Backend web dev in Ruby on Rails
This is a weekly seminar and workshop for folks to learn everything about Ruby, Rails, and web application development.
We meet Tuesdays 7pm-9pm in the Church room.
Bring a laptop if you have one, and please follow the steps here on the great, actively maintained Railsbridge guide for getting set up: http://installfest.railsbridge.org/installfest/installfest to prepare your system. New students, get as far as you can in this tutorial-- http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html . (we will build off this tutorial extensively)
Student, teachers, TA's needed and welcome!
Join the google group here: https://groups.google.com/group/starmonkeys
Use the google group or Discussion view of this page to ask questions or suggest ideas!
And be sure to check out Jeremy's awesome front-end class that meets Mondays: https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Frontend_Web_Development .
Class 9/11: Scraping and Parsing the Web
The last resort when there is no API, scraping and parsing isn't much fun, but Ruby's got some great tools to alleviate the pain.
Please bring some sources you want to scrape as well as ideas for what to do with the scraped data.
The homework is to complete this tutorial on regular expressions:http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/ruby/ruby-for-newbies-regular-expressions/
Regular expressions are a must-know tool when you're parsing textual data:http://xkcd.com/208/
But they're not the right tool for every problem:http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/06/regular-expressions-now-you-have-two-problems.html
This class is Ruby-only. New students that are Ruby newbies, please complete http://tutorials.jumpstartlab.com/projects/ruby_in_100_minutes.html before class.
RSVP here: http://rails-school.heroku.com/courses/noisebridge-rails-course/lessons/scraping-and-parsing-the-web
Class 9/4: Hacking around Foursquare API with ruby
Lets learn how easy it is to use Foursquare API with ruby {should be easy:)}
Homework:
1. generate ideas about how to use foursquare API and what apps could be made with it. We will decide what app we are going to build at the beginning of the class.
2. Scan through Foursquare API documentation https://developer.foursquare.com/ to know what is possible and what is not
http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/hack-with-foursquare-api
8/28 Class: Self-posting Novelty Twitter Accounts
Let's create bots that make interesting tweets periodically
The homework is just to come up with a fun and simple idea for the tweets you want your bot to post. Also, register your novelty twitter username and a twitter app: http://dev.twitter.com . And make sure you have a heroku account set up.
We'll also have a Ruby 101 break-out group for people that are not ready to program twitter bots.
8/21 Class: Dive into ActiveRecord
We'll be taking a deeper look at what is ActiveRecord (since it's such a big part of Rails)
Suggested reading:
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_querying.html
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/association_basics.html
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_validations_callbacks.html
RSVP here: http://rails-school.heroku.com/courses/noisebridge-rails-course/lessons/activerecord
8/14 Class: Twitter API
Playing with twitter API to build fun apps
Highly Recommended Reading
The (Poignant) Guide to Ruby by _why
http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/
Twitter API docs: https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api
RSVP here - http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/ruby-api-s-and-gems
8/7 Class: Ruby, API's, and Gems
No Rails today; Ruby, Rest API's and Ruby Gems instead!
Highly Recommended Reading
The (Poignant) Guide to Ruby by _why
http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/
RSVP here - http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/ruby-api-s-and-gems
7/31 Class: Rails' Asset Pipeline
We'll look closely at asset organization, compilation, and packaging, and also check out SCSS and Coffeescript.
Required Viewing
Understanding the Asset Pipeline by RailsCasts
http://railscasts.com/episodes/279-understanding-the-asset-pipeline
RSVP here - http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/rails-asset-pipeline
7/24 Class: Fun with the Stripe payment API
We'll hook up Stripe's API in our blog apps.
Please sign up for Stripe ahead of time - https://manage.stripe.com/register
Here's a handy link to Stripe's API docs - https://stripe.com/docs
Required reading
How I Explained REST to My Wife by Ryan Tomayko
http://tomayko.com/writings/rest-to-my-wife
RSVP here - http://rails-school.heroku.com/courses/noisebridge-rails-course/lessons/fun-with-the-stripe-payment-api
7/17 Class: Catch-up Day
We're going to use this class to catch up new students.
The two big things we want to accomplish:
a) bootstrapping your development environment - follow http://installfest.railsbridge.org/installfest/installfest
b) setting up a basic blog application - follow http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html
To prepare for this class, get as far as you can in these two tutorials.
Experienced students please consider coming out to help troubleshoot. This class will be a looser format than usual, so everyone, please bring snacks! If there's interest, we will get beers at Shotwell's afterward to celebrate being caught up.
