tests for your Facebook application.

BONUS! Includes a 10 minute screencast that shows how to create and configure the demo application on Facebook.

The open source Ruby Footprints application is used as an example, with code available on GitHub.

Included for all PeepCode Unlimited subscribers, or available as a single copy for only $9!

Phusion Passenger

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:41:40 +0000

Technical editing by the creators of Phusion Passenger™.

Phusion Passenger™ dropped onto the scene in early 2008 and immediately caused quite a stir.

Many developers have hoped for a way to run Rails applications natively inside Apache, and now it’s possible! Passenger™ makes development easier and is the best way to run Rails applications on shared hosts. You may even find it so easy to use that you choose to deploy your production applications with it as well.

After viewing this 54 minute screencast, you’ll be a Passenger expert. You’ll learn:

How to deploy to a shared host with Capistrano and Passenger
How to setup and configure a development machine from gems or the Passenger development repository
How to create SSL certificates and configure Apache for SSL
Troubleshooting tricks for when things go wrong
How to use Rails to take the place of mod_rewrite
Production tips

Included for all PeepCode Unlimited subscribers, or available alone for only $9!

Now with 25% more pixels than the competition! Uses a full 1000×600 of screen real estate with smoother, high frame rate animations.

REST for Rails 2

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:12:25 +0000

The first REST screencast was the top-selling screencast at PeepCode for over a year. We’ve started from scratch and built this one from the ground up for Rails 2 (a few Rails 2.1 features are used, too!).

RESTful routes have been a big part of Rails since version 1.2, but they are also very confusing! They’re all about building your application to deliver HTML and API-friendly XML from a single piece of data.

This screencast covers the basics of REST and walks through a simple application to show how REST routes work. You’ll learn about the magic that goes on behind the scenes and how you can design a REST application with confidence.

Routes, URLs, forms, testing, and general tips are covered over the course of 57 minutes of the high quality, professional production you’ve come to expect from PeepCode. We touch on ActiveResource briefly. Simple, clear diagrams are featured throughout.

If you are already familiar with how to build a Rails application, this screencast will give you the knowledge you need to convert an existing application to REST or design a new app with the principles of REST.

Features a handy chapter track for jumping to specific topics. Code samples are included as well.

Included with PeepCode Unlimited and also available for only US$9!

Those who purchased this screencast subsequent to December 2007 will receive an automatic upgrade to this new screencast.

Rails Security Audit PDF

Wed, 28 May 2008 08:17:02 +0000

by Aaron Bedra of Relevance

No one wants to wake up to an application that has been hacked. This 47-page PDF talks about common vulnerabilities found in Rails applications and how to solve them.

After touching on common model and view vulnerabilities, Aaron takes you through a session with the Tarantula fuzzing plugin. General server lockdown issues are covered. The book finishes with a sample risk analysis, including assessments of threat capability, vulnerability, and other risk-related issues.

Save yourself unnecessary pain and regret by reading this important PDF today!

Included for all PeepCode Unlimited subscribers, or available as a single copy for only $9!

Receiving Email with Ruby PDF

Fri, 16 May 2008 22:37:40 +0000

Previously called MMS2R

Web applications become much more useful when powered by the oldest communication technology on the Internet: email.

This 60 page PDF shows how to use the MMS2R RubyGem to receive and parse email from both desktop clients and mobile devices. You’ll learn about:

Using MMS and email as an API to your web application.
Understanding cellular and mobile gateways for sending and receiving MMS messages.
Setting up scripts to fetch and process email.
Automatically removing advertising inserted by carriers.
Testing mail reception with Test::Unit and RSpec.
Strategies for matching email addresses to user accounts.

As mobile devices become more common, applications need to be able to not only send messages, but receive communication from phones and other handheld devices. This book will give you the knowledge to build applications that accept input from email and MMS messages. You may even be inspired to start a new application, just to take advantage of how easy it is!

Written by Mike Mondragon and Luke Francl, authors of the MMS2R RubyGem and consultants on FanChatter and other mobile sites.

Available as part of the PeepCode Unlimited package or as a single purchase for only US$9!

Git Internals PDF

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:18:27 +0000

Many have learned the basics of using Git from the PeepCode Git screencast. In this PDF, Scott Chacon goes even further to explain the distributed filesystem behind the popular source code management system.

If you’re tired of terse man pages or academic white papers, you’ll enjoy more than four dozen colorful diagrams that clearly explain the complicated inner workings of Git.

The first 50 pages explain the storage system that powers Git, and an additional 60 pages go into detail about using Git on a day to day basis. You’ll learn not only how to use the basic commands, but will also learn different strategies for working via either a centralized or distributed collaboration model. This is a great companion to the existing PeepCode screencast or a useful book in its own right.

