README.md
# Ruby on Rails Tutorial: sample application
[](http://travis-ci.org/paulfioravanti/sample_app) [](https://codeclimate.com/github/paulfioravanti/sample_app) [](https://coveralls.io/r/paulfioravanti/sample_app) [](http://rails-brakeman.com/paulfioravanti/sample_app)
This is the sample application for the Rails 3.2 version of
[*Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example*](http://railstutorial.org/)
by [Michael Hartl](http://michaelhartl.com) (plus some [modifications](#modifications)).
(I'm not going to be maintaining this version of my Sample App anymore, so please find the [Rails 4 version here](https://github.com/paulfioravanti/sample_app_rails_4)).
- This code is currently deployed [here](https://pf-sampleapp.herokuapp.com) using [Heroku](http://www.heroku.com/)
- Translation keys are currently being managed [here](http://www.localeapp.com/projects/1043) with [Localeapp](http://www.localeapp.com/).
### Cloning Locally
$ cd /tmp
$ git clone git@github.com:paulfioravanti/sample_app.git
$ cd sample_app
$ bundle install
### Environment Configuration
$ cp config/application.example.yml config/application.yml
**Inside Rails App**
Generate a secret token:
$ rake secret
Copy the resulting string into the `SECRET_TOKEN` entry in **config/application.yml**, along with your database information:
# App keys
SECRET_TOKEN: # your rake secret generated token
development:
DB_NAME: # your dev db name here
DB_USER: # your dev db username here
DB_PASSWORD: # your dev db password here
test:
DB_NAME: # your test db name here
DB_USER: # your test db username here
DB_PASSWORD: # your test db password here
production:
DB_NAME: # your prod db name here
DB_USER: # your prod db username here
DB_PASSWORD: # your prod db password here
**Testing with Travis CI**
If you're using Travis for continuous integration testing, do the following (without the `{{ }}`):
Create encrypted travis variables for your Heroku API key and Repo name:
$ gem install travis
$ travis encrypt your_username/your_repo HEROKU_API_KEY={{YOUR_HEROKU_API_KEY}}
$ travis encrypt HEROKU_GIT_URL={{YOUR_HEROKU_GIT_URL}} # eg git@heroku.com:my_app.git
$ travis encrypt DB_NAME={{YOUR_DB_NAME_UNDER_TEST}} # eg: sample_app_test
$ travis encrypt DB_USER={{YOUR_DB_USER}}
$ travis encrypt DB_PASSWORD={{YOUR_DB_PASSWORD}}
Then add them to **.travis.yml**
env:
global:
- secure: {{YOUR_ENCRYPTED_HEROKU_API_KEY}}
- secure: {{YOUR_ENCRYPTED_HEROKU_GIT_URL}}
- secure: {{YOUR_ENCRYPTED_DB_NAME_UNDER_TEST}}
- secure: {{YOUR_ENCRYPTED_DB_USER}}
- secure: {{YOUR_ENCRYPTED_DB_PASSWORD}}
**Deploying with Heroku**
Generate production environment variables automatically using Figaro:
$ rake figaro:heroku
Or, do it manually:
$ heroku config:set SECRET_TOKEN={{YOUR_SECRET_TOKEN}}
$ heroku config:set DB_NAME={{YOUR_DB_NAME_UNDER_PRODUCTION}} # eg: sample_app_production
$ heroku config:set DB_USER={{YOUR_DB_USER}}
$ heroku config:set DB_PASSWORD={{YOUR_DB_PASSWORD}}
**Localeapp**
If you want to use Localeapp to manage language keys in the app (ignore this if you don't), [create an account](http://www.localeapp.com/users/sign_up) on their site, get an API key, and copy it into the `LOCALE_API_KEY` entry in **config/application.yml**, and add the key to your Heroku environment, if you didn't generate it automatically with Figaro:
$ heroku config:set LOCALE_API_KEY={{YOUR_LOCALE_API_KEY}}
**New Relic**
If you want to use New Relic for app metrics (ignore this if you don't), [create an account](http://newrelic.com/) on their site, get a license key, and copy it into the `NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY` entry in **config/application.yml**, and add the key to your Heroku environment, if you didn't generate it automatically with Figaro:
$ heroku config:set NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY={{YOUR_NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY}}
Finally, configure the databases:
$ bundle exec rake db:migrate
$ bundle exec rake db:seed
$ bundle exec rake db:test:prepare RAILS_ENV=test
- - -
## Modifications:
### User Interface
- Added [Font Awesome](http://fortawesome.github.com/Font-Awesome/) icons to the header
- Added micropost character countdown based on Twitter's
- Added an endless scroll to pages with paginated lists of users or microposts, as shown in [Railscast #114 Endless Page (revised)](http://railscasts.com/episodes/114-endless-page-revised)
### i18n
- Added locale switcher
- Internationalized app labels with translations for Japanese and Italian
- All static content internationalized in [Markdown](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) files instead of HTML/ERb files
- Added i18n-specific routing
- Added translations to dynamic data and its relevant sample data (microposts) using [Globalize3](https://github.com/svenfuchs/globalize3)
### Backend
- Moved development database over to [Postgresql](http://www.postgresql.org/) to match deployment database on Heroku.
