Luca Guidi

Click to Globalize is ready for Rails 2.1!

I spent a lot of time to make this release the best of ever! I know that a lot of time has passed since the latest Rails major release, and I apologize for this.
The official Globalize it seems dead, but the great work of Nate Clark (aka heythisisnate) has made it compatible with Rails 2.1. Thanks Nate!
The Rails Edge now includes a basic support for i18n!

What's Changed?

The first big change is about the configuration, past versions has cluttered a bit your ApplicationController, I know, but now Click uses a YAML file configuration file for locales.

As you can see, it's more readable than put an Hash inside your main controller, and it also take the advantage to separate configuration from logic.

The second change regards the default language, you can use the above file to declare it, or use the Globalize syntax (Globalize::Locale.set_base_language('en-US')), but you have to choose a locale before the app starts.
This because Click needs a secure fallback mechanism, if no active Locale was set, it's always guarantees your application to work.

The third feature is about formatting: you can always choose between textile and markdown without editing ApplicationController, but using the same configuration file.

I removed the deprecated class method ApplicationController#globalize? in favor of the instance one. This means you can use it to turn on/off Click to Globalize, just returning a boolean value:

This version also includes tiny fixes, refactoring and cleanup.

You may wish to learn a bit about Click to Globalize, so I encourage you to visit the official page.
I hope you enjoy your i18n on Rails!

Sashimi has just hit 0.2.0!

This release has no sugar for you! No new features, just test improvements and code robustness.

Here a getting started tutorial for Sashimi

.

I just released a new version of Sashimi, with tiny fixes and a new home! In fact the project is also hosted on RubyForge, now you can install the gem with:

$ (sudo) gem install sashimi

or with:

$ (sudo) gem install jodosha-sashimi --source=http://gems.github.com

If you wish, you can visit the project pages on GitHub and on RubyForge.

UPDATE The release 0.1.6 is broken, you are strongly encouraged to update your gem with the newest 0.1.7.

Yesterday I announced Sashimi and now it's already time of tasteful updates.

Changes

First, thanks to all the people that appreciated my work. Second, new commands and options are avaliable for Sashimi.

Update all plugins in your repository:

$ sashimi update --all

Install a plugin to your Rails app:

$ sashimi install --rails click-to-globalize

NOTE this is an alias for the add command.

Update a plugin of a Rails app:

$ sashimi update --rails click-to-globalize

NOTE If your application is versioned with Svn or Git, Sashimi will automatically schedules for add/remove the added/removed files.

How To Update

$ (sudo) gem update jodosha-sashimi --source=http://gems.github.com

I hope you enjoy those addictional options.

I have a really, really bad memory: each time I need to install a Rails plugin, I Google to find the repository, then try to download the code. Often, I remember the url, but the server is down. Damn!

All this annoying issues kill the Rails rapidity on application prototyping. But, what if all the plugins which I need are available offline on my notebook? I can forget about all that urls, and I should stop to worry about the server status.

To solve this problems, I wrote Sashimi, it's a gem that manages you favourite Rails plugins in a local repository.

How It Works?

First you need to install it with:

$ (sudo) gem install jodosha-sashimi --source=http://gems.github.com

Now you can install a plugin on your local repository:

$ sashimi install git://github.com/jodosha/click-to-globalize.git

Ta-daaaa!! Now Click to Globalize is available offline:

$ sashimi list

click-to-globalize

If you need to add it to your Rails app, just move to your app root, then type:

$ sashimi add click-to-globalize

Conclusion

I found Sashimi really useful, I hope you too.

For the complete reference, please check out at the official gem page.

Sashimi

Sashimi is a Rails plugins manager.
It allows to install your favourite plugins in a local repository and add them to your Rails apps.
The main goal of this gem is to allow the plugins offline installation.