As a bonus, several short screencasts are included which show how to use the basic Git commands.

The Git source code control system continues to win over developers who are impressed with the speed and flexibility of the distributed workflow. Go beyond the basics with this PDF from PeepCode.

Available as part of the PeepCode Unlimited package or as a single purchase for only US$9!

TextMate for Rails 2

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:46:15 +0000

Content and filming by Dr. Nic Williams, voiceover by Geoffrey Grosenbach.

Dr. Nic Williams has been hard at work on an updated TextMate bundle for Rails 2.0.

This 66 minute screencast shows many of the new features of the Rails 2 TextMate bundle. It finishes by showing you how to write your own snippets and commands.

Being able to use the built-in shortcuts and script your own snippets can make you a happier and more productive programmer.

If you own a copy of TextMate but wish you were more familiar with the most frequently used keyboard shortcuts, this screencast will help orient you with what’s possible.

Still only $9, or buy a PeepCode Unlimited account for $10 off until March 21.

Download the free cheat sheet

Plugin Patterns for Rails 2

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:34:07 +0000

by Andrew Stewart

Updated for Rails 2.1

Plugins are the approved way to add custom features to Rails or even modify its built-in behavior.

This 100 page PDF book walks through common techniques for augmenting models, views, controllers and routes. You’ll also learn about the important parts of a generator, all in ways compatible with Rails 2.1.

If you’ve wanted to write an acts_as plugin or if you’ve wondered what alias_method_chain really does, this is the book for you.

Only US$9, or available to PeepCode Unlimited members immediately!

PeepCode Unlimited

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:33:21 +0000

By popular demand, we are proud to offer PeepCode Unlimited. This package provides you with access to all PeepCode content for a full year.

For a one-time price of $149 (on sale for $129 during November!), you’ll get access to our existing 20+ screencasts and PDFs, plus all the new content we publish for a year (from the date of purchase).

How many people can use the Unlimited plan?

A PeepCode Unlimited account is licensed for one developer. Contact us at peepcode@topfunky.com if you would like to purchase the Unlimited plan for a company, team, or school.

Can I purchase PeepCode Unlimited for just a month or two?

This plan is only offered as a full year purchase. We also offer discounts on five and ten credits if you aren’t ready for the Unlimited plan.

What if I already have purchased some screencasts or PDFs? Or what if I have credits in my account?

You’ll continue to have access to the products you have purchased, and the unspent credits in your account will remain available for future use. Any downloads made as part of your Unlimited plan will not count against existing credits from your 5-pack or 10-pack.

What happens when my subscription runs out?

PeepCode Unlimited gives you access to all PeepCode content, but only for a year. After a year, you can choose to buy another year of PeepCode Unlimited (you will not be billed automatically).

Your account will revert to include only the items you have paid for previous to joining the Unlimited plan.

Purchase of PeepCode Unlimited comes with no guarantee that a certain number of screencasts or PDFs will be released over the next year.

Meet Merb PDF Draft

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 22:00:24 +0000

Updated this week! Includes a draft of a 50-minute screencast.

Merb is a Rails clone.

So why should you use it?

It’s a great companion to Rails for specific tasks like concurrent file uploads. It can also hold its own for small single-file applications and larger high performance, thread-safe installations.

This 60-page draft PDF presents the philosophy of Merb and shows you how to setup a Merb application, work with controllers, and build models.

Future updates to this PDF are free to those who purchase this draft and will explore more advanced controller features and show how Merb approaches forms, templates, and testing.

A Merb screencast will also be released in the next few months as a separate $9 purchase.

Merb is still somewhat experimental and bugs are being discovered and fixed. However, it is a great experimental framework for the developer who wants to stay on the edge of web application development technology.

ActiveMerchant PDF

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:47:08 +0000

by Cody Fauser, ActiveMerchant committer and Shopify developer.

Most online businesses need to receive payment. If you’re developing with Ruby, the standard for credit card authorization and capture is ActiveMerchant.

ActiveMerchant provides a consistent interface to over 30 gateways all around the world and has processed millions of dollars of transactions since 2006. This 70 page book starts with a simple payment and steps through the development of database models and gateway interaction code within a Rails application.

You’ll also learn how to write a comprehensive test suite and integrate the Acts as State Machine plugin to build a reliable payment processing system. Finally, you’ll learn about industry standards and security precautions.

Many books show you how to build a Rails-based shopping cart, but this is the only book to take you the rest of the way through to payment authorization and capture.

Purchase includes downloadable code samples used in the book.

NOTE: This PDF does not talk about recurring billing. It does mention credit card storage regulations but recommends that you use a third-party service to store credit card numbers.

Examples use the Braintree Payment Gateway but are relevant for any gateway supported by ActiveMerchant.