Ruby is a high level, object-oriented open source scripting language. It has excellent support for regular expressions as a language feature.

In Ruby, a regular expression is written in the form of /pattern/modifiers where “pattern” is the regular expression itself, and “modifiers” are a series of characters indicating various options. The “modifiers” part is optional. This syntax is borrowed from Perl.

Ruby supports the following modifiers:

• /i makes the regex match case insensitive.
• /m makes the dot match newlines. Ruby indeed uses /m, whereas Perl and many other programming languages use /s for “dot matches newlines”.
• /x tells Ruby to ignore whitespace between regex tokens.
• /o causes any #{…} substitutions in a particular regex literal to be performed just once, the first time it is evaluated. Otherwise, the substitutions will be performed every time the literal generates a Regexp object.

You can combine multiple modifiers by stringing them together as in /regex/is.

In Ruby, the caret and dollar always match before and after newlines. Ruby does not have a modifier to change this. Use \A and \Z to match at the start or the end of the string.

Since forward slashes delimit the regular expression, any forward slashes that appear in the regex need to be escaped. E.g. the regex 1/2 is written as /1\/2/ in Ruby.

Read more on: Regular-Expressions.info home page.

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You know what, I really wanna learn this whole JavaEE-related thingy……

For some reason it’s unavoidable……. it’s bound to be touched by me……

You see, the trend is going RIA. MVC is going away. AJAX ain’t gonna compete. At least not fully. And will lose in many ways in respect to something like Adobe’s Flex. (Unfortunately there’s not much competitor better than Flex, and fortunately it’d probably be “standard” in the near future). Esp. with Flex going open source. Flex will need a backend, since it’s not a server-side product. There is Flex LiveCycle Data Services ES (what a name!!) by Adobe. There’s also BlazeDS open source. There’s also the excellent WebORB, which is free and open source for Rails and PHP. Oh yeah, it’s free for Rails!

Sure you can go with plain Rails, but it’s maybe too much work, when WebORB already does it for you.

This is wonderful, but it only gives you plain RPC. It’s traditional (legacy?) synchronous RPC camouflaged as “asynchronous”.

Real asynchronous power comes from Messaging. And the buzzword is now Comet. The latest Jetty already supports Comet technique, which can continuously “streams” asynchronous messages and data to (instead of being pulled) your client-side web UI… (that might just be a Flex app)

Simple messaging is fine, but the real power of messaging comes from features that had existed for a long time it’s actually legacy, such as publish/subcribe, message routing, and reliable delivery and timeouts. Fortunately, we have ActiveMQ, and yes we have activemessaging library for Ruby and Rails plugin.

Unfortunately messaging servers have different protocols. Although there are “universal” protocols like Stomp and AMQP (backed by RabbitMQ), you can also use an ESB like Mule or OpenESB or Apache ServiceMix if your component needs to talk to components with a different protocol. Oh yes they’re from the Java world.

Even as we’re embracing THE ActiveRecord, the Java community coming up with an also-cool solution called JPA, supported by all popular Java ORM tools such as Hibernate and TopLink; Microsoft strikes back with the invulnerable LINQ.

Yet we still have too many queued messages and database records to handle, we need to know how to make use of them. EDA comes to the rescue, like what Esper does. And of course BI and reporting tools such as JasperReports, Pentaho and Ruby’s Ruport.

We like REST’s simplicity over WS-* for enterprise-y SOA apps. Microformats is very nice with just a little Hpricot and Mofo goodness. And thanks to Mechanize or Scrubyt or openkapow and the good ole’ RSS, mashup is always getting easier. Let’s hope Atom’s APP really does take off as well. But sometimes we want more flexibility, we want BPM-powered workflow. No worries, we have JBoss’ jBPM. Our Ruby community also has OpenWFEru!

Everybody hates the login form, especially if it comes more often than we brush our teeth. We want SSO, be it CAS, OpenID, SAML, or plain LDAP (with OpenLDAP), we want it now.