Installation

$ (sudo) gem install sashimi

or:

$ (sudo) gem install jodosha-sashimi --source=http://gems.github.com

Usage

Install a plugin from a subversion URL:

$ sashimi install http://dev.rubyonrails.com/svn/rails/plugins/continuous_builder

Install a plugin from a git URL:

$ sashimi install git://github.com/jodosha/click-to-globalize.git

Uninstall a plugin:

$ sashimi uninstall continuous_builder

Update a plugin:

$ sashimi update click-to-globalize

Update all installed plugins:

$ sashimi update --all

Update a plugin of a Rails app:

$ sashimi update --rails click-to-globalize

NOTE: If your application is versioned with Svn or Git, Sashimi will automatically schedules for add/remove the added/removed files.

List all installed plugins:

$ sashimi list

Add installed plugin(s) to a Rails app:

$ sashimi add click-to-globalize

or

$ sashimi install --rails click-to-globalize

Known And Common Issues

• When add a plugin to an app, make sure your current directory is the rails root.
• Only Subversion and Git repositories are currently supported.

Contribute

Check out the code and test it:

$ git clone git://github.com/jodosha/sashimi.git
$ rake

Create a ticket to: http://sushistar.lighthouseapp.com
Create a patch and add as attachement to the ticket.

Credits

Partially inspired to RaPT.

Copyright

Copyright © 2008 Luca Guidi - http://lucaguidi.com, released under the MIT license

Acts As Resource is ready for the imminent Rails 2.1!

I also moved it to GitHub, the new repo is http://github.com/jodosha/acts-as-resource/tree/master, the SVN one is deprecated.

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to recommend me on Working With Rails.

Click to Globalize has been rewritten, in order to use all instance methods of the JavaScript class, instead of class methods.

I also fixed some tiny issues:

• The form_authentication_token method is called only if the application is protected against the CSRF attacks (protect_against_forgery? returns true)
• It uses as parameter key what request_forgery_protection_token returns, instead of the hard-coded authenticity_token
• The JavaScript class uses Prototype's dom:loaded custom event.

I also migrated the plugin GitHub. The new repo is http://github.com/jodosha/click-to-globalize/tree/master, so the oldest one is deprecated.
Have a nice globalization!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to recommend me on Working With Rails.

Click to Globalize

Click to Globalize is an extension for Globalize plugin, it allows to edit in place globalized labels. With this plugin you don't have to create a globalization back-end, but just edit your interface in place!!

If you have a previous globalization experience, you probably noticed that the main problem of dedicated back-ends is the lack of the context where the string will be placed in. It isn't a trivial issue: you'll never know if the meaning of your string is harmonious with other labels and how your string will be rendered, until the page load.

Now you can forget this issues, you can directly globalize in place!!

Getting Started

1. Install Globalize 1, if you don't already done.
2. Install Click to Globalize:
   

   $ ./scripts/plugin install git://github.com/jodosha/click-to-globalize.git

3. Run the setup task:
   

   $ rake click:setup

4. Edit config/click.yml
5. Add at the end of your layout the following code:
   

   <%= click_to_globalize -%>

6. Put in your view:
   

   <%= 'hello_world'.t %>

7. Start the server and click to globalize.

Prerequisites

• Globalize 1 plugin: www.globalize-rails.org.
• Prototype >= 1.5.1.1, this version was bundled in the outdated versions.
• RedCloth gem (optional) for textile formatting.
• BlueCloth gem (optional) for markdown formatting.

Install

NOTE the following instructions are for Click to Globalize v0.4.0 (Rails 2.1.x), for older version, please check your README.

1. Install Globalize 1, if you don't already done.
2. Install Click to Globalize:
   Rails 2.1.x

   $ ./script/plugin install git://github.com/jodosha/click-to-globalize.git

   Rails 2.0.x

   $ ./script/plugin install http://dev.23labs.net/svn/rails/plugins/click_to_globalize/trunk

   Rails 1.2.x

   $ ./script/plugin install http://dev.23labs.net/svn/rails/plugins/click_to_globalize/branches/for-1.2.x

