I have 6 years of C# programming experience and I'm looking to broaden my horizons. I'm going to build a simple web app to demonstrate knowledge of Ruby on Rails so I can get my foot in a place that might want a Rails programmer. It's the hot new thing, so I want to be marketable.
Anyway, I have been playing around with solr and tomcat and I want to use solr as a search engine for a products database. This means that I will be using some java (tomcat and solr) and for the web app I will be using MSSQL because I'm using Windows. A friend suggested that I look into jRuby because if I'm going to be working with tomcat, it makes sense to put it all on one webserver. I want to use Eclipse as my editor. I hear that rails programmers typically use prototype as their java selector tool but I really like jQuery (or even mootools). I have also heard that jRails is something that ties jQuery to my ruby application.
Given that I use tomcat in conjunction with jRuby using Eclipse as the IDE, what would you suggest I use for handling javascript/ajax and what are some useful plug-ins, software, or tips you have for me that can help me get started on the right foot with ruby on rails?
I would stick with jQuery for your JS/ajax. My perception is that the RJS/Prototype is falling out of favor to jQuery but that could be just me. Where jRails would fit in is if you want to use RJS to generate JavaScript from Ruby code. My personal preference is to keep all of my JavaScript in application.js and keep it unobtrusive.
Some plugins I like are Authlogic, Nifty Generators, Paperclip, ssl_requirement, subdomain-fu, and QueryTrace.
A couple good resources for starting out are Rails Guides and Railscasts. I think it's a good idea to learn the language itself before learning the framework, but I'm sure it's possible to develop a simple Rails application with minimal Ruby knowledge.
As for your application stack, I would recommend reconsidering deploying a Rails app to Windows. Even developing a Rails app on Windows will likely be painful. If you can, I'd get a VM (or old machine) running with Ubuntu and use MySQL. If you're looking for a full text search on Rails you could use Thinking Sphinx - here's a Railscast if you're interested. I'd also give a gentle nudge into trying a Text Editor instead a full blown IDE - I like TextMate on OS X and gedit on Linux.
I also had a Microsoft background when I decided to learn Rails. There was a lot for me to take in - Not having the framework pretend the web is stateful (asp.net), learning a new language, learning a new framework, getting stronger css/html/javascript skills, new OSes (OS X and Linux for me), learning new databases. Overall I'm very happy I did. I'm a better developer for it.
If you want to be marketable, I'd start with learning the lowest common denominator, the default Rails stack, to get broad appeal. Then maybe consider acquiring some more niche skills to raise your value to a subset of potential clients/employers.
That pretty much means targeting MRI 1.8.6/7, Rails 2.3.4 (consider learning at least HAML and rspec in addition to erb and test/unit) and MySQL in an Apache *nix world.
I wouldn't recommend learning much about deploying to a Windows stack - the target for servers is overwhelmingly Linux or perhaps some other *nix flavour. For development web server purposes, Mongrel works fine on Windows.
Build on Windows by all means - I do, without too much pain - but be aware that the visible part of the Ruby/Rails community (the people who mostly develop the libraries and frameworks and most of those who write about it online) are predominantly OSX or Linux users, so there's often a delay in the trickle-down to Windows users, especially where OS interaction is called for or where there are compiled elements to libraries. Also, I'm reliably informed that Rails startup is much slower on Windows. I don't want to confirm it personally - I might get upset.
MSSQL works fine with Rails, but I'd be cautious about using any platform-specific features for reasons mentioned above: you're unlikely to find a site that will be happy to deploy to a mixed Win-*nix environment. The MSSQL ActiveRecord code may also not be quite as hardened as MySQL or SQLite - the one bug I ever found in any version of any Rails-related code was in there. That said, if you don't use any MS-specific features you'll find porting easy. But then if you don't use any extra stuff, why not skip it completely? There are enough differences (the query "optimizer" in MySQL for one takes some getting used to) that you're probably better off learning the platform you're most likely to be targeting.
As for Eclipse, it's obviously a mature development environment but I'm not sure how good the Rails plugins are (and as a hostage to Lotus Notes I'm allergic to using Eclipse any more than absolutely necessary). If you can't live without an IDE (and I'd recommend that you try - you'll learn more) then there are several SO questions that cover the alternatives.
