I decided to import the data into a local database to ensure it could work offline.

Code from

file:

Now I can access municipalities in a grouped selectbox like so in the view code:

<%
 options = option_groups_from_collection_for_select(Region.all, :kommuner, :name, :id, :name)
%>

<%=
 f.select("kommune_id", options, {}, {:class => "short"})
%>

The final result rendered in the user interface:

This code is based on Rails 2.3.5.

My solution: create a new tag for FormOptionsHelper: grouped_select

http://gist.github.com/179075

” is just for that.

Only problem: What about my older Rails apps that require a specific version of Rails, ActiveRecord, etc.?

My solution:

gem list –no-versions | grep -v “^active” | grep -v “^action” | grep -v “^rails$” | xargs sudo gem cleanup {}

Any suggestions on how to make it even simpler?

From the readme file:

ResouceControllerRespondTo
==========================

Extends ResourceController plugin for Rails to make it respond_to .xml and .json formats

Based on code by Florent Piteau and Joe Fiorini… Jesper merely provided the glue and packed as plugin.
See resource controller forum thread for the complete discussion

Copyright (c) 2008 Jesper Rønn-Jensen (www.justaddwater.dk), released under the MIT license

More info:
resource_controller_respond_to plugin on GitHub

resource_controller on GitHub

The publication of this article marks a point where Capgemini officially adds Ruby to it’s service offerings (although some job offerings like this has mentioned it previously).

Here are some short extracts that I translated for your convenience:

[...]Ruby on Rails opens up towards a more flexible development process, where it’s much easier to implement client requirements as the project runs. In collaboration with Capgemini , this means that it’s possible to lower price and time-to-market significantly for a product. But also to improve the quality of the final product

Capgemini has recently proved that prototype development in advance of actual implementation can improve the result significantly. Jesper Rønn-Jensen, developer at Capgemini Denmark:

»We have had working prototypes up and running in a matter of hours. A specific example was a project we decided to implement in Ruby on Rails. Originally the project was estimated at 400 hours in Microsoft .Net. With Ruby on Rails we could deliver it in 110 hours.«

…

A prototype can be an experimental version of an unknown product, but can also be an early version of a future product, where the prototype along with a supplementary requirements specification can be used to visualize what the future system will work. The client gets a visualization of it’s ideas and will also get an idea of what further possibilities that can be added.

Instead of writing detailed requirements documentation, we can develop a prototype that gives the client a concrete base to make decisions upon. At the same time it also provides the opportunity for our clients to challenge our ideas and thoughts, which only improves the product,

adds Mads Buus Westmark.

If somebody is interested in providing a full translation, please do so … (i will probably translate more of the article at a later point or if you want it).

Photo by Reimar Juul (reimarjuul.com)

Technorati Tags: capgemini, prototyping, ruby on rails, rails, ruby

The sponsorship involves that Capgemini will sponsor free beer for one hour at the Ruby Cave (social event) tomorrow evening. As far as i know, it starts at 7′o clock. So be there and be thirsty. The more free beer you drink, the better return on investment for Capgemini :)

This slogan may be fit for the occasion “Together. Free your energies”:

Technorati Tags: rubyfools, rails, ruby, conference, capgemini, sponsor, beer

Mads and I decided to add a few quotes of our own on the list — basically to provoke a bit internally. One of the provocations were to call us “Ruby on Rails pioneers”. The reason for that is actually that a Danish newspaper last year called us that when describing this way of working.

”Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it”

- Alan Perlis
(American computer scientist, inventor of ALGOL)

”Expansion means complexity and complexity decay”

- C. Northcote Parkinson
(British historian and author)

”Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before”

- Franz Kafka

”Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability”

- Edsger Dijkstra
(Dutch mathematician, inventor of Shortest Path First Algorithm)

” UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity”

- Dennis Ritchie
(Inventor of C and and Unix core developer)

“Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough”

- Charles Dudley Warner
(American essayist and novelist)

“The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity”

- Bill Gates
(Inventor of DOS and Windows)

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”

- Leonardo da Vinci

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated”

- Confucius

Project success is not product success

- Jeff Patton, Agile Alliance

”Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it”

- Alan Perlis
(American computer scientist, inventor of ALGOL)

“At a certain point, waterfall project development models force us to stop becoming smarter”

- Jesper Rønn-Jensen
(Capgemini Ruby on Rails pioneer)

“Enterprise? – A colossal spaceship from the 80’s flown by people with bad taste: Highly advanced, but purely fictional”

- Mads Buus Westmark
(Capgemini Ruby on Rails pioneer)

“Agile consultants: pricey, but not enterpricey”

- Mads Buus Westmark
(Capgemini Ruby on Rails pioneer)

More info:

• Justaddwater: Ruby on Rails as rapid prototyping tool (April 2006)
• Justaddwater: Selling Ruby, Rails, and Agile Project Management (February 3rd)
• Justaddwater: Danish Newspaper Interview: Capgemini on Rails (February 2007)

Feel free to add any quote you think should be added to this list.

Technorati Tags: agile, quotes, simplicity, enterprise, ruby on rails, productivity, prototyping

Here are a few photos from our internal Capgemini kickoff:

The sign says “Test yourself: Project manager — can you handle it”. Purpose: Show the difference between waterfall-like project management (left) and a more holistic approach (the fountain on the right)

Me and Mads at our presentation booth just before people arrive

UPDATE: Added the following photos taken by Tobias

Technorati Tags: ruby, rails, agile, web, development, capgemini, madsbuus, jesperrønnjensen, presentation, trade show, project manager, waterfall

One of the nice changes for this release is that you can now set your localized language in the environment.rb file like this:

L10N_LANG = :da #or whatever language/locale you wish

Download the relase 0.9 from Rubyforge

Supported languages

* Czech
* Danish
* Dutch
* English (for running test cases and comparing to normal texts)
* Finnish
* French
* French (Canadian)
* German
* Italian
* Korean
* Norwegian
* Portugese
* Russian
* Serbian
* Spanish
* Spanish (argentinian)
* Swedish
* Swedish Chef, and
* Pirate talk (just for the fun of it)
* any other language you want. Just dump your translation in the /lib folder

Full changelog:

* — release 0.9 (2008-01-13) —
* Possible to set language in environment.rb: L10N_LANG = :de
* UTF-8 database charset configuration is default in Rails 1.2+ and 2.0, so not needed in plugin more.
* L10n-Simplified plugin also available as gem from this release
* Moved changelog from README to separate file changelog.txt
* Removed duplicate line from lang_de.rb
* Russian translation (thanks Denis Pankratov)
* Corrected German date/time format (thanks Christian W Zuckschwerdt)
* Added Portugese translation (thanks Carlos Afonso)
* Italian translation adjustments (thanks Michele Franzin)
* Fixed translation error in Swedish translation (thanks Ingemar Edsborn)
* Czech translation by Karel Minařík
* French lang file updated (thanks Bruno Michel)
* Added Serbian (thanks Slobodan Kovacevic)
* Lang_it file must be UTF-8 encoded (thanks Fabio Bonelli)
* Added rake task for creating a release “rake package”
* Fixed rake task for generating rdoc in UTF-8 format
* Added Norwegian (thanks Fredrik Bach)

More info:

• Justaddwater: Ruby on Rails plugin: Localize your Rails app (Aug 2006)
• Rubyforge Localization Simplified homepage (download release 0.9)
• Rails Wiki: InternationalizationComparison
• Agilewebdevelopment plugin page: L10N-Simplified (remember to vote)

Technorati Tags: ruby on rails, rails plugin, simple localization, l10n, i18n, internationalization, danish, swedish, dutch, spanish, german, swedish chef, pirate talk, pirate day, translation