RSVP here - http://rails-school.heroku.com/courses/noisebridge-rails-course/lessons/catch-up-day
7/10 Class: Continuous Integration with Travis
Intro to CI including configuring our apps to run on Travis-CI.
Please bring a Rails app that you've already pushed to Github.
Suggested reading:
Continuous Integration by Martin Fowler
http://martinfowler.com/articles/continuousIntegration.html
RSPV here: http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/continuous-integration-with-travis
7/3 Class: Playing with APIs
Where: 7pm-9pm Tuesday in the Church classroom
What: Using the Twitter API in your Rails app
Suggested reading:
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html (for new students)
https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api
RSVP here: http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/playing-with-apis
6/26 Class: Layouts and Rendering in Rails
Meeting as usual 7pm-9pm Tuesday in the Church classroom.
In this ambitious lecture-workshop, we're going to introduce how to organize layouts, partial, templates, etc in Rails.
Homework: 1. http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html (for new students) 2. Scan through http://guides.rubyonrails.org/layouts_and_rendering.html 3. Also prepare some questions!! :)
RSVP here:
http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/layouts-and-rendering-in-rails
Notes- http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/layouts-and-rendering-in-rails#whiteboard
6/19 Class: Test-Driven-Development and Sending Emails
In this ambitious lecture-workshop, we're going to introduce Test-Driven-Development, and apply it to sending emails from our blogs.
New students and others interested will have the option of learning Ruby 101 separately.
Homework: First make sure you've completed http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html, we will continue to work off of this tutorial. Then get as far as you can in both of the following tutorials. Don't worry if you don't finish them.
Action Mailer Basics by RailsGuides
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/action_mailer_basics.html
Request Specs and Capybara by Railscasts
http://railscasts.com/episodes/257-request-specs-and-capybara
RSVP here:
http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/test-driven-development-and-sending-emails
Notes- http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/test-driven-development-and-sending-emails#whiteboard
6/12 Class: Dissecting the request lifecycle with pry
Let's investigate the journey of a request through Rails with some help from the debugging tool pry.
Required reading
Rails 3 in a Nutshell by O'Reilly, Chapter 2, up to and including the Controller section
http://ofps.oreilly.com/titles/9780596521424/rails.html
Required viewing
Pry with Rails by Railscasts
http://railscasts.com/episodes/280-pry-with-rails
Notes- http://beta.primarypad.com/p/G86Niu6EXz
6/5 Class: Ajax
We're going to continue our discussion of using Rails' Unobtrusive Javascript framework to add ajax interaction to our blog apps.
Please make sure you've completed http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html so we're all on the same page.
Also, RSVP here: http://rails-school.heroku.com/lessons/ajax-in-rails .
Notes- http://openetherpad.org/KjI5Ic2327
5/29 Class: Intro to Product Development
There's more to building web apps than hacking code, like figuring out what problem you're solving and how you'll know when you've solved it. This class we'll look at Michael's website for the class (http://rails-school.heroku.com) and polish it into a valuable tool for organizing our study group.
Homework is to think about these questions, or come up with your own:
- Who are the target users of the class website?
- What utility do they need out of the site to start using it right away?
- What features could be added to open up the site to a larger audience?
Notes- http://openetherpad.org/QjFPw7bflF
5/22 Class: Authentication with the Devise gem
In preparation please finish the tutorial at http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html . Seriously!
Enough talking about awesome Rails gems, let's use one in an app. We're going to add authentication to the blogs we created in the Getting Started guide, using the devise gem.
We will also have a beginners' group for folks needing help getting Rails set up or wanting to learn Ruby.
Notes- http://openetherpad.org/QC7KG7aKVB
5/15 Class: Demo Day!
In preparation please finish the tutorial at http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html .
This class we're going to start with a show-and-tell of projects we're working on or have recently completed. The demos don't have to be Ruby- or Rails-related, but should be related to web programming in some way. This is a chance to get answers to your project-specific questions, find fun new projects to work on, and receive great feedback.
Then we'll break up into two groups, one for beginners and one for more experienced students.
Notes - http://openetherpad.org/xsy1zKhrbj
5/8 Class: topic is BLOGS
In preparation please tackle http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html and get as far as you can in setting up a simple blog app.
Please post some links here to your favorite blogs. We'll take a look at some blog features and talk about how they might be implemented.
Gabe's pick: http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/
Notes: http://openetherpad.org/sIYNUEPzld
5/2 Class: