BenCurtis.com

I’m using the Radiant content management system to build a site for a client, and I’m loving the newly released version 0.6. The new extensions support is an excellent way to add bits of functionality to your site, and I’m using them for the contact form, getting a quote via email, and a custom gallery. There’s one little gotcha, though, with using the mailer extension (from the Radiant SVN repo): it won’t send mail from a default Radiant install. Luckily, the fix is easy.

It took me a few minutes to track this down, as I never specify the list of frameworks I’d like to remove in config/environment.rb. I probably should, since I never use ActionWebService, but I just never end up doing it. Well, Radiant does, and it includes ActionMailer in the list of frameworks to not load when starting the application. So, if you want to send email with the mailer extension in Radiant 0.6, you need to edit config/environment.rb and remove action_mailer from the list of frameworks that are skipped:

Other than that little snag, working with Radiant has been fun, and I’d recommend it to anyone as a starting point for a custom site.

Last night I set out to get Postfix fully configured on OS X for two reasons: first, so my iMac could replace my aging Linux box as my mail server, and second, so I could test the email functionality of CatchTheBest on my MacBook Pro. Here are the resources I used to get this done.

I started with the iMac and did something out of character: I decided to use a GUI tool called MailServe rather than just do everything by hand. I figured it would be worth $20 to save me the time of compiling and configuring everything manually. That was a mistake, for a couple of reasons. First, it doesn’t support the maildir format, which I strongly prefer. Second, it doesn’t support IMAP authentication against anything but system accounts. I might be able to live with mbox, but the authentication was a deal-breaker.

So, this morning I decided to start from scratch on my MacBook Pro, this time the old-fashioned way: virtual mail hosting with Postfix/MySQL/CourierIMAP, complete with TLS/SSL, just like I have done on so many Linux boxes. A little bit of Googling turned up these handy instructions for setting up Postfix on OS X. A little while later I had it fully set up on my MBP, ready for hours of email testing fun.

The next step will be to switch back to the iMac and replace the inadequate MailServe with a full Postfix virtual hosting configuration. Unfortunately, the author of MailServe won’t refund my $20. I guess that’s just the cost of learning the lesson that it really is better to do it yourself.

Jon is announcing new social networking features at Confabb, so now I get to mention it, too. :)

It was fun to build the personal messaging, buddy lists, and user search for Confabb, building on the work I’d done and the ideas I had for ConferenceMeetup.

Now that some of my client work is starting to see the light of day, I guess it’s time to add Clients page to my site.

I just finished an IM training session with a client and realized I hadn’t mentioned on my blog that I’m doing that sort of thing these days. So, here’s a little invitation to you if you are looking for some personalized Ruby on Rails help, or some one-on-one Rails training.

Contact me and I’ll be happy to help you on an hourly basis via IM and email, or on a daily basis at your location. If you like the excellent advice Jamis and Michael provide at The Rails Way, you’ll love the results you can get for your project with some personal attention from me.

Whether you are looking for an answer to a particular question, some tips on a sticking point in your application, or more general training on Rails idioms and best practices, I can help you accelerate your journey towards Rails mastery. The clients I have worked with feel they have really benefited from having some expert guidance as they build their applications, and I enjoy helping others learn new things, so it’s a fun time for everyone involved. :)

Don’t delay! An operator (me) is standing by! Act now to get Rails training!

Just after RailsConf last summer, Luke Redpath introduced plugin packs to the world. Not long after he implemented the idea, he rolled it into the Rails Plugin Tool. It’s a fantastic idea, allowing you to install an entire list of plugins in one shot. Now the idea has been kicked up a notch.

I mentioned previously that I would be making the favorites feature at the Rails plugin directory a little more handy, and now I have. When you log in to your account at the directory and view your favorite plugins, you’ll now see instructions on how to use the plugin pack installation feature of RaPT with your favorites. In short, once you create your list of favorite plugins at the site, you can then install all of those plugins with one RaPT command.

Try it out. It’s fun. :)