And no, I haven’t forgotten Android, nor iPhone, nor Symbian, nor Windows Mobile. The mobile space is getting more, not less, fragmented. All because they know the market is growing. Everybody wants a pie. (me too!)

You’ve heard him. Not all startups are profitable. Especially not when we’re fighting with each other. The “enterprise”, and corporate, has money… (unfortunately not all of us do, no matter how much we [all] want it…)

Users are getting more demanding and demands are getting more complicated, so are the technologies. We probably should embrace these technologies and the people who work on them (whether paid or unpaid or voluntary or forced…!) more so than we criticize and demotivate each other.

Ruby is a great tool, and so is Java (JVM) and so is JRuby and its close mates like Groovy, Scala, Jython, and Rhino with ECMAScript 4 and E4X support. Some people are also starting to fall in love with Erlang.

Oh well… This isn’t a rant. It’s just a brain-dump from me. Hope somebody finds it useful. Good morning guys

UPDATE: Clarifications regarding WebORB and messaging protocols.

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Using jRails, you can get all of the same default Rails helpers for javascript functionality using the lighter jQuery library.

jRails is a drop-in jQuery replacement for Prototype/script.aculo.us on Rails. It has the features and the visual effect.The visual effects in jRails are based on the new jquery-fx library. jRails currently uses a slightly modified version of jquery fx code to get some of the desired effects.

Features of jRails :

jRails provides drop-in functionality for these existing Rails methods.

• • Scriptaculous
  • draggable_element
  • drop_receiving_element
  • sortable_element
  • visual_effect
• • RJS
  • hide
  • insert_html
  • remove
  • replace
  • replace_html
  • show
  • toggle

How to use it?

Just install and go! Once installed, the previous Prototype/script.aculo.us helpers will be replaced by jQuery ones. In order for them to function correctly, just include the appropriate javascript files in the head of your page.

 

<script src="/javascripts/jquery.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/javascripts/jquery-ui.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/javascripts/jquery-fx.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/javascripts/jrails.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

You can also use the Rails javascript_include_tag helper with :default to load them automagically.

 

<%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %>

Visit jRails home page to find out more!

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Selenium Core provides an easy way to test Rails application.

This plugin does four things:

1. The Selenium Core files don‘t have to pollute /public.
2. No need to create suite files, they are generated on the fly — one suite per directory in /test/selenium (suites can be nested).
3. Instead of writing the test cases in HTML you can use a number of better formats (see Formats).
4. Loading of fixtures and wiping of session (/selenium/setup).

Installation

1. Install Selenium on Rails: script/plugin install http://svn.openqa.org/svn/selenium-on-rails/selenium-on-rails
2. If you‘re on Windows, gem install win32-open3
3. If the RedCloth gem is available the Selenese test cases can use it for better markup.
4. Run the Rakefile in the plugin‘s directory to run the tests in order to see that everything works. (If RedCloth isn‘t installed a few tests will fail since they assume RedCloth is installed.)
5. Create a test case: script/generate selenium login
6. Start the server: script/server -e test
7. Point your browser to localhost:3000/selenium
8. If everything works as expected you should see the Selenium test runner. The north east frame contains all your test cases (just one for now), and the north frame contains your test case.

Formats

The test cases can be written in a number of formats. which one you choose is a matter of taste. You can generate your test files by running sript/generate selenium or by creating them manually in your /test/selenium directory.

• Selenese, .Sel

Selenese is the dumbest format (in a good way). You just write your commands delimited by | characters.

 |open|/selenium/setup|
 |open|/|
 |goBack|

If you don‘t want to write Selenese tests by hand you can use SeleniumIDE which has support for Selenese.

SeleniumIDE makes it super easy to record test and edit them.

• RSelenese, .rSel

RSelenese enable you to write your tests in Ruby.

 setup :fixtures => :all
 open '/'
 assert_title 'Home'
 ('a'..'z').each {|c| open :controller => 'user', :action => 'create', :name => c }

See SeleniumOnRails::TestBuilder for available commands.

