Biodegradable Geek

Script to Quickly Setup WebApp Environment and Domain

Just sharing a script I wrote to quickly deploy Wordpress (and eventually a few other webapps) sites, which somebody might find useful. This uses Linode’s API* to add the domain name to the DNS server along with some subdomains. If you’re using another server, (Slicehost, your own, etc), you can alter the dns class to [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Script to Quickly Setup WebApp Environment and Domain", url: "http://biodegradablegeek.com/2008/10/script-to-quickly-setup-webapp-environment-and-domain/" });

How To Use Fixtures to Populate Your Database in Rails

UPDATE: I’ve been using this method for awhile now: http://railspikes.com/2008/2/1/loading-seed-data Seed data is data that the app is dependent on. It is data that has to exist if you were to wipe the database clean and reload your schema. Some examples would be a list of cities/states, a list of categories, or the initial ‘admin’ user [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "How To Use Fixtures to Populate Your Database in Rails", url: "http://biodegradablegeek.com/2008/07/how-to-use-fixtures-to-populate-your-database-in-rails/" });

How to POST Form Data Using Ruby

Being able to post data on web forms from your own apps will give you the ability to write tools, services,and provide automation, by interacting with resources already available on the web. This is a very brief example on how this can be accomplished in Ruby, using Net::HTTPand this POST form example. Looking at the source [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "How to POST Form Data Using Ruby", url: "http://biodegradablegeek.com/2008/04/how-to-post-form-data-using-ruby/" });

GitHub Now Open to the Public

GitHub.com, the “easiest (and prettiest)” version control system, is now open to the public. It’s free for Open Source programs (albeit limited to 100MB of space). If you’re not sure what git (or Revision Control) is, here are some resources: Wikipedia on Revision Control (excerpt) “Revision control (also known as version control (system) (VCS), source control or (source) [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "GitHub Now Open to the Public", url: "http://biodegradablegeek.com/2008/04/github-now-open-to-the-public/" });

Introduction to Validations & Validation Error Handling in Rails

Validations in Ruby on Rails are essentially nothing more than methods that ensure that the data in a model is valid before saving it to the database. Traditionally, we validate data coming in using conditional expressions (for example, if email != NULL or if passwd==passwd_confirmation). This task is essential, but boring and tedious, but Rails’ [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Introduction to Validations & Validation Error Handling in Rails", url: "http://biodegradablegeek.com/2008/02/introduction-to-validations-validation-error-handling-in-rails/" });