3. Run the setup task:
   

   $ rake click:setup

4. Run the tests (optional):
   

   $ rake click:test

5. Edit config/click.yml, adding your locales (including the default one), and, optionally, the formatting style:

locales:
  english: en-US
  italian: it-IT

#optional
default: :english

# optional
formatting: textile


NOTE: Make sure to choose a default locale before the app starts.
6. Personalize the access to the globalization features, overriding #globalize:
   

   class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
     def self.globalize?
       current_user.admin?
     end
   end

   
   NOTE: #globalize? is method to turn on/off all the Click to Globalize features.
7. Add at the end of your layout the following code:
   

   <%= click_to_globalize -%>

Uninstall

$ ./script/plugin remove click_to_globalize

Features

• In-place editing for each globalized string.
• Easy and painless plug-in/plug-out process.
• Unobtrusive Javascript.
• Auto transformation from input text to textarea for long strings.

Common Issues

• The install process (for Rails 1.2.x) upgrades your Prototype version to 1.5.1.1 only if needed, but it's advisable to backup your scripts.
• Due to unobtrusive nature of the plugin, each page is parsed by javascript to find the right element and bind to it an Ajax.InPlaceEditor.
  Be sure your (X)HTML is wellformed.
  NOTICE: If you use the Rails 1.2.x scaffold system, Click to Globalize doesn't works. Cleanup the code before to use.
• If you use a wiki-formatting style it could be advisable to use #h to avoid security problems (i.e. XSS).
  

  <%= textilize(h('some_text'.t)) %>

• The official Globalize repository is still not compatible with Rails 2.1, use the heythisisnate's fork instead.

Contribute

• Check out the code and test it:
  

  $ git clone git://github.com/jodosha/click-to-globalize.git
  $ rake click

• Create tickets at the Sushistar Lighthouse Page.
• Create a patches and add as attachement to the tickets.

Repository

http://github.com/jodosha/click-to-globalize/tree/master

Credits

Javascript tests are based on Prototype test libs.

Vote

If you find it useful feel free to add to your favs on agilewebdevelopment.com.

Copyright

Copyright © 2007 - 2008 http://lucaguidi.com, released under the MIT license.

Tutorials

• Getting Started --high resolution
  
• Getting Started
  
• Restrict The Access
  
• Text Area Transformation
  
• Formatting
  
• How to Prevent XSS
  

The video tutorial for Click to Globalize is now available in high resolution: Click To Globalize: Getting Started.

I have finished to work on Click To Globalize, to made it Rails 2.0 compatible.

What's Changed?

All and nothing: from the user point of view, the plugin has the same behaviors of the previous version. My recent activity was a refactoring, now it:

• Works with CSRF Killer
• Works with Prototype 1.6.0.1 and Scriptaculous 1.8.0.1
• Works with rewritten version of Scriptaculous Ajax.InPlaceEditor
• Works with new Prototype events handling
• Uses new Prototype's Element#addMethods and Function#wrap to add methods and AOP
• Uses Protoype Hash#get, instead of square brackets
• Uses .html.erb as helper, instead of .rhtml
• Has a more clean installation/disinstallation process
• Has DRYed up tests
• Hasn't prototype.js into the packaging

How To Use It?

Rails 2.0

Rails 1.2.x

For a detailed guide, howtos, snippets, video-tutorials and other infos, please visit the Click To Globalize page.

As I previously announced, I'm working on Rails 2.0 compatibility for Click To Globalize.

I decided to move the stuff for Rails 1.2.x to for-1.2.x branch and continue the porting into trunk.

How To Install

Rails 2.0

Rails 1.2.x

As you already know, Rails 2.0 it's shipped with updated version of Prototype and Scriptaculous.

Prototype team has committed some breaking changes (e.g. Hash class), and Scriptaculous now has a brand new, rewritten InPlaceEditon.

Those elements are fundamental for Click To Globalize and I'm working on new version for Rails 2.0.

Be patient, I'll soon release it.

Acts As Resource is ready for Rails 2.0!!

This plugin combines both ActiveRecord and ActiveResource features in one class. It easily allows to deal with a remote REST service or with a local database.

If you want read more visit the plugin page or install with:

$ ./script/plugin install http://dev.23labs.net/svn/rails/plugins/acts_as_resource