Configuration

There are a number of settings available. You make them by renaming config.yml.example to config.yml and make your changes in that file.

• Environment

Per default this plugin is only available in test environment. You can change this by setting environments, such as:

 #config.yml
 environments:
   - test
   - development

• Selenium Core Path

If you don‘t want to use the bundled Selenium Core version you can set selenium_path to the directory where Selenium Core is stored.

 #config.yml
 selenium_path: 'c:selenium'

Test Acceptance

You can run all your Selenium tests as a Rake task. First, if you‘re on Windows, you have to make sure win32-open3 is installed. Then you have to configure which browsers you want to run, like this:

#config.yml browsers: firefox: ‘c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe’ ie: ‘c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe’ Now you‘re all set. First start a server:

script/server -e test Then run the tests:

rake test:acceptance Now it should work, otherwise let me know!

Store results

If you want to store the results from a test:acceptance you just need to set in which directory they should be stored:

 #config.yml
 result_dir: 'c:result'

So when you run rake test:acceptance the tables with the results will be stored as .html files in that directory.

This can be useful especially for continous integration.

Read more on: OpenQA project page.

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microformats has been only two years old, yet it has brought significant changes in a relatively short time.

What is it, actually? According to microformats.org, “[microformats is] designed for humans first and machines second, [they] are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards.”

Enough with the fluff, let’s see how it actually works, microformats in action:

Flickr picture source

The above picture is me browsing to the LinkedIn profile of one of Indonesia’s renowned Ruby on Rails experts, Arie Kusuma Atmaja. The overlay window that contains these semantic information is not a LinkedIn feature. Rather, it is the easily usable, cross-browser Microformats Bookmarklet by LeftLogic. Go on… try it if you haven’t!

As you can see, the mere act of clicking the bookmarklet shows you some important facts about Arie (or any microformats-enabled you’re currently at). In case of a microformats-enabled resume page like in LinkedIn, it shows you where he works, when, education information, and related stuff. For fun comparison purposes only, my LinkedIn profile has more detailed information than his, hehe

The best part is not only that the information is human-readable, but it can also be extracted and processed automatically by machines or software. The primary distinguishing trait of a microformats-enabled HTML page is that it has semantic meaning. A microformats processor can know the difference between a name, an e-mail address, a street address, a job, a university, and so on; while in plain HTML, all you can infer are things dealing with paragraphs, tables, lists, and so on.

Making microformats-enabled pages aren’t hard at all, actually it is very easy! It’s even much easier than CSS.

To see how simple it is, let’s see a snippet of a real-world microformats, still courtesy of Arie:

<div id="masthead" class="vcard contact">
  <div id="nameplate">
    <h1 id="name"><span class="fn n"> <span class="given-name">Arie</span> <span class="family-name">Kusuma Atmaja</span> </span></h1>
      <p class="headline title"><strong>Senior Ruby Developer at IMT</strong></p>
    <div class="adr">
      <p class="locality">Indonesia</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Most of the above snippet is just HTML. The microformats part is simply the class=”something“ convention. Simple, and it gets the job done.

Some more commonly used microformats specifications include:

• hCard for people and organizations
• hCalendar for calendars and Events
• hCalendar for calendars and Events
• VoteLinks and hReview for opinions, ratings, and reviews
• XFN for social networks
• rel-license for licenses
• rel-tag for tags, keywords, and categories
• XOXO for lists and outlines
• …and more…

Despite all these specifications, “who uses it?” is a good question. It turns out, there has been many, and more and more sites are adopting it. LinkedIn with hResume is one example, along with Google Maps, Yahoo, Flickr, and all these cool guys have been using them. Why shouldn’t you?

