Ruby on Rails - Testing with Multiple Databases

I ran into errors when running tests for a Rails app using multiple databases. When testing, fixtures are automatically inserted into the primary database, and I was getting an error on an unused default fixture that was created when I built the model tied to the second database. Removing that fixture got my tests to pass...

More info here:

http://www.elctech.com/2007/3/8/using-and-testing-rails-with-multiple-databases
http://www.elctech.com/2007/5/30/using-and-testing-multiple-databases-in-rails-part-2

and on multiple databases in general:

http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowtoUseMultipleDatabases
http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowtoUseMultipleDatabasesWithFixtures

jQuery

I've been using the jQuery Javascript library a lot lately and it's definitely become my favorite library. (I've written four plugins in the last couple months to boot)

Here are a few links to useful jQuery resources.

jQuery: The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library
jQuery UI: Widgets, Components, and Interaction
Plugins - jQuery JavaScript Library
jQuery Blog
Learning jQuery
Visual jQuery
IBM developerWorks: Simplify Ajax development with jQuery

composite_primary_keys.gem

Ruby on Rails does not support composite primary keys and a legacy database I'm working with has lots of them...after a quick search I found this useful Gem:

composite_primary_keys.

Easy Restful Rails Screencast

http://www.akitaonrails.com/2008/1/25/easy-restful-rails-screencast

10 Ruby on Rails Plugins You Should Be Using

Media72: 10 Ruby on Rails Plugins You Should Be Using

jQuery: Cookie Plugin

I've become a big fan of jQuery and have contributed two small plugins myself, so when it came time to switch to a library for cookie manipulation with Javascript (time to replace all that nasty inline JS code) my first choice was jQuery.

Not to be disappointed, I found that Klaus Hartl has written a very slim and useful Cookie Plugin for jQuery.

Here's a small page test using the jQuery Cookie plugin:

<html>
<head>
  <title>jquery cookie</title>

  <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.2.1.min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.cookie.js"></script>

  <script type="text/javascript">

    $(function($) {

      function displayMessage(msg) {
        $('#message').html(msg).css({color: 'green'});
      }

      displayMessage('jQuery cookie plugin test');

      $('#setSessionCookie').click(function() { 
        $.cookie('test', 'Hmmm, cookie');
        displayMessage("Cookie 'test' has been set.");
      });

      $('#setCookie').click(function() {
        $.cookie('test', 'Hmmm, cookie', { expires: 7 });
        displayMessage("Cookie 'test' has been set and will expire in 7 days.");
      });

      $('#getCookie').click(function() {
        displayMessage("The value of the cookie named 'test' is: " + $.cookie('test'));
      });

      $('#deleteCookie').click(function() {
        $.cookie('test', null);
        displayMessage("Cookie 'test' has been deleted.");
      });

      $('#testCookiesEnabled').click(function() {
        $.cookie('testcookiesenabled', null);
        $.cookie('testcookiesenabled', 'enabled');
        if ($.cookie('testcookiesenabled')) {
          displayMessage("Cookie: "+ $.cookie('testcookiesenabled'));
        } else {
          displayMessage("Cookies disabled");
          $.cookie('testcookiesenabled', null);
        }
      });

    });

  </script>

</head>

<body>

<p><span id="message" style="forecolor: red;"></span>

<p><input type="button" id="testCookiesEnabled" value="Cookies enabled?"/></p>

<p><input type="button" id="setSessionCookie" value="Set session cookie"/></p>

<p><input type="button" id="setCookie" value="Set cookie expires in  7 days"/></p>

<p><input type="button" id="getCookie" value="Show cookie value"/></p>

<p><input type="button" id="deleteCookie" value="Delete the cookie"/></p>

</body>
</html>

My jQuery cookie demo using jquery.cookie.js

ASP.NET GridView - Header always bold

GridView uses a table and creates a <th> tag for the header, which will bold all the text generated by the GridView. Here's a simple solution:

Set a style:

<style>
.GridViewHeaderStyle th {
  font-weight: normal;  
}
</style>

And apply it to your GridView:

<asp:GridView ID="grdSomeGrid" runat="server" CssClass="GridViewHeaderStyle">
...
</asp:GridView>