CVREG - Home

December Meeting: Solr - Searching on Lucene with Ruby

2011-11-28T17:07:00Z

Please note that this is a non-standard meeting location.

Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Dominion Digital, 4101 Cox Rd, Glen Allen (Google Maps link)

Abstract

Erik Hatcher will discuss and demonstrate the state of the art with using Solr from Ruby. He’ll cover RSolr (and the forthcoming deprecation and removal of solr-ruby, RIP: solr-ruby), Sunspot, Blacklight, and other Solr+Ruby best practices. Solr itself will be introduced fully for those unfamiliar with it.

Bio

Erik Hatcher is co-founder, technologist, and open source evangelist at Lucid Imagination, a service, training, and platform provider for Lucene and Solr. Erik co-authored “Lucene in Action” and has spoken at numerous events around the world on a variety of topics. His technology stack of choice includes, of course, Solr and Ruby.

November Meeting: Clean Ruby - Simplify your programs with intention revealing, obvious code.

2011-11-02T16:13:00Z

Please note that this is a non-standard meeting location.

Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Dominion Digital, 4101 Cox Rd, Glen Allen (Google Maps link)

Abstract

Despite our use of frameworks like Ruby on Rails being famous for conventional code, we still find ourselves with complicated and difficult to understand applications. Worse yet, our automated tests often end up just as complicated and slow. We have helpful design patterns to follow, so why does our code become more difficult to understand as our application grows? The cure for our pain is following DCI conventions to separate what our program *is* from what it does and to let our user’s mental model of our programs shine through.

Bio

Jim Gay is the Lead Developer for RadiantCMS and is a prolific contributor to it and many open-source projects. At Saturn Flyer LLC he’s built numerous Radiant sites, custom applications, and award winning graphic design. Jim has been a co-host of the Ruby 5 podcast, speaker at RubyNation, Rocky Mountain Ruby, and ArrrrCamp, is the founder of Arlington Ruby, and has been professionally building Ruby and Rails applications since 2006.

You can find Jim on twitter: @saturnflyer

October Meeting: There Are No Tests!

2011-10-04T21:35:00Z

Please note that this is a non-standard meeting location.

Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Dominion Digital, 4101 Cox Rd, Glen Allen (Google Maps link)

Abstract

The Ruby community is obsessed with testing, supposedly. In my experience about four out of five applications have either zero or completely ineffective test coverage.

Have the courage to change it. Whether your own projects or recovering someone else’s mess, let’s talk strategy:

Starting with metrics
Refactoring for understanding
Comment-driven development
The unit testing foundation
Bug reports are your best integration tests
Focusing on value
Rescue projects are popping up everywhere, and a strategic testing approach can save the day.

Bio

Jeff started Jumpstart Lab in 2009. He travels the world preaching the good word of Ruby. Lately he’s been pushing an agenda of professional design practices with emphasis on object oriented architectures backed by solid testing. Plus he tell jokes.

You can find Jeff on twitter: @j3 or @jumpstartlab

September Meeting: Hack Night!

2011-09-08T12:18:00Z

Instead of our normal meeting in September, we're going to hold a Hack Night.

All levels welcomed

New to Ruby? That's OK! We'll have plenty of people there that can answer your questions. Very Comfortable with Ruby? Super! Come share your knowledge of the language with those just starting out. In-Between? Perfect! Come on out and have some fun.

Need some help

Having trouble getting started with Ruby? We can help.

Stuck on a bug? We can help.

Curious about Ruby, Rails? We can help.

Curious about Cucumber, RSpec, Test::Unit, etc.? We can help.

Curious about TDD, BDD? We can help.

Just wanna "talk shop" and enjoy a beer or two! We can help!

Spread the word

See you there and be sure to tell your friends.

Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Legend Brewing Company (map)

Next Month

Jeff Casimir, from Jumpstart Lab, will be presenting:

There Are No Tests

The Ruby community is obsessed with testing, supposedly. In my experience about four out of five applications have either zero or completely ineffective test coverage...

August Meeting: Indie.rb Panel

2011-08-02T14:30:00Z

Have you ever wanted to own your job and build not only software but a business around it? Do you love writing code but hate writing it to make some other guy rich? Are you concerned about the pitfalls of striking out on your own? Is Ruby the right choice for entrepreneurs?

Our August meeting will feature a panel of Rubyists experienced in the worlds of coding and business. We'll have a lively discussion about why you might want to strike out on your own, what kind of opportunities exist for entrepreneurs, the downsides to be prepared for, and how Ruby fits into all this. You'll have a chance to ask your questions and get advice from people who have been there. And, we'll be doing this at Legend Brewing Company, so there will be plenty of beer to fuel our evening.

Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Legend Brewing Company (map)

July Summer Social

2011-07-09T14:00:00Z

Join us on Tuesday, July 12 for the CVREG Summer Social! We're going to have an informal meeting at Legend Brewery around 6:00 PM. Knock back some beers and talk about what interests you lately in the Ruby world with the usual suspects.

June Meeting: Hiro Asari on JRuby

2011-05-28T12:00:00Z

For our first meeting of the summer, we have a very special guest: Hiro Asari, a core contributor to JRuby. This will be a join meeting with the Richmond Java Users Group. Please register for the meeting here.

Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: Dominion Innsbrook Technical Center (5000 Dominion Blvd., Ground Floor Auditorium, Glen Allen, VA, 23060)

Abstract

As a Ruby implementation on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), JRuby provides a unique ability to interact with the vast array of Java libraries from Ruby (and vice versa).

In this talk, Hiro Asari, a JRuby committer, shows you how one can explore a Java library interactively with IRB (Ruby's REPL shell) with many examples.

Bio

Hiro Asari is a JRuby Support Engineer at Engine Yard, a PaaS company specializing in Ruby on Rails hosting. He has been involved with the JRuby project for 2 years.

Recap of Tuesday's Meeting on Chef

2011-05-15T12:45:00Z

Many thanks to Kirk (not Dirk) Richey for coming down and giving an excellent talk on Chef. Kirk did a great job of breaking down the nuances and warning against the pitfalls of learning Chef. I know many of us are exploring the cloud and will make good use of Kirk's introduction to the domain of distributed systems configuration.

Just to mention some upcoming events:

RailsConf starts tomorrow.
Next month we'll be doing a joint meeting with Richmond Java Users Group featuring Hiro Asari on JRuby.
In July Jeff Casmir will be doing a talk on "blowing up your Rails views".
Our August meeting will be a social, details coming soon.
Finally, we're going to do a panel on Ruby entrepreneurs in the central Virginia region. If you run your own consultancy, freelance, or run a startup, or used to and went back to wage slavery, you might belong on our panel. Contact us if you're interested!

May Meeting: Cloud Hopping with Fog and Chef

2011-05-04T13:00:00Z

May features two very special speakers from Charlotte, NC: Jim Van Fleet, the original founder of CVREG, and Kirk Richey. They'll be discussing automated system configuration management strategies with an eye towards cloud architectures.

Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Time: 5:30 PM, talk starts at 6:00 PM
Location: Weinstein Properties, 3961 D Stillman Parkway, Glen Allen, VA 23060

Abstract

The Cloud has all the mindshare when it comes to hosting and capacity planning, but what does it really get you? Kirk Richey will demonstrate how the combination of an abstracted provisioning API and configuration management with Chef can get your environments ready for action in no time flat, without having to depend on any vendors. That leaves you in control to plan the capacity, performance, and price of your operations.

Bios

Jim Van Fleet founded CVREG. Kirk Richey is an assistant organizer of Charlotte.rb.

April Meeting: Building Semantic CSS with Compass and SASS

2011-04-04T16:00:00Z

Our April meeting will feature a presentation from Dave Bock, principal consultant at CodeSherpas. Please note that this is a non-standard meeting location.

Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: Weinstein Properties, 3961 D Stillman Parkway, Glen Allen, VA 23060 (entrance is in front of the gray SUV in the Google Street View link)

Abstract

Building Semantic CSS with Compass and SASS

Compass is a tool that can help you build cleaner, better structured, and less error-prone CSS. Semantic CSS is a technique where your CSS vocabulary describes WHAT things are on your page, rather than WHERE they are. Together, this tool and this concept can radically improve the structure of your html.

With compass, your CSS is written in a CSS superset called SCSS which can include variables, math, and method calls that evaluate to CSS. The end result is pure CSS - so you don't need to worry about anything 'funny' on the browser side. This lets us write cleaner CSS that documents the intent of our design, not just the 'end result'.

Bio

David is a principal consultant at CodeSherpas, a consultancy he founded in 2007. David currently consults as a software engineer, project manager, and team mentor for commercial and government clients, bringing his expertise to bear on their difficult technological and management problems.

David was a founder, Vice-President, and 3-term President of the Northern Virginia Java Users Group, a founder of the Northern Virginia Ruby Users Group, served as the Editor of O'Reilly's OnJava.com website, and is a frequent speaker on technology and project management topics at several national and international conferences. David is also on the organizational committee for the Annual RubyNation conference, and is on the proposal review committee for RailsConf 2011.

In January 2006, Mr. Bock was honored by being awarded the title of Java Champion by a panel of esteemed leaders in the Java Community in a program sponsored by Sun. There are approximately 100 active Java Champions worldwide. David has also served on several JCP panels, including the Specification of the Java 6 Platform and the Java Module System.