Interested? Here are some stuff to get you started:

1. Online Tools
   1. Microformats Bookmarklet by LeftLogic
      A handy microformats explorer bookmarklet. Useful also if you’re on the go and you want to check out some microformats. No need to install anything fancy on the computer.
   2. Operator Firefox Extension
      Microformats explorer extension for Firefox. Whether you’re a web developer or simply want to check out this latest technology, this is a very useful tool.
   3. Tails Firefox extension is another microformats Firefox extension
   4. Almost Universal Microformats Parser is a useful web-based tool to parse microformats.
2. Tutorials and Resources
   
   1. Microformats, what they are and how to use them, by Smashing Magazine
   2. Microformats Tutorial by XFront
      This is a very extensive tutorial. The complete tutorial package including the example files is a 13 MB download!
   3. How to Use Microformats by Vitamin Features
   4. Introduction to Microformats by WhyMicroformats.com
   5. The Big Picture on Microformats by Digital Web Magazine
   6. Another by Digital Web Magazine: Microformats Primer
   7. Back to the future: Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Does Microformats
      Read/WriteWeb’s articles also touched microformats-related stuff quite often.
3. Microformat Parsers
   1. Mofo Ruby Gem and Rails Plugin
      Of course, this is Ruby on Rails blog! Mofo is a microformats parser for Ruby and it also doubles as a Rails plugin. Check out Chris Wanstrath’s post for more information.
      There are also microformat parsers for other languages:
   2. Sumo is a microformats parser for JavaScript
   3. hKit is a microformats parser for PHP
   4. Microformats Parser is another parser for PHP
   5. Microformats Parser for Python
   6. Hpricot Ruby Gem
      Found a bizarre microformat or inventing your own? No problem, Hpricot comes to the rescue. Parse any HTML-ish document as you see fit… More info available from this RedHanded post.
   7. scrAPI is another Ruby library for parsing HTML that can be useful for processing microformats.
4. References
   1. Microformats.org
      “Official” web site of Microformats. You can read everything about microformats, current specifications and newly proposed specs.
   2. “Microformats: Empowering Your Markup for Web 2.0″ Book by John Allsopp
      <br />
      This is the first book dedicated to, and is a comprehensive guide to, microformats. It explores why, in Bill Gates’s words, “We need microformats”; how microformats work; and the kinds of problems microformats help solve. the book covers every current microformat, with complete details of the syntax, semantics, and uses of each, along with real-world examples and a comprehensive survey of the tools available for working with them. the book also features case studies detailing how major web content publishers such as yahoo put microformats to work in their web applications.
   3. Brian Suda’s microformats cheatsheet
      For people who likes it quick and done, this is perfect. It lists microformats properties by format and also lists each format and the hierarchy. This includes elemental microformats, compound microformats and some of the standard design patterns used.
   4. Dave Child’s microformats cheatsheet is another good reference
   5. And more cheatsheets on microformats.org wiki
   6. Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages (GRDDL) is a recently approved W3C Recommendation that can be used, among others, for extracting semantic information (including microformats) from HTML pages.
   7. microformatique. A blog about all things microformats!

Feel free to add more resources as you see fit, in the comments!

Updates:

1. I originally thought I was gonna list 10 resources… But it seems there are much more
2. More links to John Allsopp’s resources

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NetBeans 6 Beta 1 is here!!

Let’s rock the boat

It’s the first significant NetBeans event in probably a year

NetBeans isn’t only for Java geeks anymore, it has tons of Ruby and Ruby on Rails support now!

What surprises me (and delights me!) about this release is that, not like previous NetBeans 6 milestones where NetBeans-Java is bundled with Ruby, they actually make a special Ruby-only version.

The Ruby-only download is mere 19 MB in size!

That’s quite “cheap” (in terms of bandwidth usage). I’d expect the Ruby version to be less memory bloat and should have better performance as well, than the mammoth 172 MB one

I have been using NetBeans 6 for several months now, starting from the first NetBeans+Ruby version which is NetBeans 6 Milestone 7, and I can say I’m very impressed.

