BenCurtis.com

It took longer than I had planned, but today I wrapped up my book on building an e-commerce store with Ruby on Rails. For those who have already purchased the book, the email notifying you how to get the latest revision is on its way. For those who haven’t, go buy it! :)

Recent changes include some updates for the latest version of Rails, tips on implementing combination discounts, and a little additional information on processing refunds.

As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.

I was hoping that this would be the final book update, but I just haven’t had the time yet to write the last big chunk that’s left to be written: Integrating with payment gateways using Active Merchant.

So, instead of keeping people waiting, I decided to make this release, which isn’t quite as big as I was hoping it would be. I did toss in some fun stuff, though, like how to use the dollars_and_cents plugin for storing money amounts in the database and the acts_as_sluggable plugin to help with SEO for your store. You can check out the full list of changes, and of course, you can also buy it now!

Oh, and now you can even buy it without using PayPal, if you wish. I have set up Google Checkout so you can purchase it that way, although I currently don’t have the integration set up to automatically send the book to you after you cough up the dough. Perhaps I’ll get around to getting Google Checkout better integrated, and then I could add info on that to the book. :) Until then, if you use Google Checkout you’ll have to be a little patient, giving me time to get the notification email and send you the book manually.

I’ve gotten a few emails asking about when the next update to my Rails e-commerce book will be available, so I thought I’d post some information here about that.

My target time frame for the next release is some time in October, probably later rather than sooner. In fact, it may even slip into early November, though I definitely don’t want to go any later than that. The reason for the delay is not related to writing the book, but rather to some of the other projects that have popped up recently.

Well, there is one delay that’s due to the content of the book, and that’s the PayPal information I want to include. In my next update (which may actually be the final update), I want to add more information about shipping, handling addresses, and handling payments. With regards to payments, I intend to write specifically about PayPal, and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to provide better information about integrating Website Payments Pro with Rails. I think the situation is better than it was a few months ago when I first wrote about it, so I need to do some research on that in hopes of providing a better solution.

If you have some suggestions for me on what content you’d like to be added to the book, either as enhancements to topics already covered or entirely new topics, please feel free to contact me directly or leave a response here letting me know what you’d like to see. I’ll do my best to accommodate requests.

After I finished my previous post I noticed my post about promising an update to my book soon, but I also noticed that I never followed up on that post. So, here’s the follow up.

I did indeed release a revision for my Rails ecommerce book on the 2nd of August. I added 50% more content, and it’s coming along quite nicely. I guess I may be about 70% done at this point, depending on whether I change my mind on things I have intentionally left out, like showing a bunch of “screenshots” of setting up an app, etc. that always tend to appear in books of this sort. I personally prefer the skip-to-the-chase style, and that’s what I’ve done with the book, so it’s a bit more content-dense than your average tech book on the shelf at Barnes and Noble.

At any rate, I’m enjoying writing the book, and it’s really quite fun to see people buying it. :)

A few people have asked when there will be an update to my book on building ecommerce applications using Ruby on Rails, since it’s now been about a month since its initial release. My goal is to have an update available within two to three weeks. I was hoping to have something a little sooner, but of course life has a way of changing your plans. At any rate, yes, I am working on an update, and yes, I do intend for it to be released soon. If you’ve been patiently waiting, thanks for hanging in there. If there’s anything in particular you feel could use more coverage in the book, feel free to add a comment to this post or send me an email