Update: Social Network Ruby on Rails Applications

Update 28/1/09 : Added El-Dorado

Update 27/1/09 : Added OneBody
Update 12/2/09: Added EchoWaves, OpenMind and Forulio

One of my current consulting positions, involves a startup company with a great idea and a great social network implementation idea.
For that matter, i have been scavenging the web lately for Rails based social netowrking plugins, Engines or maybe even a skeleton application for those guys and i found some very good solution apps and infrastructures, the only problem rails Rails 2.0 compatibility (which i didn't check yet, and some don't indicate) and Documentation, which seem to be neglected on almost all those apps.

So, Here's the current list:

LovdByLess
include blogs, user profiles, photo uploads, forums, friendships and user-to-user messaging funcionallity.
Looks great and has a great look and feel.
Comes as a full application under MIT license.


CommunityEngine
A Rails engine, now supports Rails 2.0.
Gives you the basic functionality for a social networking site. It includes features such as User pages, forums, uploads, geo searches, blogging and more.
Important to say that extending the basic engine with your own controllers and models, is supposed to be easy and simple, i am currently testing it out so i don't really have an opinion yet.
Documentation has to be improved though, a lot.

TOG, presentation
TOG is basically a package of features (in the form of plugins) which you can choose to add to your applications as one, or as a whole.
Using these prepackaged and automated features should let you focus on the real key point about social networks: keep the conversation going with your members. If you’re just starting a social site or wants to polish your community with lovely social capabilities maybe you should give tog a try.

Insoshi
Features include:

• Activity feed
  
• Personal profiles with photo upload and comment walls
  
• Internal messaging system with read/replied/trashed messages
  
• Contacts list
• Blogs with comments
• Discussion forum
• Search for profiles, forums, and blogs
• Admin panel with site preferences
• Option for email verification and activity notifications

Documentation is kind of missing here too.

LuvFoo
Under developement, but runs several sites at the moment,
include some neat features on top of the plain simple ones, such as API and CMS intergration.


OneBody
Although i am not sure why they indicate their audience as Churches (?), it looks like a good social framework with a lot of features such as:

• Membership Management | aka ChMS
• Online Directory | search, print
• Groups | email lists, attendance tracking
• Social Networking | friends, favorites
• Content Management System | page editing

and more, read on in the Wiki manual


El-Dorado
Looks nice and packed, a pretty live demo site too.
Features include:

• Forum
• Group chat
• Event calendar
• File sharing
• Random headers
• Avatars
• Themes
• Privacy settings
  

EchoWaves

This is a group chat social network application. You can start conversations and connect wih other users while discussing it.
It is possible to make a conversation read-only for presenting a content too.

Openmind

Openmind enables you to create a collaborative environment for collecting the thoughts of your customers/collagues on a product/service.
User can discuss online about an idea & vote for the features. Admin can mark the most-requested features as "to be included in next releases" & users get informed from this. A nice application for creating a constructive community.

Forulio

Forulio is a Ruby on Rails forum application with a similar approach to popular forum softwares like phpBB or vBulletin.
It supports sub-forums, has a monitoring page for viewing the activity and has tagging integrated.

Other resources:

• A Post at Hykoo.com about the hunt for a rails social networking solution.
• Agilewebdevelopment.com Plugins depot, Many plugins that may fit your social network needs and features.
  
• a book, Practical Rails Social Networking Sites (Expert’s Voice) : By Alan Bradburne: Supports Rails 2.0, worth every penny (we use it as a training guide for new developers).
• Great step by step guide to create a social network in rails up on MissingMethod blog, it's pretty while back so i suggest trying to find some recent plugin replacements though.
  

Noura Yehia: 45+ JQuery user interface plugins you must use

The web is different these days, i remember the days when anchoring (<a name="jumphere">) were considered as magic.
These days, following the overwhelming outburst of javascript frameworks, it's getting easier and simpler to generate extended, usable, fun and sexy interface.
This 45+ JQuery user interface plugins you must use list, is packed with some slick design and usability supplements that should be strongly condered when choosing a javascript framework and user interface guidelines for your application.