I’m still downloading Beta 1 and haven’t yet installed Beta 1 at the time of this writing, but I can be sure it’s gonna be event better than the last NetBeans 6 Milestone 10.

Don’t let the “Milestone” or “Beta” name put you off, it’s already usable in more ways than most software.

Check out why George Cook says Netbeans THE best ruby on rails IDE:

… I was gonna write a blow for blow comparison of netbeans against radrails, but I really see no point. I figured it’s best just to tell you why netbeans’ rails support is so creamingly good, but so you know I have evaluated both and textmate, firstly – here’s some points about the other 2. …

… I looked about and by chance came across an article that said that ruby on rails support was being added to netbeans 6. I hunted around like a crack addict and found the nightly builds to try out.

I was extremely impressed.

Netbeans is fucking fab, it proper rocks. I’ve been on netbeans 6 since milestone 8, which is about 1,000 builds now (they’re constantly working on it, and updating it). I’ve been with it through broken indentation, broken code completion, broken everything, null pointers, new features, more efficiency, the memory leak sorted out. I’ve watched it evolve before my eyes: I was installing new builds twice a day – Now it’s so stable and so good that I haven’t updated my build in a month (I might later on .
Code completion that works – really really works:
Code completion is activated with CTRL + SPACE – once activated you can type, or select from the list:

And here are what the diffs look like in the files themselves:

In line documentation when you need it, where you need it:
Just press CTRL+SPACE on a keyword and you get the docs.

Click on rescue, or move the caret over it with the cursor keys:

code folding:
You use the + and – buttons to fold code

(Read his article for more info. He has a very comprehensive review of many NetBeans-Ruby features!)

Michael Urban has his own opinion in Move Over Eclipse. NetBeans 6 Rocks!:

Ok, I admit the title is a bit inflammatory to Eclipse fans. But after working with NetBeans 6 over the last week, I have to say I am very impressed. This is not simply a minor upgrade, as is so common in IDEs these days even when they are given a new major version number. Quite the contrary, NetBeans 6 is a major new release, and a major improvement over NetBeans 5.5.

A roundup of NetBeans Ruby-specific features in this release:

Ruby/JRuby/Ruby on Rails Support

• Project Support. Quickly create Ruby projects with logical structure, run Ruby files, configure other Ruby interpreters (such as JRuby or native Ruby), locate and install Ruby Gems through a graphical wizard, create and execute unit tests, run RSpec specification files, jump between a Ruby file and its corresponding unit test or spec file, and so on. View Demo.
• Advanced Ruby Editing. Advanced code editing for Ruby, using semantic information about the program to offer code completion, showing available classes and methods for the current expression, along with the associated RDoc documentation. The syntax highlighting is enhanced with semantic information, such that unused local variables and parameters are shown in gray. There are many other editing features, including Goto Declaration for jumping to the declaration point of a class or method reference. View Demo.
• Ruby Debugger. Single-step or run through Ruby code, set breakpoints, look at local variables, navigate the call stack, switch threads, and evaluate expressions by just hovering the mouse over the variable in the Editor. There is also support for the “fast debug” extension.
• Ruby on Rails Support. Generate Rails projects, or generate code through the Rails code generator graphical wizard, which offers documentation on the plugins within the wizard itself. Third party generators are also supported. Furthermore, there are actions for jumping quickly between a Rails action and its corresponding View, or warping to the browser for the URL most relevant to the file you are editing. Database migrations and Rake targets are supported as well. Finally, RHTML files are highlighted (along with improved NetBeans 6.0 support for related files, such as JavaScript and CSS). View Demo.