Hosting on IIS 6.0 revisited

2011-03-24T17:56:00Z

Recently I've been setting up a rails install for Windows Server 2003/IIS 6. Googling reveals a few useful but out of date articles which mainly suggest running MS FastCGI for IIS 6. In the end I'm much more comfortable with a proxypass solution to thin or mongrel. This isn't supported out of the box by IIS 6, but finally there is a viable option with Ionics ISAPI Rewrite Filter.

I'm actively soliciting feedback or questions on this setup. Add comments here, in the cvreg google group, or directly to me @omnifroodle.

Assumptions

Windows Server 2003 (XP or 2k will not work)
IIS 6 (IIS 7 has it's own rewrite filter, so the IIRF instructions would change)
Should not interfere with other sites running on the IIS server

Installation and configuration

Ruby and bundler

Install Ruby 1.8.7-p334 from [[http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads]]

In a command window gem install bundler

Ruby Windows DevKit

You will need this in order to build native extensions, such as curb and nokogiri

Install the Ruby Windows DevKit from [[http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads]]

Follow the instructions from the DevKit wiki

Extract the DevKit contents into a directory with no spaces, e.g. – C:\DevKit.
Run ruby.exe dk.rb init
Run ruby.exe dk.rb install

Rake

gem install rake

MSSql gem

In a command window gem install ruby-odbc gem install activerecord-sqlserver-adapter

You will need to setup a ODBC DSN in order to connect to the database. c:\Windows\system32\odbcad32.exe Create a system DSN with the "SQL Native Client adapter".

name: mondial_development select your database server

On the next page, select "With SQL Sever Authentication" and provide valid credentials.

On the next page, set the default database.

On the next page, disable "Perform translation for character data"

git

Install msysgit

Settings are not clear at this time, default to the less invasive options.

This will install a Git folder in your start menu with 2 applications (Git Bash and Git GUI)

reference: Github on installing on Windows

ssh key for github

See help document on Github.com

Pulling down the code

Run Git Bash


    cd /c/
    mkdir rails
    cd rails
    git clone git@github.com:username/appname.git

Install IIRF (Ionic's ISAPI Rewriting Filter) for x64

IIRF allows us to use many of the features of Apache's mod_rewrite for IIS 6. We use it to proxy requests for our rails app to our rails server process (mongrel or thin)

Download the IonicIsapiRewriter-2.1.1.25-Release-x64-bin.zip Note: if you are installing on 32bit windows you can just use the MSI Detailed install instructions for IIS 6 are under the heading "Installing IIRF" here

Roughly (more information at the url above or in the .chm included with IIRF)

place the IIRF.dll somewhere in the filesystem. If you have spaces in your path you'll need to make sure you quote the entire path in IIS settings later. (ex. C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\IIRF\IIRF.dll)
you may want to copy the rest of the bin directory to the folder you used above (optional)
add an empty IirfGlobal.ini to this same folder. It is used for global IIRF settings and we are putting it here as a placeholder.
Make sure your IIS user can see, traverse and read the folder you created. Adding the rights to the IISWPG group _should do the trick, depending on how heavily server modifications.
View the properties of your website in IIS Manager.
In the "ISAPI filters" tab add: Filter name: IIRF - Ionic ISAPI Rewriting Filter Executable: C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\IIRF\IIRF.dll
Enable the dll as an ISAPI extension so that the proxypass works for POST actions. In properties click Configuration on the "Home Directory" tab
Click Add. Executable: C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\IIRF\IIRF.dll Extension: .iirf Verbs: all Script Engine: on Verify that file exists: off
Add an IIRF.ini file to your apps root directory (public/ on a rails app)


    #  IIRF.ini
    #
    #  ini file for proxying to an internal webserver
    #

    RewriteLog c:\logs\iirf
    RewriteLogLevel 3
    IterationLimit 10
    MaxMatchCount 10
    RewriteEngine ON
    StatusInquiry ON

    #  act as a proxy the rails webserver
    RewriteCond         %{REQUEST_FILENAME}     !-f
    ProxyPass           ^/(.*)$   http://127.0.0.1:3000/$1
    ProxyPassReverse    /         http://127.0.0.1:3000/

Setup Mongrel_service

gem install mongrel_service
mongrel_rails service::install -N mondial_mobile_www /
          -c c:\rails\MyApp\ -p 3000 -e production

Notes

Thin instead of Mongrel

gem install thin

and then either the win32-service gem or with the native MS tool Srvany.exe.

Development MSSql server

If you are building a development installation you will also want to download Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.

You will also need the .NET 2.0 framework 32-bit or .NET 2.0 framework 64-bit.