Using Solr in your project doesn't require that you have a Java stack for running the actual Rails app. There are quite a few Ruby libraries out there that would help you easily interface with the Solr backend. A few to look at:
solr-ruby – This is the official client library included with the Solr distribution. It's lower-level than some of the other alternatives, but gives you some good flexibility in accomplishing what you need to.
rsolr – Another lower-level library that looks like a replacement to solr-ruby. At first glance it appears to be more frequently updated.
sunspot – I have not used this, but it looks like it's currently the most popular Solr => Ruby object mapping library. The acts_as_solr library was once an option, but I think that it has since fallen out of favor.
I agree with the other posters that you would want to target a C Ruby / *NIX environment, but if using Tomcat/JRuby helps you learn this faster, go for it.
Related
I want a javascript framework which has features like below:
MV*
Well structured
Html file as template
Rendering fast(maybe virtual dom?)
Combine and compatible with other plugins or libraries
Edit on tablet IDE apps and view in browser immediately by refreshing page after I changed code
When I am at home, I use PC to develop my client-side(or front-end) applications.
When go out, I use my tablet(I have no note PC), so I want to develop my applications outside.
*There are some excellent IDE apps on the Android Market.
Before I know Ember, I have been using pure javascript(jquery) + css + html to develop client-side application for daily practices or work.
But recently, when I began to learn EmberJS, a Javascript MVC framwork, I am lost.
It seems that EmberJS have to get its own server up to compile something, which generate static contents for browser rendering.
I just want to get my client-side code(files) rendering in the browser, but why I have to 'run' it as if I get apache started to serve as a php back-end.
I have googled hundreds of pages to find a solution, nothing expected result discovered.
Including Angular, backbone or any other popular Javascript MV* frameworks, they all must compile there applications.
Is there anyone who has encountered this situation?
Then any advice, please?
Increasingly most Javascript frameworks are shifting to doing a "compile step" as part of using them. This allows you to do a variety of changes to your Javascript files, which in turn makes it easier for you as a developer. An example of this is that you can use ES2015 classes and then have your compile step "transpile" them to older Javascript that will work in all browsers.
The side effect of this though is that you need to have npm running on your computer to be able to do this well.
If you really don't want to have the compile step, then I would suggest looking at VueJS. It's the only recent Javascript framework that allows working with simple non-compiled JS files. But you'all be missing out on some of the best changes to Javascript as a result (ES2015 has made life much better)
Finally, I found a nice solution(framework) that is Durandal.
Really, pure HTML+Javascript without built and server up(anyhow, a web server needed if I wanted to publish it in my hosted web server).
.html extension and designer friendly.
I can upload its source files directly in to S3 and browse the html pages.
Just found some nice examples with well structured project on github is here.
And I can work smoothly with my dear designer friends.
Though its next generation Aurelia will also be built and serve it up like Ember or others, but the current generation is enough for me.
Hope those one got help from this;)
Background:
I've been building web apps and web sites for many years, but each time I tend to start from scratch as each project has different requirements. However, this has me building my workflow from scratch as well. At this point, I'm about ready to settle on something a little more standard.
But what exactly is that standard? Being a JAVA developer by nature, I'm drawn to tools like Maven. And I've seen some work in the community for better Javascript support in Maven (javascript-maven-tools, javascript-maven-plugin, and others). But is this the best way to do it? I tried for a while to find a good WEB2.0 client/ajax-app maven-archetype to no avail.
I'm going to want to use tools in my workflow including JSLint [[http://www.jslint.com]], JSUnit [[http://jsunit.net/]] for testing, Documentation with things such as JSDoc Toolkit [[http://code.google.com/p/jsdoc-toolkit/]]. Compression and Framework inclusion would be nice too.
So, at this point, I'm even stumped at the the basic ways to start my app. What should a directory structure look like? For a pure client/frontend app (so no controllers, etc), do i just have a single webapp directory?
I guess I'm at that point where I'm questioning "my religion" with webapps. And after talking to everyone I know, I figured it was time for me to open it up to a hive-mind far smarter than my own.
Note. This is a question I also wrote
about in general on my site at
[[http://blog.jbjonesjr.com/?p=283]]
, but no one every cares about it
there.
Thanks for the help, I look forward to your thoughts.