Drew Douglass: The 20 Most Practical and Creative Uses of jQuery

• 
  

  James Padolsey Color Switcher

  
  One of our sporadic writers, James Padolsey, has a nice feature on his website. A "customize" bar in the top right portion of the screen allows you to change the background color of the header.
  Visit Site
  
• 
  

  Dragon Interactives jQuery Navigation

  
  These guys are pretty much Gods of web design, and their site really proves it. Just have a look at the custom jQuery navigation they used on their homepage. Have you ever seen such a sexy navigation in your life?
  Visit Site
  
• 
  

  FamSpams FaceBox

  
  FamFamFam needed a custom lightbox like script for FamSpam (whew, say that three times). They ended up building what is now know as FaceBox, which replicates the effects of lightbox, but goes above and beyond by allowing you to load in static html pages, contact forms, anything you wish really! FaceBox is now a jQuery plugin after all the demand for their script.
  Visit Site
  
• 
  

  Grooveshark Widget Creator

  
  Instead of going with a typical flash menu/control menu, Grooveshark mixed it up a bit and built a custom jQuery script to allow you to make your own music widgets; pretty nifty indeed.
  Visit Site
  
• 
  

  CSS-Tricks Fade-In Navigation

  
  CSS-Tricks, by Chris Coyier, is next up on the list with a wonderfully simple and creative jQuery navigation. When the links are hovered over, instead of immediately changing colors, jQuery is used to help the color fade slowly to the desired color.
  Visit Site
  
• 
  

  David Walsh Link Nudge

  
  Developer David Walsh of DavidWalsh.name implements an extremely simple to use script to give your links a little nudge on hover. The script utilizes the strong animation capabilities of jQuery triggered on hover. Check out the links in the sidebar and in the footer to see the effect in action.
  Visit Site
  
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  CarrotCreative-Custom Sites Lightbox

  
  If you check out the CarrotCreative website, you will actually notice two really unique jQuery effects. Firstly, if you click on sites in the upper left, you will see a unique application of a 'lightbox' like effect listing their sites and icons. Secondly, if you click on any navigation links, you will notice there is no refresh, but that the new page just slides in from the right. Cool stuff!
  Visit Site
  
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  BrightCreative Portfolio

  
  Another "two for one" special, Bright Creative uses an extremely subtle glow effect in their navigation that is very calming and warm. In addition, all of their portfolio pages have a tabbing effect, so their is no need for the user to refresh the page every time - thanks to AJAX and jQuery.
  Visit Site
  
• 
  

  Incredible Login Form

  
  Not too long ago, Connor Zwick wrote us a nice tutorial that demonstrates exactly how to build an amazing drop-down login form.
  Visit Site
  
• 
  

  Application Scroller by Aviary

  
  It would be an insult to call this a type of 'marquee' (shivers uttering that word). Instead, Aviary came up with a very nice looking and functioning 'scroller' to showcase a lot of text in a small amount of space. Even better is that the scroller will degrade gracefully is javascript is disabled.
  Visit Site
  
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  Featured Fade Effect by DesignFlavr

  
  DesignFlavr, known for their great sources of design inspiration, put together a simple fadeIn/fadeOut script to showcase their featured artwork and corresponding descriptions. Also, they've used the lavalamp plugin quite well on their main navigation.
  Visit Site
  
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  Hv-Designs Fade In RSS Icon

  
  On the Hv-Designs homepage, you will notice the the RSS icon starts off as an outline/sketch of the actual image. Then, when hovered, the rss icons 'glows' into place.
  Visit Site
  
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  Asylums Custom Scroller

  
  Besides being an absolutely hilarious website, Asylum has their own sweet 'featured articles' scrolling script. It's hard to put a finger on why this one is so nice, but that is probably because it behaves slightly differently than most scrolling scripts. It almost seems to snap into place after you give it a click.
  Visit Site
  
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  5 Javascript Tricks Made Easy with jQuery

  
  Brian Reindel created a webpage showcasing 5 custom scripts you can use however you like. The article takes ideas and previous javascript techniques frequently used and utilizes jQuery to make them powerful, compact, and easy to read.
  Visit Site
  
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  Codas Entire Website

  
  Coda is well known for its amazing UI and site design. It set a fire under the jQuery plugin community by inspiring many developers to re create their page tabbing effect. In addition, they have a wonderful on hover effect on the links located in the header.
  Visit Site
  
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  Clark Lab Fading Effect

  
  ClarkLab is a well known and very successful author on ThemeForest. If you visit his portfolio below, you will notice the large header images eventually fade to the next, showcasing all of his latest work. The fade effect is so well done and subtle, you barely notice the new image showing up.
  Visit Site
  
