Nathan Colgate

What Version of Flash Am I Using?

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:56:53 -0700

I seem to be referencing this frequently

mProjector 4 Windows Fixes

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:29:38 -0700

We’re a mac shop. Anytime we have to go back to a PC, I’m not a fan. These are notes for any future development, and if you can get use out of them: great.

Problem 1) We couldn’t get our mProjector apps to run on a PC. They would compile, but not run. And not even give the nice “Please go download adobe flash player” messages. We were getting the full blown windows error.

Turns out: we had installed flash player from firefox. This, apparently, is not the same thing as installing the flash player from internet explorer. Once we did that, we could run the applications.

Problem 2) We certainly didn’t want our clients running into the same issues. Solution is to include flash player with the build, right? Well, for some unknown reason, our app doesn’t like flash player 10.0.32.18 that comes bundled with mProjector. Opening this page in IE showed that we were running 10.1.53.64 (Note visiting that link in FF shows that were were running 10.0.32.18). But why couldn’t we choose that from the drop down?

Turns out: This one took a call to ScreenTime’s Jim Roberts. He pointed me in the direction of this folder on our PC:

C:\Program Files\mProjector 4\Flash Players\Win

Which has a bunch of .ocx files that correspond to the available flash players for inclusion in our projector. He said I should find a newer .ocx file and see how it works. With a little bit of searching I found this folder:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash

Which had a Flash10h.ocx file, which I copied to the mProjector flash players folder. After restarting mProjector, I was able to choose Flash10h as a included player, and the app built and launched fine.

Problem 3) The app is freaking slow-as-molasses on a PC! It’s speedy in the browser, speedy on my Mac, but on this PC it’s moving at about 0.5 fps.

Turns out: I hate this kind of stuff. I’m throwing in the towel here. If you have any insight into what we can do to speed this application up, please let me know.

S3 SWF Upload Gem for Rails 3

Sat, 01 May 2010 17:05:26 -0700

S3 SWF Upload Gem for Rails 3:

github.com/nathancolgate/s3-swf-upload-plugin

The good stuff starts around 7:30!

S3SwfUpload allows user to upload a file to S3 directly, so you can save the cost of uploading process…

Rails 3 ActionMailer and Delayed Job

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:05:53 -0700

What I’d like to do:

message = Notifier.password_reset_instructions(self)
Delayed::Job.enqueue MailerJob.new(message)

What happens when I do:

TypeError in Public/password resetsController#create
can’t dump anonymous class Class
…
/lib/delayed/backend/base.rb:61:in `payload_object=’

Problem line 61:

self[‘handler’] = object.to_yaml

Console confirms:

> user = User.find(:first)
> message = Notifier.password_reset_instructions(user)
> message.to_yaml
TypeError: can’t dump anonymous class Class

How I fixed it. Note: all of my notifier methods take a user argument, so I thought this was a little cleaner than coming up with a new job class for every email method:

Delayed::Job.enqueue NotifierJob.new(:password_reset_instructions,user_id)

And my lib/notifier_job.rb file:

class NotifierJob < Struct.new(:notifier_method,:user_id)
def perform
user = User.find(user_id)
Notifier.send(notifier_method,user).deliver
end
end

Hope that helps.

Stephenson Intro Video

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:06:55 -0800

Stephenson Intro Video:

Cast: Nathan Colgate

The Cooper Residence - For the home files.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:00:00 -0800

The Cooper Residence - For the home files.

How to Rename a File on S3 with right_aws and Keep Permissions

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:17:07 -0800

Because this took way too much time to figure out:

s3=RightAws::S3Interface.new(S3SwfUpload::S3Config.access_key_id, S3SwfUpload::S3Config.secret_access_key)
old_name = "tmp/#{self.video_file_name}"
new_name = original_video_file_path
bucket = S3SwfUpload::S3Config.bucket
(1..5).each do |try|
  begin
    acl_prop = s3.get_acl(bucket, old_name)
    s3.rename(bucket, old_name, new_name)
    s3.put_acl(bucket, new_name, acl_prop[:object])
    break
  rescue Exception => e
    self.video_log += "Problem renaming file, trying again... #{e}\n"
    sleep 1
  end
end

Video

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:58:12 -0700

Dealing with Exception Notifier and Rails 2.3.3

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:34:17 -0700

I installed Exception Notifier on one of our Apps running Rails 2.3.3 and kept running into this error:

Net::SMTPFatalError (555 5.5.2 Syntax error..

A little bit of insight provided this heads up:

But as of Rails 2.3.3, the from email address will get the angle brackets added, so it can only contain the address.