I've started a couple of plugins (this and this) on Codehaus that facilitate the use of Maven for building JavaScript applications following Maven's goal oriented approach. I want to do more of this including the provision of a Surefire-compatible unit testing plugin and a minification plugin that leverages assembles. Take a look at what I've done so far and feel free to help out!
I'm also considering providing a JavaScript DSL for Maven using Polyglot Maven. A colleague kindly pointed out that JavaScript programmers will probably want to express their poms using JavaScript, not XML. In addition they probably won't want the learning curve of Maven. A JavaScript DSL could facilitate that.
I am still learning javascript and the more i learn the more i ask myself why do i need to learn a js framework like cappuccino, sproutcore, qooxdoo, smartclient etc...? The learning curve for these frameworks is steep, also wouldn't it be better to just make use of JavaScript libraries?
Take note, that my objective is to create desktop like web apps. Thanks in advance for any good view points!
Desktop apps are built with frameworks that are of the same quality as those from SproutCore, Cappuccino, etc.
If you want to build desktop quality apps with true MVC architecture you can either write your own framework on top of a library, or start with a framework someone else has written. (SproutCore was originally built on top of jQuery for example)
The best part of a true framework is that the build tools can include only the pieces needed to run your app resulting in very small code with rapid load times.
Seeing as you are still learning Javascript, I would suggest that you continue to work with Javascript, and try out tools like jQuery, and then depending on the individual application you are working on, evaluate whether you need to use a more full featured desktop style Javascript framework at that time - something that will require a knowledge of jQuery/Prototype/etc to evaluate.
IMHO, those JS frameworks you mentioned are overrated bloatware.
I would wholeheartedly recommend that you learn JQuery instead.
It is a much more minimallistic and elegant framework.
Also, by the time IE 9 finally ships earlier next year, all the browsers
will be supporting most of the HTML5 standard, including offline storage and
websockets, making such complex frameworks completely unnecesary.
I am going to start a new application which mainly consist NavigationPane, Grid, Toolbar. Layout should look like this demo page http://www.gwt-ext.com/demo/
I am quite confused which one to use in terms of writing less code, more performant, etc..
Could someone tell the pros and cons of all these technologies.
All the while I coded in javascript, so that way ExtJs seems to be the easy one for me to code. But I am curios to try GWT Ext, Is it true that it could do a lot just by writing few lines of java code.
For eg: To achieve the layout ( given in above gwt ext demo url), which one should I opt ExtJs or GWT Ext.
I read SmartGWT is relatively slower than GwtEXT. Does it have any advantage over GWT EXT. I am also looking for hibernate based data modules ( as my application is going to have many database calls). Anyone of SmartGWT or GWTExt has support for such modules. I came to know that smartgwt doesn't offer all of smartclient enterprise version functionalities, that we are allowed only a few of smartclient features. Will it be an issue?
Your response is highly appreciated.
The GWT-Ext main page now says
"GWT-Ext is no longer under active development and has been superseded by Smart GWT. Assistance will be provided to existing users of GWT-Ext looking to migrate to Smart GWT."
so why would anyone use it?
To write the least code, use SmartGWT Pro. It provides a wizard that allows you to just pick from a list of Hibernate entities you've created, and instantly you have the ability to perform all CRUD operations on that entity, no code required. Then you can add business logic.
The wizard:
http://www.smartclient.com/smartgwtee/showcase/#tools_hibernate_wizard
The link about is just screenshots, but there are several Hibernate samples in the showcase. See especially the Master-Detail Batch Load and Save sample.
As far as performance, real-world performance of most enterprise apps is dictated by how often the application has to contact the server. In this area SmartGWT has a large lead because of features like Adaptive Filtering (see the Featured area in the SmartGWT showcase).
Almost all reports we receive of SmartGWT being "slow" are due to having Firebug enabled. Disable Firebug and performance is fine, so normal end users will never perceive slowness.
About 6 months ago, we studied whether we would use ExtJS or GWT-Ext for an internal application. We wanted the back-end to be J2EE standard frameworks (struts, spring, hibernate for persistence, etc.). We ended up choosing ExtJS because it seemed to us that GWT was not stable enough (too many changes in the API that is still recent), and Ext-GWT was always lagging behind in development.
application which mainly consist NavigationPane, Grid, Toolbar.