And also:

• Quick Fixes
  • Automatic detection of block variables that might be accidentally modifying local variables

• • Rails deprecation warnings which identify usages of deprecated Rails idioms (enable this warning in the Ruby options panel)

• • Quick which finds same-line definitions of classes or methods and offer to explode these into multiline, formatted definitions

• • A number of experimental hints compatible with Beta 1 but not bundled; access these from the Plugin manager. These hints can convert between do and brace-style blocks, they warn about “wrong” name conventions for Ruby symbols, they offer to run the Rails generator to generate missing views for action methods, they identify possible incorrect usage of attributes
  • More information about the Ruby quick fixes
• RHTML formatting (and improvements to the Ruby formatting algorithm). A new formatting preferences panel allows configuration of the continuation indent as well as enabling reformatting of comments.
• Updated bundled JRuby to version 1.0.1
• Ability to deploy Rails projects to Java EE application servers
• YAML code folding and navigator, improved RHTML navigator
• Go To Declaration in RHTML files now work to warp to partials, redirect_to, link_to, etc.

• Large number of bug fixes and tweaks

Diff

• Export Diff Patch – CVS and Subversion integration
  • based on unified diff
  • automatically opens generated patch file into the editor with colored annotations

Don’t forget the general improvements as well:

Editor Improvements

• Smarter code completion. The NetBeans editor is quicker and smarter, providing completions for keywords, fields, and variables. It also lists the most logical options at the top, and lets you dig down into the full options at the bottom
• Highlights. You can think of the highlights feature as an easy-to-use and more correct substitution for the editors Search. The IDE tracks the position of the caret and, based on it, highlights some parts of the code. The highlights are marked with a background color in the editor they are also put into the error stripe, which permits for having overview of the whole file.
• Better Navigation and Inspection. In addition to Highlights, the source editor lets you quickly navigate through your code with improved Navigator window organization and the Members and Hierarchy Inspectors.
• More than just code completion. With live templates and Surround With functionality, you can quickly enter commonly used blocks of code and focus on the business logic.
• There is much more. See the Java Editor User’s Guide.

Update: And more from Peter Cooper of Ruby Inside:

NetBeans is a powerful and free. You can create Ruby and Rails projects, run Ruby files, configure interpreters (MRI and JRuby), install Gems graphically, run tests, run RSpecs, debug Ruby code, run Rails apps, and so on, all from the IDE. The Ruby edition is only a 19MB download and it’s available right now. There are several Ruby related NetBeans screencasts for the less convinced.

Already more than enough evangelizing, I guess…

Head on to NetBeans 6 Release page to find out more and download.

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Just out from a pack of several of the world’s greatest Ruby and/on Rails programmers: Professional Ruby Collection: Mongrel, Rails Plugins, Rails Routing, Refactoring to REST, and Rubyisms.

GET STRAIGHT TO THE LEADING EDGE WITH RUBY AND RAILS

Information that’s so hot, new, and valuable, you can’t wait for a book. This package brings together 8 breakthrough primers on today’s most valuable Ruby and Rails technologies — including five new digital Short Cuts worth $69.95! From RailsSpace to ActiveRecord to Mongrel, here’s new content, techniques, and code from the Ruby community’s top innovators: insider’s information that’s never been available before in one place.

<br />On the CD-ROM: 5 brand-new digital Short Cuts…

• Mongrel: Serving, Deploying, and Extending Your Ruby Applications, by Matt Pelletier and Zed Shaw
• Rails Plugins: Extending Rails Beyond the Core, by James Adam
• Rails Routing, by David A. Black
• Rails Refactoring to Resources: Using CRUD and REST in Your Rails Application, by Trotter Cashion
• Rubyisms in Rails, by Jacob Harris

PLUS, PRINTED BONUS CONTENT INCLUDES

• Working with Active Record (from the forthcoming Addison-Wesley book The Rails Way by Obie Fernandez)
• RESTful Blogs (from RailsSpace by Michael Hartl and Aurelius Prochazka)
• OOP and Dynamic Features in Ruby (from The Ruby Way, Second Edition, by Hal Fulton)

