Even though , the full code is in my GitHub. This post is a reminder and a compilation of the resources , I used to complete my first webapp using Ruby on Rails.

The File Upload App currently allows a user to upload and save any file type, download the files belonging to that user and of course deleting the uploaded files if necessary. It also has a small admin mode, where the user with administrator privileges can see all files uploaded by all users and has the ability to delete both users and files uploaded.

I used the following to develop the complete WebApp

1. 1. Twitter Bootstrap for UI etc.
2. 2. Devise for authentication
3. 3. Paperclip for handling uploads
4. 4.Annotate for detailed model info

Listing All Users Registered Using Devise

rails generate controller user index show

Add the following to your users_controller to get all the users.

def index
   @users = User.all
end

Now ensure that your route.rb files has the following:

devise_for :users
resources :users

You can always check the avialable routes in your RoR app by running

rake routes

Now edit the “users/index.html.erb” to display the users currently registered

All Users

<% @users.each do |user| %>

• <%= link_to user.email, user %>
  <% if current_user.admin? %>
  | <%= link_to “Delete”,user, :confirm => “Are you sure?”, :method => :delete %><% end %>

<% end %>

ActiveRecord

When a relationship is created using active record. For example in this case a has_many and belongs_to relationship between uploads and users, certain methods are created. A user has_many uploads and a upload belongs_to a user. In this case the following methods were created by using the above relationship:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
   has_many :uploads,:foreign_key => 'user_id',:dependent => :destroy
 
class Upload < ActiveRecord::Base
   belongs_to :user

If for example however you do not use those methods created by the relationship such as

 user.upload

to upload a book, but instead use

Upload.new

, the user_id in the uploads table will not be populated with the id of the corresponding user. This is because

 Uploads.new

has no association with the current user and as a result the user_id is left nill everytime you upload files. Note to self, double check methods called , no foreign key or the “magic” of rails will help here.

Routes

The controller and its action assigned to that specific route is configured in routes.rb. You can specify GET, DELETE,POST or PUT as methods from your view in rails, this is not to be confused with the methods you have available in your controllers. GET, DELETE,POST and PUT should be seen as actions invoked by the user over HTTP that matches back to methods in the controllers to prevent confusion.

I learned a lot more stuff, will try to blog more frequently about my next Webapp project as I progress rather than trying to brain dump after I am done.
Github: https://github.com/skillachie/File-Upload-App

Links

http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book

http://railscasts.com/episodes/209-introducing-devise

• Metrics around your email
• One less infrastructure based service to maintain
• Fewer rejects and as a result higher conversions

The last thing you would want is for your users to not be albe to sign up for web application at launch because they are not aware that the confirmation is in the spam folder or worst didn’t even reach their inbox.

Using one of the email services available such as Amazon SES, SendGrid and others would more than likely be saving you time and effort and as a result money.

I have decided to use Amazon SES mainly because its much cheaper than all the other services. Configuring Amazon SES is relatively straight forward. In this post I will be configuring a rails application to use Amazon SES.

1. Register the email that you will be using with Amazon SES in your web application and verify it inside your Amazon Console.

2. Configure your application to use SES by installing the aws-ses gem. You will need to create this file

 config/initializers/amazon_ses.rb

it is not created by default. Also do not confuse the {username and password} for{ access key and the secret key }.

See the gem documentation for details.

AWS SES

3. Ensure to enable this option in environments/$ENV.rb file .

This will allow you to immediately know if the email was sent or not, it raises an error, helpful in troubleshooting.

 config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = true

Once all the above is done test sending registration and confirmations emails. If no error was raised above, you should be in the clear. Wait a few and refresh your Amazon console to see the results and check your inbox. The only thing left to do now is request production acces.

In my humble opinion, it is absolutely necessary to have basic antivirus protection installed on your Mac regardless of the number of virus currently out there for the Mac.

“It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.” – Howard Ruff

In short its about being prepared

No personal computer exists in a vacuum. As elegantly designed as Macs are, a connected world means that their popularity attracts the attention of malware writers and virus engineers. Not only can malware and other threats attack the Mac OS X platform directly, but Macs can also serve as a carrier of Windows or Linux-based threats. Network shares, email and removable media like USB keys are easy ways for multiplatform malware to spread undetected. Additionally, third party applications which are not consistently patched and updated, are prime targets for hackers to gain control of user systems.

• Iterm2  – http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/home
• Homebrew – http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/
• Htop -  http://htop.sourceforge.net/

Iterm2  is basically a  replacement/alternative for Terminal on the Mac OS X with mad cool features. A few of the features that I like so far are:

Htop  is the process viewer that I have been looking for . Now I no longer use atMonitor (sorry guys). I am a  poweruser and as a result I always  check like to have an overview of my resources, specifically   memory. Now I use Htop within Iterm

MacVim is really just vim for OS X

Installing  Homebrew

 ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/gist/323731)"

Yup that’s it, the script does all the work

Install Htop

 brew install htop

sudo htop

Installing MacVim

brew install macvim

mvim file.rb

And that’s all folks, now back to learning/development

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qq5po2iRsc

Additional Links

Themes for Iterm2  -  http://code.google.com/p/iterm2/wiki/ColorGallery

Unknown terminal type
I don't know what kind of terminal you
are on  - all I have is 'xterm-color'.
[Using open mode]

Fix

export TERM='vt100'

As most of us know, Macs have a  ”renowned”  virus free reputation at least to the society at large.Mac’s aren’t immune to viruses  and there is no reason to believe that they will now and forever be “virus free” .. unless they had some form of super dupper force field that magically protects them, which unfortunately they dont.

I am sure there are other  reasons why  the Mac appears to be virus free.However one of the main reasons  why viruses aren’t popping up left, right and center in the wild for Macs is  based solely on market share. MAC’s are only 5% of the current market  while Windows still has over 90% market share. (see figure below). Its all about statistics, in the eyes of a  malware/virus writer stands a better chance writing malicious software for Windows in this case simple because there is a better chance of success of more machines becoming infected. Hey if I wanted my own botnet I would be creating malware for the OS with the largest market share.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Operating System Market Share

The relationship between viruses for the Mac and Apples market share can be said to be directly proportional. You can expect the number of vulnerabilities for the Mac to increase as Apple gets a bigger piece of the pie, it is as simple as that.

BTW did I mention I love my MacBook Pro and OS X. Dont get me wrong the Mac OS is one of the most secure, and as I clearly said other factors/reasons contribute to why the Mac has a virus free reputation, however I believe the market share is one of the stronger factors.

I am just very tired of hearing people say “Macs dont get viruses”
————————-
For your reading

Perception, Security and Worms in the Apple
New variant of cross-platform Boonana malware discovered 2010
Mac Viruses
Google for more

Packaging Using WinInstall MSI

Requirements

1.        Scalable Software WinINSTALL MSI Packager Professional (Installed)

2.       Windows Server 2003  – domain controller , active directory etc.

Please click on the link below to download the PDF tutorial.

Packaging Applications to Be Deployed in an Enterprise Environment Using Wise WinInstall

I will blog about using VMware ThinApp( http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/ )instead of WinInstall MSI Packager to package  and deploy your applications in another blog post

***From my old blog. The logo in the document below, will say babyadministrator. I once blogged from babyadministrator.com but decided the name was too long and might not be conveying the message I want. I allowed that domain to expire, it is now been sold for over $1800. I will definitely not make such a mistake again. That was off track, you can download the pdf tutorial by clicking on the link above.