Rails 2.3.4 is/was supposed to fix that, and includes tests so it will be ensured in future versions.

A quick look at the Exception Notifier README and I tried this:

ExceptionNotifier.sender_address = %("app.error@myapp.com)

Success!

Adding Email and User Verification to AuthLogic

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:26:00 -0700

The Session

class UserSession < Authlogic::Session::Base

  validate :check_if_verified



  private



  def check_if_verified

    errors.add(:base, "You have not yet verified your account") unless attempted_record && attempted_record.verified

  end

end

The Migration

class AddVerifiedToUser < ActiveRecord::Migration

  def self.up

    add_column :users, :verified, :boolean, :default => false

  end



  def self.down

    remove_column :users, :verified

  end

end

The User Controller

class UsersController < ApplicationController



  ...



  def create

    @user = User.new(params[:user])

    if @user.save

      flash[:notice] = "Thanks for signing up, we've delivered an email to you with instructions on how to complete your registration!"

      @user.deliver_verification_instructions!

      redirect_to root_url

    else

      render :action => :new

    end

  end

end

The Verification Controller

class UserVerificationsController < ApplicationController



  before_filter :load_user_using_perishable_token



  def show

    if @user

      @user.verify!

      flash[:notice] = "Thank you for verifying your account. You may now login."

    end

    redirect_to root_url

  end



  private



  def load_user_using_perishable_token

    @user = User.find_using_perishable_token(params[:id])

    flash[:notice] = "Unable to find your account." unless @user

  end



end

The User Model

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

  acts_as_authentic



  def deliver_password_reset_instructions!  

    reset_perishable_token!  

    Notifier.deliver_password_reset_instructions(self)  

  end



  def verify!

    self.verified = true

    self.save

  end

The Mailer

class Notifier < ApplicationMailer

  default_url_options[:host] = "www.myurl.org"  



  def verification_instructions(user)

    subject       "Email Verification"

    from          "myurl"

    recipients    user.email

    sent_on       Time.now

    body          :verification_url => user_verification_url(user.perishable_token)

  end

end

The Mailer View

Thank you for signing up for this site. Please click the following link to verify your email address:

<%= @verification_url %>

If the above URL does not work, try copying and pasting it into your browser. If you continue to have problems, please feel free to contact us.

Flickering Vizio HD LCD TV

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:42:42 -0700

Flickering Vizio HD LCD TV:

Use Case Scenario: Watching movies on the TV via my Laptop. MacBook with Mini-DV to RGB adapter. RGB and 1/8” stereo headphone jack run to back of TV. Input: RGB. After about 15 minutes of…

Custom Generators That Work in all of your Rails Apps

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:11:43 -0700

Go here:

/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rails-X.X.X/lib/rails_generator/generators/components/

Trouble with Deprec Setting up Apache and Passenger

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:52:39 -0700

I was getting this error a lot:

VirtualHost *:80 — mixing * ports and non-* ports with a NameVirtualHost address is not supported, proceeding with undefined results

The fix:

I had to remove the default site:

cd /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/

sudo rm 000-default

The file is still available here:

/etc/apache2/sites-available/

But is not conflicting with the config files that deprec sets up.

Update to YUI Editor Code View Problem

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:20:00 -0700

I over complicated things in my previous solution, and found a better solution while trying to get the WYSIWYG editor to work inside an AJAX form using rails’ remote_form_for.

Using the YUI editor example, set handleSubmit to false and add this right after the MyEditor.render();

// Nate's better Handle Submit
function myHandleFormSubmit(e){ 
  if(state == 'off') {
    myEditor.cleanHTML();
  };
};	
Event.on(myEditor.get('element').form, 'submit', myHandleFormSubmit, myEditor, true);

When doing this and using a AJAX form, try this:

// Nate's better Handle Submit (AJAX version)
function myHandleFormSubmit(e){ 
  if(state == 'off') {
    myEditor.cleanHTML();
  };
  Connect.setForm(e.target);
  Connect.asyncRequest('POST', e.target.action, callback, '_method=put'); 
  Event.stopEvent(e);
};	
var handleSuccess = function(o){ eval(o.responseText); };
var callback = { success:handleSuccess };
Event.on(myEditor.get('element').form, 'submit', myHandleFormSubmit, myEditor, true);

Hope this helps

Trying to use the YUI WYSIWYG RTE as a code editor

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:41:00 -0700

Our CityGates app uses the YUI WYSIWYG Rich Text Editor to for all large text areas. Unfortunately, it does not have code / source editing support out of the box. To implement it, you must use some custom code to toggle the textarea / WYSIWYG visibility.