March Meeting: Android and Ruby

2011-03-03T13:30:00Z

Come out to our March meeting, where we'll peer into the world of Android through ruby-tinted glasses with Joe O'Brien of Edgecase. Please note that this is a non-standard meeting location.

Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: SnagAJob, 4880 Cox Rd #200, Glen Allen (Google Maps link)

Abstract

With the advent of JRuby many doors have been opened that were not before for Ruby. One particular place is the android platform. Using Ruby, we can easily leverage the Android platform and API's to create incredible applications. Since we are using Ruby, testing becomes a trivial exercise. I'll walk through the options we have for developing full feature-rich applications for both the Android tablet and the phone. I'll show how we can use Mirah, a JRuby cousin for Android development.

Bio

Joe (@objo) is a father, business owner, speaker and developer. In 2006 he co-founded EdgeCase, a leading Ruby and Ruby on Rails training and consulting company. They have had a tremendous amount of success helping companies as large as GAP and AT&T Interactive as well as those startups still in the inception stage. Through a partnership with the Pragmatic Programmers, he has been giving training for well over three years on testing and development with Ruby on Rails. He is a speaker and has spoken at conferences ranging from RailsConf to numerous regional conferences and countless user groups.

February Meeting: Joint Meeting with RJUG on JRuby

2011-02-03T17:30:00Z

For our first speaker of the year, we'll have a join meeting with the Richmond Java Users Group and explore JRuby with Rob Heittman, Chief Technology Officer at Solertium in Williamsburg, VA. Please note that this is a non-standard meeting location and date.

Meeting Details

Date: Thursday, February 17, 2011
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: Dominion Resources in Innsbrook, Richmond's West End (5000 Dominion Blvd)

Abstract

Java < JRuby > Ruby

Lots of scripting languages run on the Java VM. JRuby has grown into something uniquely important, by embracing the strengths of both Ruby and Java culture. In lightning talk mode, we’ll survey some hybrid projects like celerity and RedCar that are only possible in JRuby, and look at the reasons why. We’ll look at warbler and some multicore metrics, to see how JRuby can help a Rubyist satisfy enterprise demands. For a brief dig into the internals, we’ll see an embedded JRuby interpreter used for web page templating inside an OSGi cloud platform. Finally we’ll take some BDD practices for a spin with Cucumber, to see how a little Ruby influence can impact any development project in any language.

Bio

Rob is a Rubyist who wishes “Javaist” was a word. He wields JRuby professionally every day in the course of developing Rails, GWT, J2ME and Android apps. Current projects include the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, mobile apps for Five Guys Burgers and Fries, and the upcoming 2011 Frequent Traveler Awards. In addition to JRuby, he is active in the Rubinius, Gerrit Code Review, and Restlet open source communities, and co-founded the ambitious Scala+GWT project. Rob is easiest to find on Twitter: @rfc2616

January Meeting: Hack Night

2011-01-04T21:26:00Z

Do you have a project you'd like to show off to the group? Did you learn something cool in 2010 you'd like to talk about but you're not ready to give a full-fledged presentation? Do you have questions about a Ruby project you're working on? Our meeting on January 11 at 5:30 PM is your chance to shine: we'll have a free form program where you can jam on code and talk about whatever Ruby-related topics interest you.

Note that we'll be meeting in the conference room at Tuckahoe Library (1901 Starling Drive, Henrico, VA 23229). See you there!

December Meeting: A Practical Approach to Adopting Testing Methods on Existing Projects

2010-12-01T13:00:00Z

Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Time: 5:30 – 8:00 PM
Place: Sandston Library, 23 E. Williamsburg Rd. Sandston, VA 23150-2011

Abstract:

You know that testing is important. You know that you should be testing every line of code that you write. You’ve heard a lot about Test Driven Development and Behavior Driven development, and you know how those things work. Yet, you still struggle with implementing those practices in your daily workflow, especially on existing projects.

Does that sound like someone you know? Perhaps even you? If so, then you’ll want to attend this month’s CVREG event, where M. Scott Ford from Corgibytes, LLC will share some advice, principles and techniques that will help you make progress towards your goal of having nothing but clean code.

Bio:

M. Scott Ford, the Chief Code Monkey at Corgibytes, LLC, has been writing software for over fifteen years. He has a passion for solving problems, strategic thinking, and writing quality, clean code. Over the years, Scott has become fluent in a wide variety of programming languages, such as Ruby, C#, Objective-C, Java, and even some obscure ones like Modula-2. His work experience is wide ranging, from mission-critical projects in both the government and private industry to hand-coded websites for non-profits. Almost every project where Scott has had input has benefited from his test-centric approach to developing software. He holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He currently resides in Richmond, VA with his fiancee, two cats, and his dog Ein (a corgi, of course).