July 24, 2009 -
2 Comments -
ruby
rails
spam
tools
akismet
When I decided that I would roll code.isdangero.us as a custom-made blog in Rails, I thought of it as a fun, easy project. After all, blogs are simple, and the simplicity allows for plenty of room for attention to detail in making the code as tight as possible, similar to the way a haiku allows a poet to express his skill in language through the power of the simply-stated.
Of course, every project looks easy from a distance, because unforeseen problems are just that: unforeseen. It had been a while since I’d blogged, and therefore I had all but forgotten about the long war of blog software against the endless networks of compromised Windows machines turned into Viagra-pitching zombies, comparable in number to the mighty armies of ancient Persia.
Enter Akismet
Just as the 300 men under the command of King Leonidas of Sparta held back Persia’s onslaught by fighting in the shade, the forces of good in this war have gathered together their disparate forces into a collective known as Akismet.
Akismet is an API which tracks spam and ham submissions from participating blogs all over the world, building its knowledge of what spam looks like versus c…
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June 24, 2009 -
2 Comments -
ruby
rails
activerecord
sql
So let’s say you have a custom SQL query which, for one reason or another, doesn’t fit nicely into ActiveRecord’s finder options. Here is an example using a subquery:
This query does just what the method describes. If you call Order.average_revenue_per_month, you will get back the average total revenue from orders each month. Great, that was easy!
What about associations and named scopes?
Hold up. ActiveRecord provides a great framework for mapping database tables to objects which can do amazing things as long as you stick to the basics. One of those things is the ability to call class methods on associations and named scopes. For example, we can call User.find(1).orders.average_revenue_per_month, and it should do exactly what you expect it to within the scope of that particular User’s Orders. But that only works if you’re staying inside the bounds of ActiveRecord’s finder methods.
In this case, it would be impossible to fit our query into the standard finder methods and still have it work with associations and named scopes as expected. So what do we do, throw our hands up in dismay an…
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May 23, 2009 -
1 Comment -
ruby
rails
tools
facebooker queue
facebooker
facebook
I’ve been working on a Rails-based Facebook app using the excellent Facebooker library, and the need became apparent for a background queueing service for calls to Facebook’s REST API.
I had already decided to go with Beanstalkd as a messaging queue for its fast, in-memory modus operandi, because this particular app makes API calls at a frequency comparable to the birthrate in China. Well, maybe not, but the potential is certainly there. I am also already using Beanstalkd in this project for purposes unrelated to the Facebook API, so I am married to it at this point.
There is currently a plugin called FacebookerMQ which uses its own custom database-backed queue. Since I had already decided on Beanstalkd and needed an in-memory queue, FacebookerMQ wouldn’t work for me. Also, I figured I could take things a step or two further.
So, without further ado, I am announcing Facebooker Queue (very clever name, I know). Not only does Facebooker Queue provide easy, transparent, drop-in API queueing for Face…
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