Articles

65. ActiveMerchant with Authorize.net in Rails Part 2

In this episode you will learn how to use CIM API of Authorize.net gateway to post transactions and add recurring billing logic.

 For recurring billing you can check the last_charged_at field in Subscriptions table and if it was successfully processed you can charge the customer based on the interval. Interval attribute can store the frequency of charging a customer for subscriptions. I am using months as the unit for this attribute.

back home again

After being one week on the road, I'm finally back home again. Last week I presented at RubyFools Copenhagen and Scotland on Rails and therefore traveled a lot.

Rails Chops: Working with databases

References

Objectives

  • Configure Rails to work with a database (database.yml)

  • create table (migration)

  • use ActiveRecord to interact with our database

My Favorite New Site: Tripit


I’d heard (first from Joel Spolsky, I believe) about a cool new travel planning site called Tripit. I’m making arrangements for a trip to St. Louis later this month, and so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try it out. To say the least, I’m impressed.

64. Extremely Simple Calendar Integration for Rails

This episode is based on the blog post Extremely Simple Calendar Integration for Rails

 You will the learn basics of form, routes and how to save the calendar selection value to the database.

63. Why Ruby is an acceptable LISP?

This episode is based on the blog post by Eric Kidd Why Ruby is an acceptable LISP

You will learn the very subtle technique that allows chaining of functions in Ruby. 

Time Zone Visualizations

I've been doing a lot of work with time zones recently; they're notoriously difficult to wrap one's head around, so I created a few visualizations to help me.

Git's avalanche

I remember thinking how impressive the roll-out of Subversion was. They reached some magic point where the majority of the development world just flipped and most everyone who've previously been on CVS switched in what seemed like an overnight transition.

Of course it didn't happen like that, but the perception of a sea of developers all collectively deciding to move on and knight Subversion the next savior seemed impressive at the time.

The immediacy of PHP

I've been writing a little bit of PHP again today. That platform has really received an unfair reputation. For the small things I've been used it for lately, it's absolutely perfect.

I love the fact that it's all just self-contained. That the language includes so many helpful functions in the box. And that it managed to get distributed with just about every instance of Apache out there.

62. ActiveMerchant with Authorize.net in Rails

In this episode you will learn how to make a purchase transaction using ActiveMerchant plugin with Authorize.net gateway.

12 Interesting Upcoming Ruby and Rails Events (That Aren’t Sold Out) | Rails Fire

12 Interesting Upcoming Ruby and Rails Events (That Aren’t Sold Out)

Wanted to go to JRubyConf or RubyConf this year? Tough - they're sold out already. Luckily, though, there are some interesting upcoming events that you can still get in to - some online, some in multiple cities, some held in youth centers, some in hotels, and even one on a tropical island. Whew!

(Update: Removed Aloha on Rails as it has sold out - thanks to Tammer Saleh for the note.)

Free "Optimizing Your Online Store" Webinar (Online; September 24, 2009)

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New Relic is running a free webinar event on Thursday, September 24 for developers and customers interested in optimizing e-commerce sites ready for the 2009 holiday season. The webinar will feature New Relic customer SheetMusicPlus.com and will provide tips for getting your online store prepared.

Naturally, being a New Relic event, the focus will be on New Relic's RPM product and a special webinar-only discount will be offered. Given the quality of New Relic's other materials though, I doubt it's going to be a sales pitch from start to finish. Click here to register. (I've just been told the first 20 people to register are entered in a draw to win an iPod nano.)

RubyFoo (London, UK; October 2-3, 2009)

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RubyFoo is a Ruby conference taking place in London in October, 2009. It's being put on by Trifork, the company behind the successful JAOO developer conferences. RubyFoo is a sort of follow up to the RubyFools conference they put on in Copenhagen, Denmark last year. Speakers include Sam Aaron, Ola Bini (JRuby), Adam Wiggins, Aslak Hellesoy, and Matz, and the general theme of the conference is "communicative programming." Note: You can use the promotion code of "Rubyinside" to get £50 off registration.

Rails Roadshow (USA; October and November, 2009)

railsroadshow.pngThe Rails Roadshow is a series of five free events being organized by esteemed Rails hosting company Engine Yard. In order:

  • October 26 - Boston, MA
  • October 27 - Chicago, IL
  • October 29 - Austin, TX
  • October 30 - Los Angeles, CA
  • November 2 - Seattle, WA

Despite being an Engine Yard-heavy event, the schedule is quite varied with speakers from Amazon, New Relic, and CVSDude in addition to those from Engine Yard. The theme is "performance in the cloud." For free, it seems like a nice morning out (the event finishes at midday) and you get breakfast - what's not to like?

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Rails Summit Latin America 2009 (São Paulo, Brazil; October 13-14, 2009)

Rails Summit Latin America comes back for a second run in 2009 - taking place between October 13-14 in sunny São Paulo, Brazil. Last year's event attracted 550 attendees, so for a regional Ruby/Rails conference it did amazingly. This year it costs 400 Brazilian Real to attend (about $200).

Speakers lined up to speak so far include Bryan Liles, Carlos Brando, Chad Fowler, Gregg Pollack, Ilya Grigorik, Jason Seifer, Matt Aimonetti, Obie Fernandez, Pratik Naik, Rich Kilmer, and several prominent South American Rubyists. It's a bit of an all-star affair!

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Rails Camps (Margate, UK and Melbourne, Australia; October / November 2009)

Rails Camps is a series of Rails related get-togethers, run in a lo-fi style in, usually, Australia and the United Kingdom. Two Rails Camps are on the calendar for late 2009. The first in Margate, UK (an interesting seaside resort, to say the least) on October 16-19 and the second in Melbourne, Australia on November 20-23. Previous reports show that these events seem to go down really well, especially if you want to get away from it all for a few days and hang out with fellow geeks - so check it out.

RubyEnRails (Amsterdam, Netherlands; October 30-31, 2009)

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Where Euruko is Europe's equivalent of RubyConf, RubyEnRails is starting to look like Europe's answer to RailsConf. This year, RubyEnRails takes place in Amsterdam on October 30 and 31 and speakers include Jeremy Kemper, Yehuda Katz, Jonathan Weiss, Eloy Duran, Bart ten Brinke, Willem van Bergen, and Edwin Vlieg. It only costs 79 euro (about $120 or £70) and it sounds like it's been a fun event in previous years.

Note: I always seem to miss some awesome events in these roundups so, as always, please leave comments recommending your own events, those I've forgotten, etc.