Tag: Ruby on rails app development

Collecting Contacts Using Cardmagic-Contacts Pplug-in in Rails 2.3.8

Posted on by Jay

Rails3

Cardmagic-Contacts is a rails plug-in which provides an interface to fetch contact list information from various email providers including Hotmail, AOL, Gmail, Plaxo, Yahoo and many more.

This example narrates how to extract contact list using Rails 2.3.8 and cardmagic-contacts plug-in

Step#1

  • Download the plug-in by running the command below to store the plug-in in the folder “vendor/plug-ins”

Windows

ruby script/plugin install git://github.com/cardmagic/contacts

Linux

ruby script/plugin http://github.com/cardmagic/contacts

Step#2

  • Write down the following code on the top of the controller class
require 'contacts'

Step#3

  • Pass the required gmail/yahoo/hotmail/AOL login & password from view
<div>
 
<div style="margin-left:25px;" >Invite <img src="../images/yahoo.JPG">Yahoo
 
Friends </div>
 
<div style="margin-left:25px;">Yahoo Email: <input type="text" name="email"
 
id="yahoo_email_id"></div>
<div style="margin-left:25px;">Password:   <input type="password"
 
name="email"  id="yahoo_pwd_id"></div>
 
<div style="margin-left:122px;margin-top:20px;"><input type="button"
 
value="Login" name="btn_submit" id="btn_submit" ></div>
 
</div>

Step#4

  • Create an action to fetch the list of contacts for a specific email id

def grab_contacts #Grab gmail contacts @gmail_contacts=Contacts::Gmail.new(login, password).contacts #or @gmail_contacts=Contacts.new(:gmail, login, password).contacts #Grab yahoo contacts @yahoo_contacts = Contacts::Yahoo.new(login, password).contacts #or @yahoo_contacts = Contacts.new(:yahoo, login, password).contacts #Grab hotmail contacts @hotmail_contacts =Contacts::Hotmail.new(login, password).contacts #or @hotmail_contacts = Contacts.new(:hotmail, login, password).contacts end

Step#5

  • Here is also alternate method to get the contacts by providing  email_id and password
any_mail = Contacts.guess(login, password).contacts

The “Contacts.guess” method will automatically concatenate the entire
address book from each of the successful logins. If the login and password is
working with multiple email accounts then it will grab the contacts from all accounts.

Step#6

  • Display the friends list in your view page
<table>
<th>
<td >Friends Name</td>
<td >Friends Email</td>
</th>
<tr>
<% @gmail_contacts.each do |contact| %>
<td><%=contact[0]%></td>
<td><%=contact[1]%></td>
<% end %>
</tr>
</table>

Implementing Sortable Columns in Rails through Helper

Posted on by Jay

Use of a sortable column in a listing view. For an example there is a list of “Programs”

Step# 1

  • Here our controller is named as “Programs” and the model is named as “Program”
  • Add the following helper methods to the controller
class ProgramsController < ApplicationController
helper_method :sort_column, :sort_direction
protected
def sort_column
Program.column_names.include?(params[:sort]) ? params[:sort] : "position"
end
def sort_direction
%w[asc desc].include?(params[:direction]) ? params[:direction] : "asc"
end
def your_custom_action
end
end

Step# 2

  • In Helper class of “Program” add the following codes
module ProgramsHelper
def sortable(column, title = nil)
title ||= column.titleize
active = column == sort_column
ascending = active && sort_direction == 'asc'
direction_html = ascending ? ' ▲ ' : ' ▼ ' if active
css_class = active ? "current #{sort_direction}" : nil
direction = ascending ? "desc" : "asc"
link_to(title, { :sort => column, :direction => direction }, :remote => true, :class => css_class) << raw(direction_html)
end
end

 

Step# 3

  • In the view (index.html.slim) file add the helper method “sortable” in the columns you want to sort
  • Please note: Here slim is used for the view pages
#main
table style="text-align:left;"
tr
th align="left" = sortable "name"
th align="left" = sortable "created_at", "Added"
th align="left" = sortable "subscription_level_id", "Subscription"
th align="left" = sortable "rating_average", "Rating"
- programs.each do |program|
= content_tag_for :tr, program, 'row_for' do
td= link_to program.name, program_url(program)
td.attribute= program.created_at.strftime("%B %Y")
td.attribute= program.subscription_level.name.capitalize if program.subscription_level
td.attribute= ratings_for program
.pagination_container style="padding-bottom:20px;"
= will_paginate programs

How to use Nested Attributes in Rails 3 Forms

Posted on by Jay

For example, say we want to add multiple addresses(attributes) having many fields inside a create/edit employee form

Step# 1

  •         Create a model named Employee
  •         Create another model named Address
  •         Add the following relationship in Employee model
class Employee < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :addresses, :dependent => :destroy
accepts_nested_attributes_for :addresses, :reject_if => lambda { |a| a[:city].blank? }
end
  •    Nested attribute form rejects if the city field of the address is blank

Step# 2

  •        In Employees controller add the following in the “new” action
def new
@employee = Employee.new
@employee.addresses << Address.new
end

Step# 3

  •         In the view file add the following inside the form attribute
<%= form_for @employee, :html => { :multipart => true, :id => 'new-employee' } do |f|
<%= f.label :name, 'Name' %>
<%= f.text_field :name %>
 
<% end %>