This document provides an overview of Ruby on Rails, Apache httpd, and Oracle. It discusses why Ruby on Rails is useful for rapid prototyping, and how it can be integrated with Apache and Oracle. The document demonstrates Rails generators, routing, testing with RSpec, and security features. It also outlines how to configure Apache and link Rails to an Oracle database. The presenter provides cheat sheets for creating a sample Rails application integrated with Devise, ActiveAdmin, and a database, with minimal code required. The key takeaway is that learning is fun through experimenting with different technologies.

1. Ruby on Rails,
Apache httpd, and Oracle
Dan Davis
davisda4@mail.nlm.nih.gov
B1N14Q

2. Overview
 Why this Talk?
 Ruby on Rails
 Fast prototyping (demo)
 Integrating with Apache httpd
 Integrating with Oracle
 Maybe demo

3. Why this Talk?
 Node.js, MongoDB, and Express were cool
 Lots of Rapid Prototyping Environments
• Ruby on Rails (Digital Collections)
• ColdFusion (many things)
• php (Cake)
 Secure, Reliable, Transparent Data
 Integration

4. Why Ruby on Rails?
 How I started: a great application
 MVC
• Rapid prototyping
• Separation of Concerns
• Generators
 Unit and Integration Testing
 Security is built-in
 Community
 Library of “gems”

5. Ruby Overview
 General Purpose
 Innovative Class and Object model
 Domain Specific Languages
 Lamdas (function objects), Blocks, and Mixins
 JRuby

6. Class and Object model
•Everything is an Object
•Module – namespace, interface, behavior
•Class – inheritance, instantiation

7. Ruby - Domain Specific Languages
 Implicit Hash, no parents
doit first, second, :k1 => v1, :k2 => v2
doit first, second, k1: v1, k2: v2
 Comes from Functional Programming
(FORTH, Tcl, Ruby, Python)
 Examples Today
• Gemfile
• Routing
• Rspec Tests (BDD)

8. Ruby - Lambdas and Blocks
 Lambdas – function objects
l = lambda ( “There is no try” )
Puts l.call
 Blocks – are implicit arguments
def implicit_block(number)
puts yield(number)
end
implicit_block(7) { |number| number + 1 }
 Blocks – sometimes explicit
def explicit_block (number, &block)

9. Ruby - Mixins
 Can include a module
class AccountController
include AccountHelpers
…
 Can extend a module
bar = Bar.new
bar.extend Foo
 Can re-open objects
class String
def empty?
end
 Changes API Design

10. Ruby - jruby
 ruby is like perl – C with links to libs
 jruby is JVM implementation
 jruby starts slow, gets fast
 Not quite transparent
• Some “gems” implemented differently
• Some “gems” not available
• Cannot call SWT/Swing from ruby!
• Higher bar to start

11. Rails - Generators
 Application
rails new demoapp
 Model
rails generate User name:string
email:string password_hash:string
 Migration
rails g migration AddRoleToUser
 Controller
rails g controller Users all view edit
 Integration Test
rails g integration_test AccountSettings

12. Ruby - Gemfile
 Tracks dependencies (like Ivy, Maven)
 Example of Domain Specific Language
 Easy
# Use jquery as the JavaScript library
gem 'jquery-rails', '~> 3.1.0'
gem 'jquery-datatables-rails'

13. Rails - Routing
 config/routes.rb
Nedtable::Application.routes.draw do
get ‘users’, to: ‘users#all’
post ‘users’, to: ‘users#create’
get ‘users/:id’, to: ‘users#view’
get ‘users/:id/edit’, to: ‘users#edit’
post ‘users/:id’, to: ‘users#update’
end
 See it in web
 See it on the console

14. Rails - rspec
 Behavioral Driven Testing
 Easy to read
describe MarcExporter do
it { should respond_to :to_marc }
it { should respond_to :reader }
…
describe "for NLM UI 1589530" do
…
its(:to_xml) { should == xmldata }
its(:to_marc) { should == mrcdata }
end
 “Mock” network connections

15. Rails - security
 CSRF
• automatically adds to form
• Automatically checks
 Injection
• You never have to write SQL
• Automatically wraps SQL/XML
 CSS - Safe by default
<%= “<br/>”.html_safe() %>

16. Rails - So much more
 Asset Pipeline
 Layouts
 Engines
 “gems” and more “gems”

17. Why Apache2? Why Oracle?
 Good Tools give you:
 Shoulders to stand on (powerful abstractions)
 Without compromising flexibility
 Good Architecture:
 Same thing at Project level
 Good Standards:
 Same thing at Organizational Level

18. Apache2 - Context

19. Apache2 – nlm.conf
<Location /solr>
ProxyPass ajp://localhost:8009/solr
ProxyPassReverse ajp://localhost:8009/solr
Options -MultiViews
Order allow,deny
Allow from 130.14.160.225/24
AuthType CAS
AuthName "NLM Login"
CASScope /
Require user davisda4 butlerj pantr
CASAuthNHeader REMOTE_USER
</Location>

20. Oracle - Benefits
 Reliable
 Secure
 XMLDB is included
 Transparent – SQL Developer/Toad
 Oracle Support in OSS evaluation
• Measures maturity
• Measures Enterprise readiness

21. Oracle – link to Rails
 Gemfile
gem 'ruby-oci8', '~> 2.1.0'
gem 'activerecord-oracle_enhanced-adapter’
 config/database.yml
development:
adapter: oracle_enhanced
database: 'oltp01_dev'
username: 'discovery'
password: ‘cleartext’
 Integrating getDBPassword
password: <% `getDBPassword …` %>
 Multiple Databases
establish_connection :serials

22. Let’s Build Something
 ER Diagram
 Navigational State Diagram

23. Cheat sheet #1
 Create Application
rails new allhands –T
cd allhands
 Update Gemfile and get dependencies
vim Gemfile
bundle update
bundle install
 Integrate dependencies through generators
rails g devise:install
rails g active_admin:install
rake db:migrate

24. Cheat sheet #2
 Create Models
rails g model Person …
rails g model OrgUnit …
rake db:migrate
rails g active_admin:resource Person
rails g active_admin:resource OrgUnit
 Fix Saving the Data
 Fix “associations”, e.g. foreign keys
 Add graphviz integration
 How much code did I write?

25. Takeaways - Learning
 Ms. Frizzle
• Make mistakes
• Try things
• Get messy
 Learning is Fun
• Cold Fusion MVC frameworks?
• Call Java libraries from CFML?
• Call jruby libs from CFML?

26. Questions?