The example from YUI does not use handleSubmit. This means that when a user submits the form from the WYSIWYG editor the textarea does not get updated with the modified information from the iframe when the form is submitted. The user must toggle to the code view to trigger the update to the textarea. Result: a broken WYSIWYG editor.

See example.

The obvious solution: set handleSubmit to “true”. But this causes the converse bad behavior to kick in: When submitting from the code view, the textarea is updated with outdated information from the iframe before the form is submitted. The user must toggle to the WYSIWYG view to update the WYSIWYG. Result: a broken code editor.

See example.

This is what we had setup, and our users were starting to notice.

So a couple of weeks ago I spent some time trying to figure out what was going on, and figured out a crude way to toggle between the handleSubmit behaviors when the user toggles between the views. It isn’t very pretty, but it works.

See solution.

I’m looking forward to when this gets integrated into the final RTE.

Side Note on Our Choice of Editor

We chose to use the YUI RTE because of it’s ability to integrate into any backend system and support image upload and inserting. We love using TinyMCE and their slick uploader on PHP projects, but CityGates is Ruby on Rails.

Updated April 23, 2009

jQuery Cycle Different Effects for Previous and Next

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:10:00 -0700

jQuery Cycle plugin is fantastic. However, there is a little bit of inconsistantcy when using it as a left/right slideshow. You click the next arrow, it goes right. You click the previous arrow, it goes ~~left~~ right. The following code allows you to have different effects based on previous/ next button clicks.

Demo

jQuery(document).ready(function(){




		$('#blink_headlines').cycle({ 

	    fx:      	'scrollBothWays',

			next:   	'#cycle_next_blue',

			prev: 		'#cycle_prev_blue',

	    speed:  	1000,

	    timeout: 	0,

			pause:   	1,

			easeIn:   'easeOutBack',

			easeOut:  'easeOutBack'

		});

});





$.fn.cycle.transitions.scrollBothWays = function($cont, $slides, opts) {

	$cont.css('overflow','hidden');

	opts.before.push($.fn.cycle.commonReset);



	// custom transition fn (trying to get it to scroll forward and backward)

	opts.fxFn = function(curr, next, opts, cb, fwd) {

		

		var w = $cont.width();

		opts.cssFirst = { left: 0 };

		opts.animIn	  = { left: 0 };

		

		if(fwd){

			opts.cssBefore= { left: w, top: 0 };

			opts.animOut  = { left: 0-w };

		}else{

			opts.cssBefore= { left: -w, top: 0 };

			opts.animOut  = { left: w };

		};

		

		var $l = $(curr), $n = $(next);

		var speedIn = opts.speedIn, speedOut = opts.speedOut, easeIn = opts.easeIn, easeOut = opts.easeOut, animOut = opts.animOut, animIn = opts.animIn;

		$n.css(opts.cssBefore);

		var fn = function() {$n.show();$n.animate(animIn, speedIn, easeIn, cb);};

		$l.animate(animOut, speedOut, easeOut, function() {

			if (opts.cssAfter) $l.css(opts.cssAfter);

			if (!opts.sync) fn();

		});

		if (opts.sync) fn();

	};

};

My Dreams Concern Me

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:29:33 -0800

Nathan: Why are you here?
German1: We're looking for Marius Deboucher.
Nathan: Who?
German2: Marius Deboucher. You know. The chess player.
Nathan: ...
German1: Marius Deboucher, the greatest offensive castling chess player in the world!
Nathan: I'm afraid not.
German1 and German2: (singing a jingle) "Knight to check. Rook to Queen's pawn six. Checkmate. You've been Marius Debouched!"
Nathan: ...

Prototype AutoSelect with Category Subdivision

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:44:57 -0800

Prototype AutoSelect with Category Subdivision:

Proof of Concept

Cast: Nathan Colgate

TinyMCE ImageManager and Symbolic Links

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:40:00 -0800

Solved:

If using capistrano and you have a symlinked shared directory which exists between deployments.
set preview.wwwroot to /var/www/apps/application/shared/
and filesystem.rootpath to /var/www/apps/application/shared/system

(assuming you want to save files in system).

This avoids the symlinks and allows tinymce to translate the paths properly.

-via pyrat

nathancolgate: Currently not a fan of the lack of good YUI documentation: this.getRecordSet().getRecord(this.getSelectedRows()[0])._oData.Index

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:20:46 -0700

nathancolgate: Currently not a fan of the lack of good YUI documentation: this.getRecordSet().getRecord(this.getSelectedRows()[0])._oData.Index