visualcondition blog - flash & ruby on rails

So I just spent the good part of 4 hours trying to figure out why my fresh Ruby on Rails 2.1 apps was giving me a 500 error on my slice with mod_rails.

Permissions? No. Configurations? No. Etc etc.

I’ll just get straight to the point: apparently it was my database. Sure I ran:

rake db:migrate

..and it migrated fine, but yet still a 500 error like I tested many times. The fix?

rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=”production”

Seems rake was stuck in the development environment. I’m not above saying it was just my ignorance of mod_rails environments, but why on earth would passenger default to development when it’s clearly made for production?

@item.expires_on = Time.now + 3.months

Yeah, I did just write an entry on this one line of Ruby. We’re engaged, Ruby and I, and I didn’t even have to buy a diamond.

So you’re getting into Ruby on Rails and decide to stay hip by using it with Subversion, but you’re not quite sure how to go about it. What do you do? Read on of course!

I was asking the same question a few days ago setting up my (mt) Media Temple DV 3 server, and besides that process being worse than giving yourself a paper-cut in your eye while trying to keeping them open staring into the sun, I figured it out and thought I’d share. This is very general, so it should apply to most deployment platforms.

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For an upcoming non-Flash project, that’s akin to classifieds/ebay flavor, I’ve decided to give Ruby on Rails a shot - instead of reaching for PHP, which I’m quasi-comfertable with. I’m not a php guru by any means, and what I do know ties in with AS2 fairly well, so I can do what I need to do in php with very little fuss. After all, I did make the Desuade site in php just a few months ago, and I was fairly comfortable working with it. And since php is so popular, if I had a question, just give’er a Google and thar she be: instant answers.

This project is a fairly involved project, and under a tight deadline, so one would think using something I know and am comfortable with, would allow me to get right in and get it done fast. Maybe. But what if there’s something I could use to get it done even faster? Pre-made scripts and templates for php are a dime a dozen, I could just pay a few bucks and download something and go from there, but you all know me better than to cheat like that. Escaping from the back of my mind, a voice, very passionate and excited, was yelling to me to take a gamble with RoR. This voice was yelling, almost screaming to give it a try, but it was subdued to a whisper over the course of months due to the amount on my plate.

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