About the Authors

• Matt Pelletier (WorkingWithRails profile) is a partner at EastMedia, a software, mobile, and business development firm. He is also cofounder of NYC.rb, the New York City Ruby group.
• Zed Shaw (WorkingWithRails profile) is the original and primary author of Mongrel.
• David A. Black (WorkingWithRails profile) is Director, Ruby Power and Light, LLC and also Co-Director, Ruby Central, Inc. He is the bestselling author of Ruby for Rails.
• Trotter Cashion (WorkingWithRails profile) is an application developer at motionbox.com, a Rails-based video sharing site.
• Dr. James Adam (WorkingWithRails profile) is the developer behind the Engines plugin.
• Jacob Harris (WorkingWithRails profile) is a web developer for New York Times Digital.

Enough said!

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I love this presentation:

The slide tells shows a lot of ideas about:

• Designer – Programmer/Developer collaboration
• Good design principles
• Use Rails optimally
• The philosophy of web development
• How to go from concept to development to production
• Did I mention lots of ideas!!??

Seriously, don’t walk, but run to download that thing!!

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“Every developer working with the Web needs to read this book.”

– David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of the Rails framework

“RESTful Web Services finally provides a practical roadmap for constructing services that embrace the Web, instead of trying to route around it.”

– Adam Trachtenberg, PHP author and EBay Web Services Evangelist

<br />You’ve built web sites that can be used by humans. But can you also build web sites that are usable by machines? That’s where the future lies, and that’s what RESTful Web Services shows you how to do. The World Wide Web is the most popular distributed application in history, and Web services and mashups have turned it into a powerful distributed computing platform. But today’s web service technologies have lost sight of the simplicity that made the Web successful. They don’t work like the Web, and they’re missing out on its advantages.

This book puts the “Web” back into web services. It shows how you can connect to the programmable web with the technologies you already use every day. The key is REST, the architectural style that drives the Web. This book:

• Emphasizes the power of basic Web technologies — the HTTP application protocol, the URI naming standard, and the XML markup language
• Introduces the Resource-Oriented Architecture (ROA), a common-sense set of rules for designing RESTful web services
• Shows how a RESTful design is simpler, more versatile, and more scalable than a design based on Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
• Includes real-world examples of RESTful web services, like Amazon’s Simple Storage Service and the Atom Publishing Protocol
• Discusses web service clients for popular programming languages
• Shows how to implement RESTful services in three popular frameworks — Ruby on Rails, Restlet (for Java), and Django (for Python)
• Focuses on practical issues: how to design and implement RESTful web services and clients

This is the first book that applies the REST design philosophy to real web services. It sets down the best practices you need to make your design a success, and the techniques you need to turn your design into working code. You can harness the power of the Web for programmable applications: you just have to work with the Web instead of against it. RESTful Web Services shows you how.

Several other reviews of this book: Assaf’s, Thomas Beck’s

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From Chad Fowler of the indispensable Rails Recipes, and with the help of Mike Clark, here are 72 new ways to kick your Ruby on Rails apps up a notch. Advanced Rails Recipes is a collection of practical recipes for dressing up your web application with little fuss. You’ll learn how the pros have solved the tough problems using the most cutting-edge Rails techniques so you can deliver your stunning web app quicker and easier.

<br />Developers by the thousands are coming to Rails-the benefits are clear, both to individuals and their organizations.

But how can a developer be expected to write idiomatic, effective Rails code when the technology is so new? The answer is to work alongside masters, people who’ve been there from the start (and who have the scars to prove it). And, what better way to learn from their experience than to look at their code and read their explanations of why it’s written that way? And even better imagine if that code can be lifted and placed right into your own application.

This is better than just cut-and-paste: the recipe format means you’ll understand the code, and be able to modify it to suit your needs. And the list of recipes is so broad that you’re bound to find tips and techniques where you’ll say “Oh! That’s how they do that,” or, “I didn’t know you could do that in Rails.”

With Advanced Rails Recipes, a following up to the popular original Rails Recipes, you can cook up a storm.

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