The script exec’s MySQL command to execute a batch of SQL queries. I also wanted the script to mail the error messages. mysql redirects error messages to STDERR - but STDERR is by default not available in exec’s output argument.

Walkaround is simple:

exec('your_command 2>&1');

Works!

This is just a quick note to let you know that there’s new VPS hosting service launching and it requires your input. Webbynode is giving out free beta accounts for Ruby on Rails, Django and PHP (and more!) applications.

I have a couple of drafts one-step-from-being-posted and back from project management to development so expect more updates soon.

After some googling SQLite Manager poped up. It’s a pretty easy yet powerful tool - can be run both a Firefox extension or a stand-alone application (via XULRunner).

My only wish so far - a decent-looking interface.

SQLite Manager

Here’s lib/acts_as_slugable_ascii.rb:

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 require 'string'
 
module Multiup
  module Acts
    module Slugable
      module InstanceMethods
        private
          def create_slug
            return if self.errors.length > 0
 
            if self[source_column].nil? or self[source_column].empty?
              return
            end
 
            if self[slug_column].to_s.empty?
              test_string = self[source_column]
 
              proposed_slug = test_string.strip.downcase.gsub(/[\'\"\#\$\,\.\!\?\%\@\(\)]+/, '').to_ascii
              proposed_slug = proposed_slug.gsub(/&/, 'and')
              proposed_slug = proposed_slug.gsub(/[\W^-_]+/, '-')
              proposed_slug = proposed_slug.gsub(/\-{2}/, '-')
 
              suffix = ""
              existing = true
              acts_as_slugable_class.transaction do
                while existing != nil
                  existing = acts_as_slugable_class.find(:first, :conditions => ["#{slug_column} = ? and #{slug_scope_condition}",  proposed_slug + suffix])
                  if existing
                    if suffix.empty?
                      suffix = "-0"
                    else
                      suffix.succ!
                    end
                  end
                end
              end         
              self[slug_column] = proposed_slug + suffix
            end
        end
      end
    end
  end
end
 
ActiveRecord::Base.class_eval do
  include Multiup::Acts::Slugable
end

The only difference is the use of to_ascii method.

Now, we need to extend the String class. to_ascii method converts Polish UTF-8 characters to ASCII and discards all unknown characters:

 require 'iconv'
 
class String
  def to_ascii
    ascii = 'acelnoszzACELNOSZZ'
    non_ascii = "\271\346\352\263\361\363\234\277\237"
    to_ascii_string = self
    begin
      result = Iconv.new("CP1250", "UTF-8").iconv(to_ascii_string)
    rescue Iconv::IllegalSequence => e
      failed = e.failed.chars.split(//, 2)
      to_ascii_string = to_ascii_string.gsub(failed[0], '')
    retry
    end
   result.tr!(non_ascii, ascii)
  end
end

And we’re done!

Just add the following line to your model:

 require 'acts_as_slugable_ascii'

and configure acts_as_slugable as instructed in README file. Now you’re ready to face your users.

I wanted to add an onchange event to my collection_select. Normally you would put something like this in your template (that’s what I did after browsing through a couple of tutorial/helps):

<%= collection_select(:story, :license_id, License.find(:all), :id, :name) %>
<%= observe_field('story_license_id', :frequency =>; 0, :update => 'story_license_description', :url => {:controller => 'license', :action => 'description'}, :with => '"id="+value') %>

This code however results in ugly URLs (ie. /license/description?id=1). If you want to keep URLs nice, use the following method:

<%= collection_select(:story, :license_id, License.find(:all), :id, :name) %>
<%= observe_field('story_license_id', :frequency => 0, :update => 'story_license_description', :url => {:controller => 'license', :action => 'description', :id => "'+value+'"}) %>

This way you’ll keep your URLs beatiful throughout your application (ie. /license/description/1).

Oh, and forgive me the Rails way irony.

This occurs if you have Ruby gems installed in your home directory (probably ~/.gems/). I’m assuming that you already have your environment configured. Despite that you still can get errors like no file to load -- json when executing cap deploy. That’s because you have your shell configured, but most likely non-interactive environment is left intact.

To fix this you have to modify your .bashrc file (since you probably added GEM_HOME and GEM_PATH to .bash_profile):

export GEM_HOME=$HOME/.gems 
export GEM_PATH=$GEM_HOME:/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8

And you’re probably done.

You can also check these articles, they’ve been very helpful:
Deploying Rails (2.0) to Mongrel with Capistrano 2.1
Using Capistrano with Rails
Ruby on Rails - Dreamhost

Due to some chrome changes and bugs I had to update some code related to dynamic overlay rendering. Now all I need to know is whether the extensions is installed on Firefox 2 or Firefox 3, hence this snippet of code:

function isFF3()
{
	var foo = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/login-manager;1"];
	return typeof foo === 'function';
}

How do you like? Let me know if there are other methods of detecting Firefox 3 (more elegant, perhaps?).

However, since at work I use a Windows keyboard I had a problem with the switched Option / Command keys. I’ve tried DoubleCommand, however I had to click through the System Preferences each time I switched my keyboard. Couple of minutes of googling and a nice script popped out. However, it was useless in OS X Leopard, so I made a couple of quick changes and here’s something I came up with. First, switch-to-windows-keyboard script:

tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
	set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell
tell application "System Events"
	get properties
	tell process "System Preferences"
		click button "Modifier Keys…" of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
		click pop up button 2 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
		delay 0.3
		click menu item 4 of menu 1 of pop up button 2 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
		delay 0.3
		click pop up button 1 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
		delay 0.3
		click menu item 3 of menu 1 of pop up button 1 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
		delay 0.3
		click button "OK" of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
	end tell
end tell
tell application "System Preferences"
	quit
end tell

Second, back-to-apple-keyboard script:

tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
	set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell
tell application "System Events"
	get properties
	tell process "System Preferences"
		click button "Modifier Keys…" of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
		click button "Restore Defaults" of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
		click button "OK" of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
	end tell
end tell
tell application "System Preferences"
	quit
end tell

You might ask why not use Ryan Block’s script? Well, since I rely heavily on QuickSilver I also created two Platypus applications - one for each script. I’m a keyboard user, so I didn’t like the clicking on the Macintosh / PC screen. ;-]

Let me know if this works for you!

The workaround is easy - you need to use the method syncValue. An excerpt from Ext’s documentation:

Protected method that will not generally be called directly. Syncs the contents of the editor iframe with the textarea.

Despite it being protected we can call it directly. If you’re facing the problem of missing content then use the following snippet to read data from HtmlEditor:

YourHtmlEditor.syncValue();
var content = YourHtmlEditor.getStylesheet() + "\n" + YourHtmlEditor.getRawValue();

We use it in our webmail module and it works like a charm (finally!).