h2. Ruby and Rails IDEs

Personally, I use TextMate, but I know a lot of Java developers who won't ever make the switch to Rails without an IDE that has all the features they're currently used to. RubyMine, from JetBrains, looks like it could be that editor.

First, transitioning to RubyMine from your current editor while retaining your shortcuts is easy. RubyMine lets you set the keymap to match that of Eclipse, Textmate and others. So there's no need to relearn shortcuts. Getting started just requires you to specify your Ruby interpreter and the version of Rails you're using.

You can run your server in the IDE, which allows you access to the console and server log and has a version control pane that works with Git. The Git pane lets you track changes, view diffs and commit all via the UI.

Type-aware auto-complete does neat things like list all your instance variables when you type *@*, or look up your database schema and give you a completion list of the db fields defined in your migrations. It will even give you an error if you type a field that doesn't exist in your database.

Another interesting feature is the ability to switch from a traditional, file navigation tree to a "Rails layout" which displays your application by controllers, models, views and database calls. It also generates graphical layouts of your database schema, relationships or columns, so you can print out dependency diagrams.

If anyone is currently using RubyMine for development, especially in a team, I'd be very interested in getting your feedback on how it's working for you.

h2. Rack and Metal

Gregg did a deep dive into Rack for Rails, looking at what middlewares.rb does and summarized it:

# Creates a lock around the request
# Rescues with a last resort 500 error
# Persists session information
# Parses params from XML/JSON
# Sets proper method
# Clears body with Head Requests

He also called on the community to innovate more around Rack middleware and to optimize or replace the middleware in the existing stack.

Metal is for optimizing actions using Rack. Gregg showed some performance benchmarks where Metal significantly increased performance, even more so without ActiveRecord.

h2. Improve Your Code and Code Testing

Jason and Gregg moved quickly through a large list of tools that make development more efficient. Many of these, including Rack and Metal, were also discussed in other sessions at RailsConf, but if you aren't familiar with any of them, it's worth taking a look:

* Write-through caching, using Cache Money, to solve replication lag.

* Rails templates to generate your rails app, install gems, plugins, etc. See youvegotrails.com and railsboost.com for Rails template generators.

* Flay finds code duplication in your project.

* Flog finds overly complex code.

* Roodi parses your code and warns you about design problems.

* Reek identifies code smell.

* Metric Fu is a suite of tools (that includes Flay, Roodi and Reek) and also provides code churn analysis and code coverage reports.

* Cucumber lets you set up BDD testing scenarios using plain language.

* FakeWeb is a helper for faking requests in Ruby.

* Spike analyzes your Rails logs.

* UltraSphinx provides great full text search. _Update:_ _UltraSphinx has been deprecated in favor of Thinking Sphinx._ _Here's the_ _thread_. _You can still use UltraSphinx if it works for you, but there will be no new features added._ _Thanks Paul!_

* Sliding Stats provides application stats.

* Sprinkle provisions servers.

* Spree is an incredibly easy way to set up a shopping cart.

* Taps is a Sinatra app that lets you easily migrate your db from one server to another.

If I've left anything significant out, let me know. If you missed this session, I highly recommend looking at their slides when they're posted.

You can read the original blog post here: http://engineyard.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/routing-issue-rca-notice/, and the latest update here: http://engineyard.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/xo-communications-link-re-enabled-by-herakles/

For all maintenance and downtime updates, please see our Status Blog: http://engineyard.wordpress.com/

bq. If you want to imagine how just a few folks build a big fun game, it's with the help of companies like Engine Yard.

Thanks for kind words, GameLayers!

For our European partners, this removes any legal barriers to deploying their applications on Engine Yard's hosting platform.

For more information, please review "Engine Yard's Safe Harbor Policy":http://www.engineyard.com/legal/eusafeharborprivacypolicy.

You can get the new install on RubyForge at "http://rubyforge.org/projects/merb/":http://rubyforge.org/projects/merb/, or directly from the Merb project gem server:

gem install merb-source http://edge.merbivore.com

The Non-profit Boot Camp is designed to educate and empower the next generation of nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs.

The San Francisco Bay Area event attracted over 1,000 emerging and established organizations for a day of workshops, keynotes, one-on-one coaching and professional development.

Engine Yard provided insights into how non-profit businesses can more successfully create and manage their online presence. Randall Thomas spoke about best practices for website creation for non-profit firms. When he wasn't presenting, he manned our booth and answered questions about the benefits of open-source software.

Conference attendees were greeted with Engine Yard hospitality, expertise and swag! It was a privilege to participate this year, and we look forward to the next Craigslist Foundation Non-Profit Boot Camp.

"Why not?" we said. Half an hour later, Lance was setting out drinks and food, and more and more people were dropping by to say hello.

Here are a couple of iPhone shots of our "stealth" event:

For a recap of the keynote address, see: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tim_oreilly_keynote_web_20_expo_08.php