Tag Archives: development

Multiple DB connections in Rails/ActiveRecord

You might often want to connect to different databases using ActiveRecord. Here’s how you do it:


#DB definitions:

class DatabaseCurrent < ActiveRecord::Base
  self.abstract_class = true
  establish_connection settings['database']
end

class DatabaseOld < ActiveRecord::Base
  self.abstract_class = true
  establish_connection settings['database2']
end

#Model definitions (current):

class Video < DatabaseCurrent
  belongs_to :user

  set_table_name :videos
end

class Photo < DatabaseCurrent
  belongs_to :user

  set_table_name :photos
end

class User < DatabaseCurrent
  has_many :videos
  has_many :photos

  set_table_name :user
end

class Tag < DatabaseCurrent
  set_table_name :tag
end

#Model definitions (old):

class FileDB < DatabaseOld
  set_table_name :file
end

Pretty easy. The only thing to note is that you should set_table_name, otherwise, AR chokes up. Also, often you want to directly play directly with SQL. Unfortunately, ActiveRecord::Base.execute doesn’t work any longer (coz it doesn’t have a connection), but you can do it this way:


DatabaseCurrent.connection.execute("SQL")

That’s the tutorial for the day!

Deploying JAR/JAD content via WAP

An easy way to deploy JAR/JAD content on all phones with GPRS is to create a WML site and provide a link to the JAR file that you have. [As an aside, the whole J2ME scene is so fragmented that it sucks completely. Let’s hope Android sorts it out.]

Here’s how you go about setting up that in Lighttpd:

Add these mimetypes (to lighttpd.conf or mime-types.conf):

mimetype.assign += (
  ".wml"     =>      "text/vnd.wap.wml",
  ".wmlc"   =>      "application/vnd.wap.wmlc",
  ".wmls"   =>      "text/vnd.wap.vmlscript",
  ".vmlsc"  =>      "application/vnd.wap.wmlscriptc",
  ".wbmp"   =>     "image/vnd.wap.wbmp",
  ".jar"      =>      "application/java-archive",
  ".jad"     =>      "text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor"
)

Add the index.wml file as a valid DirectoryIndex:

server.indexfiles    += ("index.wml")

Make this .wml file and upload it somewhere (replace JARCLIENT with your .jar file, and JADCLIENT with your .jad file):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE wml PUBLIC "-//WAPFORUM//DTD WML 1.1//EN"
"http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/wml_1.1.xml">

<wml>
<card title="Download">

<p>Download the Jar file:</p>
<p>
<a href="JARCLIENT.jar">Download</a>
</p>
<p>
<a href="JADCLIENT.jad">Download (JAD)</a>
</p>

</card>
</wml>

Restart your server, and that should be it! If you’re using Apache, the steps are similar.

OpenSocial and Facebook

A lot has been said about OpenSocial and Facebook, this is an attempt to say a bit more. As usual, a free-flowing list of observations:

  • Google uses Javascript as its base client-side language and extends gadgets with OpenSocial features. This I consider “good enough” but perhaps more importantly has a much lower barrier to adoption. The way a FB app is delivered (request-mapping, restricted FBML, fine-grained privilege control) feels much more professional, but at the same time a bit intimidating for newbies to the field. Libraries for almost all languages (esp. rfacebook) lower the barrier, but it’s never as simple as a .xml file which is mostly html and javascript (this is what a gadget is).
  • It’s currently not clear how OpenSocial apps communicate between each other across networks and how one app maps a user profile in one network to another. Without this, it’s mostly a single API which works across multiple containers in isolation. A single API that collates multiple containers is much more interesting.
  • Is there any set of UI guidelines? Is a gadget supposed to emulate the look and feel of its container or is it supposed to look the same across networks? Facebook provides extensive CSS classes and Javascript goodies (AJAX friend selector) to keep the experience uniform. I hope OpenSocial addresses this and soon.