RailsConf

Well, RailsConf it is.

Some fun in the snow with Quartz Composer

What I really like about Mac OS X is that it comes with all sort of cool stuff, like the Quartz Composer.

If you’re on Mac OS X Tiger, click here to see some snowy Quicktime action!

Oh, yes and here’s a variation, just stick the file in your ~/Library/Screen Savers folder, and enjoy… Ruby on Rails Mac OS X Screen Saver 🙂

Update: Sorry for the inconvenience with the unavailable downloads, all should be fine now!

Ruby on Madrobby

script.aculo.us 1.5 hits rc5

I’ve just released script.aculo.us 1.5_rc5 which is mostly about refactoring and fixing bugs for the soon-to-be 1.5 final release, but also adds quite a few new features:

• Drag and Drop now has the ability to snap to a grid (which can also be controlled through a callback for advanced uses)
• The new Form.Element.DelayedObserver lets you easily build those realtime search boxes (it sends off the AJAX call only after a specific delay has occured since the last keypress in the observed INPUT element)
• Horizontal ghostable sortables
• Some additional features for the slider control

As always, there where loads of fixes. See the CHANGELOG for details!

Thanks to all bug hunters and patch submitters!

Vienna OSS web development frameworks action day

The Austrian Computer Society holds a one-afternoon presentation on Open source web development frameworks on November 29 here in Vienna, Austria.

All presentations will be in German (but the presentation slides will probably be available in English).

Participation is free (registration is required!). I’ll do a talk on Ruby on Rails which will “compete” with some Java-based frameworks (Cocoon/JSF/Struts). Hopefully I can lure some Java developers to Rails 🙂

More information and registration info (German)

AJAX Activity indicators with Rails 0.14.3

Step 1:

Create an element on the page that should be displayed while AJAX Requests are active. I mostly use an IMG element displaying an animated GIF file. Give this element an id="busy" attribute.

Step 2:

Create a file application.js in your public/javascripts folder (if you don’t already have one!), and be sure to use <%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %> in the HEAD section of your layout or view template to include the Rails-provided JavaScripts.

Insert the following code into the application.js file:

Ajax.Responders.register({
  onCreate: function() {
    if($('busy') && Ajax.activeRequestCount>0)
      Effect.Appear('busy',{duration:0.5,queue:'end'});
  },
  onComplete: function() {
    if($('busy') && Ajax.activeRequestCount==0)
      Effect.Fade('busy',{duration:0.5,queue:'end'});
  }
});

Step 3:

Enjoy!

llor.nu, a Rails and scriptaculous-powered web board game

Check it out now! 🙂

Speedier Darwinports

Tired of waiting for Darwinports installations to finish because of the tedious compile process? Read this guide to make Darwinports use distcc (of course you’ll need some additional Macs…).