Well, this tells us a lot about your app, doesn't it :)
I think it comes down to how good you are at either Java or JavaScript. They are quite a different languages you know :) But if you are well-versed at both but only used Ext JS, then picking up Ext GWT (or GWT Ext, if you meant that), shouldn't be such a great deal. And if that application you are planning is going to be as simple and small as your description of it, then it's probably a perfect opportunity to try out something new.
I use GWT-Ext and it is quite good especially if you don't mind tweaking things with JSNI to customize the already existing Ext widgets it is incredibly powerful. Unfortunately development is stagnant, so my future projects will probably be either in SmartGWT or Ext-GWT. SmartGWT is written by Sanjiv Jivan (same guy who wrote GWT-Ext) and it has most of the widgets we need. I must say most of the skins are quite dated except the Enterprise skin which looks good, but you can always roll your own skin.
I come from the Microsoft world (and I come in peace). I want to rapidly prototype a web app and if it works out, take it live - and I don't want to use ASP.Net.
I am not sure which web application toolkit to use though. Should I use GWT, DOJO...other recommendations? I am open to any server-side language but am looking at RoR, Php or even Java (J2EE to be precise). I am not much of a Javascript/CSS guy so a toolkit that might make it relatively easy on me on those fronts would be preferable.
Also, I am a mac user at home. What IDEs go along with the framework you would recommend?
Any recommendations guys?
If you're open to doing Java, GWT is the way to go. It allows you to have a relatively uniform codebase across client-server, and to only use one language on both.
There are some limitations to doing very off-the-beaten-path AJAXy things (which GWT makes difficult, but not impossible), but it doesn't sound like that's your use case anyway.
GWT will allow you to scale up by using more of its features as your app gets more complex - and your prototype won't be throwaway code.
If you want to write the front and back end in JAVA, and want to do complex ajax type thing, then GWT is a great way to go.
The easiest way to think about it is that building a GWT app is kind of like building a JAVA swing application that hooks into a server. Just like a swing app that uses a server you can make it fat or thin. When you're done it all compiles down into HTML and javascript, and has very good modern browser support (ie6+ ff, opera, safari).
It does abstract all the javascript and HTML away, but if you want it to look good you'll still need to understand CSS.
I think anyone who says that that it ruins MVC or that it's a muddying of client vs server doesn't understand GWT. GWT is a CLIENT side framework. And it is only used on the CLIENT. GWT does provide an RPC mechanism to hook it into JAVA (and other) back ends, but that's just a communication protocol, it doesn't mean that your server code magically becomes your client code. Sure you can write a whole bunch of business rules into your UI if you really wanted to, but you can do this with any framework, so it would be silly to say that GWT is somehow different in that respect.
GWT is a good choice, while if you choose more powerful JavaScript framework based on GWT (e.g. SmartGWT), the compiled stuff is too heavyweight.
Choose direct JavaScript if you need a compact project.
I am a fan of GWT, however I am very familiar with Java. I found it to be intuitive, and surprisingly easy to get good results quickly. If you are to use GWT, then you'll definitely want to use the free, and immensely powerful Eclipse IDE.
One disadvantage of GWT is that it requires Javascript to be supported by the browser, there is no "graceful degradation".
We have evaluate a large list of frameworks and have decide us for Echo2.
You need only to code in Java. Javascript you need only if you want write your own components.
There are no startup performance problems with large projects like GWT.
You can use the full range of Java in your client code because it run on the server. In GWT you can use only very small set of Java classes.
The IDE for Java is Eclipse. This is independent of the used framework.
I'm a fan of jQuery, the chainability of actions, traversals, and commands is really powerful. A good friend of mine is crazy about Mootools, he works at a Java shop FWIW. He mentioned a cool feature of Mootools is that you can specify the functionality you want the framework to include and it will generate the entire library on a single line in a file that you can include on your page to minimize the weight of the framework (pretty cool feature). Really it just depends on what you are most comfortable with. jQuery has great tutorials, is super fast, and can be used along with other javascript frameworks.
Not related to GWT, but have you considered other backends that GWT could work nicely with?
Grails is one backend that ties quite nicely with GWT.
Personally, I would avoid server-side frameworks that try to embed or hide the client-side framework. I'm sure that GWT is great for getting something going quickly, and is probably fine for certain kinds of applications, but you'll probably run into lots of problems "on the edges" for more complex applications. Decoupling the client framework from the server-side framework avoids those problems.