Rails as iOS Application Backend

Rails as iOS Application Backend Shanghai On Rails – Saturday 21st, 2011

iOS Applications• Which website doesn’t have an iPhone application ?• iPhone application add a mobility aspect to your web application - GPS, on-the-go, etc.• Push notifications brings retention

As a Rails Developer,why do I care about mobile?

Mobile websites

You will probably have to makean API for the iPhone / iPad or

Architecture

Architecture Railsapplication

ArchitectureDatabase Rails application3rd party APIs

ArchitectureDatabase Rails application3rd party APIs JSON

ArchitectureDatabase Rails application3rd party APIs JSON REST

ArchitectureDatabase Rails application3rd party APIs JSON REST over HTTP(s)

ArchitectureDatabase Rails application3rd party APIs Apple Push Notiﬁcation Services

Challenges• Authentication and Persistence• Data format and optimization• Push notifications scheduling

Authentication• Havethe iPhone behaves as a web browser.• Sending cookies with every request• Persisting cookies on the iPhone• Good news for your Railer: nothing new!

Authentication• Havethe iPhone behaves as a web browser.• Sending cookies with authlogic every request devise ....• Persisting cookies on the iPhone• Good news for your Railer: nothing new!

Authentication• Havethe iPhone behaves as a web browser.• Sending cookies with authlogic every request devise ....• Persisting cookies on the Cookies! iPhone• Good news for your Railer: nothing new!

AuthenticationExample using inherit_resources and authlogic

iOS side Application code• Not as easy.• NSURLConnection is JSONRequest low level NSURLConnection• JSONRequest provides you a higher level iOS Network Socket interface

JSONRequest ➊ Initiate HTTP request to /inventory➋ Handle networking, cookies, redirections and errors ➌ Parse HTTP Response as JSON

JSONRequestYour delegate receives one of those two calls

JSONRequest• Youget a NSDictionary object easy to manipulate, you can view it has a the equivalent of a Ruby hash {status: “ok”}

What about models?

We created a lightweightORM for the iOS platform

Models - Rails

Models - iOS

Models - How to use it

Models - How to use it /counters.json

Models - How to use it /counters.json /counters.json?name=shield

Models - How to use itYou directly manipulate objects, not JSON objects

Back to Rails

https://github.com/maxime/iorm Application code JSONRequest NSURLConnection iOS Network Socket

https://github.com/maxime/iorm Application code ORM JSONRequest NSURLConnection iOS Network Socket

Tips• Why not using the built-in .to_json ?

Built-in to_json 2k bytes> puts Counter.all.to_json[{"counter":{"level_id":2,"name":"Mend","created_at":"2011-01-11T10:56:02Z","strength":11,"cost":2,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:28Z","id":12,"initial_stock":25,"inventory_icon_id":21}},{"counter":{"level_id":2,"name":"Radiate","created_at":"2011-01-11T10:57:19Z","strength":11,"cost":2,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:30Z","id":13,"initial_stock":25,"inventory_icon_id":10}},{"counter":{"level_id":4,"name":"Float","created_at":"2011-01-11T10:50:37Z","strength":31,"cost":4,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:33Z","id":10,"initial_stock":15,"inventory_icon_id":31}},{"counter":{"level_id":2,"name":"Shine","created_at":"2011-01-11T10:52:47Z","strength":31,"cost":4,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:35Z","id":11,"initial_stock":25,"inventory_icon_id":12}},{"counter":{"level_id":6,"name":"Pure","created_at":"2011-01-11T10:50:18Z","strength":51,"cost":6,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:38Z","id":9,"initial_stock":10,"inventory_icon_id":30}},{"counter":{"level_id":8,"name":"Bounce","created_at":"2010-12-20T19:39:05Z","strength":51,"cost":6,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:41Z","id":1,"initial_stock":5,"inventory_icon_id":8}},{"counter":{"level_id":9,"name":"Reflect","created_at":"2011-01-11T08:56:10Z","strength":71,"cost":8,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:44Z","id":6,"initial_stock":10,"inventory_icon_id":9}},{"counter":{"level_id":11,"name":"Detect","created_at":"2011-01-11T08:57:06Z","strength":81,"cost":10,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:48Z","id":7,"initial_stock":10,"inventory_icon_id":26}},{"counter":{"level_id":10,"name":"Healer","created_at":"2011-01-11T10:49:49Z","strength":81,"cost":10,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:52Z","id":8,"initial_stock":5,"inventory_icon_id":34}},{"counter":{"level_id":11,"name":"Counter","created_at":"2011-01-11T10:58:24Z","strength":101,"cost":25,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:55Z","id":14,"initial_stock":10,"inventory_icon_id":28}},{"counter":{"level_id":11,"name":"Return","created_at":"2011-01-11T08:54:57Z","strength":151,"cost":50,"updated_at":"2011-04-28T18:10:57Z","id":5,"initial_stock":5,"inventory_icon_id":20}}]

Write your own .to_json 1k byte> puts Counter.all.map(&:to_json).to_json[{"name":"Mend","strength":11,"id":12,"icon":"/system/pictures/21/large/Glass-2.png?1299820062"},{"name":"Radiate","strength":11,"id":13,"icon":"/system/pictures/10/large/potion-1.png?1299786958"},{"name":"Float","strength":31,"id":10,"icon":"/system/pictures/31/large/Untitled-1.png?1299820281"},{"name":"Shine","strength":31,"id":11,"icon":"/system/pictures/12/large/point-3.png?1299787038"},{"name":"Pure","strength":51,"id":9,"icon":"/system/pictures/30/large/Umbrella-3.png?1299820262"},{"name":"Bounce","strength":51,"id":1,"icon":"/system/pictures/8/large/shield-2.png?1299786772"},{"name":"Reflect","strength":71,"id":6,"icon":"/system/pictures/9/large/shield-3.png?1299786787"},{"name":"Detect","strength":81,"id":7,"icon":"/system/pictures/26/large/Shield-1.png?1299820172"},{"name":"Healer","strength":81,"id":8,"icon":"/system/pictures/34/large/Vest-3.png?1299820340"},{"name":"Counter","strength":101,"id":14,"icon":"/system/pictures/28/large/Shield-3.png?1299820222"},{"name":"Return","strength":151,"id":5,"icon":"/system/pictures/20/large/Glass-1.png?1299820042"}] By writing your own to_json method, you not only optimize the size of the body but also you can be much more speciﬁc and prepare your own data

Push Notiﬁcation

Push Notiﬁcation Apple Push Rails Notiﬁcationapplication Services

Push Notiﬁcation

Push Notiﬁcation08f9e3f8 36b6e364 f4e80310 fe3068ef dba588d2 1b19102c 0e652002 6ca9a785

Push Notiﬁcation• Push Notification Token identifies one device, not one user• Send it to your Rails backend and save it to your data storage

Push Notiﬁcation• Rails plugin: apn_on_rails• http://www.github.com/PRX/apn_on_rails• Rails3 branch

Push NotiﬁcationThis saves the message to your database

Push NotiﬁcationEvery ten minutes.. or every minute..

Push Notiﬁcation• Rake task triggered by crontab• Resque scheduler• Ifyou want to schedule a Rake task every minute or even every 5 minutes, you will consume a lot of resources on your server to boot up the Rails environment.• Be careful about 256 bytes size limit!

Resque Scheduler

Thank you• maxime@ekohe.com• Thanksto maverick@ekohe.com for his contribution on the JSONRequest / Model ORM• Thanks to jimmy@ekohe.com for writing an awesome backend for Breeze Living

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Rails as iOS Application Backend

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