- Changed all views from HTML/ERb to [Haml](http://haml-lang.com/)
- Refactored [SCSS](http://sass-lang.com/) files to use more mix-ins, as well as additions to add styling to the language selector
- Used [rails-timeago](https://github.com/jgraichen/rails-timeago) to do time calculation for microposts on client-side rather than server-side (replaces method calls to `time_ago_in_words`)
- Simplified implementation of most forms with [SimpleForm](https://github.com/plataformatec/simple_form)
- Used [Figaro](https://github.com/laserlemon/figaro) to handle all secret keys in an attempt to remove any app-identifiable information from all environments. Reasons why at [this StackOverflow thread](http://stackoverflow.com/q/14785257/567863)
- Moved mass assignment handling over to [strong_parameters](https://github.com/rails/strong_parameters) in anticipation of Rails 4
### Testing/Debugging
- Internationalized [RSpec](http://rspec.info/) tests and further refactored them
- Refactored model specs to use [shoulda-matchers](https://github.com/thoughtbot/shoulda-matchers)
- Changed RSpec output to show a progress bar instead of dots using [Fuubar](https://github.com/jeffkreeftmeijer/fuubar)
- Swapped out the debug block in the footer for [rails-footnotes](https://github.com/josevalim/rails-footnotes)
- Complete refactoring of test suite to upgrade to [Capybara 2.x](https://github.com/jnicklas/capybara) (see [this StackOverflow thread](http://stackoverflow.com/q/13573525/567863) and [this StackOverflow thread](http://stackoverflow.com/q/14028247/567863) for the details)
- Performance tested the RSpec test suite and as a result refactored the [**spec_helper.rb**](./spec/spec_helper.rb) file. See [this StackOverflow thread](http://stackoverflow.com/a/12215946/567863) for details.
- Added tests for [Globalize3](https://github.com/svenfuchs/globalize3) translations and expanded factories to include a micropost with its relevant translations
### Reporting/Optimizing
- Added service hooks to [Travis CI](http://travis-ci.org/), [Rails Brakeman](http://rails-brakeman.com/), [Gemnasium](https://gemnasium.com/), [Code Climate](https://codeclimate.com), [Rails Best Practices](http://railsbp.com/), [Coveralls](https://coveralls.io/). See badges under title for details.
- Used [SimpleCov](https://github.com/colszowka/simplecov) to ensure as much test coverage as possible. Currently at 100%.
- Used [Bullet](https://github.com/flyerhzm/bullet) to optimize queries
- Added performance monitoring with [New Relic](http://newrelic.com/)
### Deployment
- Fully automatic deployment process put in place: after a commit is pushed
to Github, it gets pushed to Travis CI, and then gets deployed directly from the Travis worker to Heroku. See [the **.travis.yml**](./.travis.yml) for details and [this StackOverflow thread](http://stackoverflow.com/q/10235026/567863) for reference.
#### TODOs
- Tests for Javascript-based functionality: Follow/Unfollow button, micropost countdown, endless scroll
- Tests for `strong_parameters`, if an appropriate method gets implemented before Rails 4 is released.
## Social
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</a>
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