In this series I build out the same blog engine that I created with ASP.NET MVC in our other series, Building My Own Blog. The idea with this series is a thought experiment - building two o the same application with different framework trying to use "best practices" in both cases.
1 - Getting Started
In this episode I install Ruby, Rails, and get a Windows 7 box up and running with all the tools we're going to need. I then do a walk-through of what a Rails site looks like.
2 - Introduction to Cucumber
In this episode I show you Cucumber, the Rails BDD testing framework that focuses on letting you write tests in plain English, or whatever language you're comfortable in (currently supports 37 spoken languages).
3 - Automating Test Data with Pickle
One of the hardest things to do when testing is reliably working with data. Rails makes this easy by running tests in a test environment, allowing you to work directly with a relational system. In this episode I show you how to automate all of this with Pickle.
4 - MetaweblogAPI and Many to Many Relationships
In this episode I tackle implementing the MetaweblogAPI with Ruby (which has XMLRPC built right in) as well as show you how to implement Many to Many relationships with Rails ActiveRecord
5 - Moving to MongoDB
In this episode I roll the blog's database to MongoDb, an open-source document database (which is kind of like an Object Database). I put my blog where my mouth has been lately - see what happens!
6 - RSS, Mongo Associations, and Rails debugging
In this episode I build up an RSS feed by flexxing Rails RESTful conventions, writing all of 10 lines of code or so. I also show you how associations work in Mongo - including one to many as well as many to many. Finally I show you the wicked power of Rails debugging using Script/Console.
7 - Importing Data with Rake
In this episode I import my old blog data using XMLRPC and slap myself upside the head for overthinking things. The answer (as with most things) is RAKE - the Ruby task application that makes development a lot of fun. I also try to improve my blog's SEO by bettering my CSS.
8 - Deployment Made Easy with Capistrano
In this episode I show you various ways to push your Rails application to the world, including Heroku, the Rails equivalent of chocolate. I then show you Jamis Buck's amazing tool Capistrano, which automates deployment to a level of sheer silliness. Finally, I launch my blog right before your eyes...
9 - Windows Setup Revisited
This episode is a late-comer to the series and is meant to help folks having a hard time getting things running on Windows. In addition, we have a long-running thread on our support site.
10 - Code Review with TopFunky
In this episode Geoffrey Grosenbach of the Ruby on Rails podcast and Peepcode.com joins me to review the code I've written for my blog. He offers some different ways to do things as well as thoughts on what would make "Rubyists" happy.