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  Rob Young | E is for Effort

  
  Designer and Art Director Rob Young used a unique idea of displaying his artwork on a simulated Mac screen. Then using jQuery scrolling effects, each new page slides into the page view as if it is being loaded on a computer.
  Visit Site
  
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  Web Designer Wall

  
  Besides being a visually stunning website, WDW features some unique custom jQuery scripting to add classes to certain elements on hover. Check out the effects when the rss and navigation items are hovered over.
  Visit Site
  
• 
  

  KomodoMedia

  
  I've saved my absolute favorite site for last. First, just look at that design, it's wonderfully unique and comforting. Using one of the most creative jQuery scripts I have ever seen, KM has a 'foliage-o-meter' slider where sliding it either increases or decreases the foliage and design of the theme, depending on the direction the slider is moved. For an easter egg be sure to check out the source code!
  Visit Site
  

attachment_fu and minimagick resize bug

In one of my latest projects i was using the attachement_fu plugin to handle image uploads.
The attachement_fu plugin enables the option to select an image processor engine between ImageScience, Rmagick add MiniMagick:

1. Rmagick
   Kinda bulky, leaking but fully functional
   
2. MiniMagick
   Simple version of Rmagick, simple and small.
3. ImageSceince
   Small, nice, and quick.

i decided to use MiniMagick as my processor, i installed the gem:

 sudo gem install mini_magick

and added a specific :processor option to my Logo model.

has_attachment :content_type => :image, 
                   :storage => :file_system, 
                   :max_size => 2.megabytes,
                   :resize_to => 'x100',
                   :processor => :mini_magick

but when i was uploading an image, i was was expecting it to be resized based on the options i specified in the model. imagine how surprised i was when i found out that the image is not being resized.

checking the log found the following error:

Exception working with image: ImageMagick command (identify "/var/folders/Bv/Bvbna8-OH548ZWju8naF4U+++TI/-Tmp-/minimagick11451-0") failed: Error Given 32512

Googling it didn't help me much (except from finding other people with the same problem), so i decided to switch to ImageScience instead (RMagick is out of the question of course).

 sudo gem install image_science

this will include all most all dependencies, the freeImage dependency is also needed.
us mac/darwin users can simply use port:

  sudo port selfupdate
  sudo port install freeimage

now change the processor in the model

has_attachment :content_type => :image, 
                   :storage => :file_system, 
                   :max_size => 2.megabytes,
                   :resize_to => 'x100',
                   :processor => :image_science

and now it's working. yeah!.

Update: Rails 2.1 globalize plugin - Fix

I am using globalize since ever, I always prefered it over gettext or what ever taylor made i18n solution out there.
It seems to be that there is a problem with the action method of date_select, or if to be more specific, the month_select helper produces a "wrong number of arguments" exception... I droped the usage of the globalize plugin for meantime... But I am really looking forward for a real solution... Anyone?

Update
i found a post a about a Rails 2.1 compliant Globalize plugin release. it is currently working for me with no special problems.

Installation:


script/plugin install git://github.com/heythisisnate/globalize.git


Number to english

num_to_english is my first plugin, i kinda thought it would become a nice addition to the Fixnum class in Ruby.

num_to_english hooks up to the Fixnum class and enables the use of the to_english method as follows

eizesus@eizesus-desktop:~/Projects/testing/trunk$ script/console
Loading development environment.
>> 3.to_english
=> "three"
>> 12.to_english
=> "twelve"
>> 34.to_english
=> "thirty-four"
>> 100.to_english
=> "one hundred"
>> (100 + 321).to_english
=> "four hundred twenty-one"
>> 12312311.to_english
=> "twelve million, three hundred twelve thousand, three hundred eleven"


get it from http://svn.creopolis.com/num_to_english/trunk

Site Mapping

One of the basic elements for each medium sized web-sites and above, is the site map.
when using rails, mapping in not so easy because the object oriented routing which makes it hard to distinct between regular actions and some "maintenance" actions.

I decided to prepare a small library (for now, extensions will be welcomed) which contains 3 basic mapping functions.

The first 2 are pretty custom made for my current project and will be irrelevant for the most of you, but the third is brought to you straight from the oven.

def site_map(path = RAILS_ROOT + "/app/controllers/")
collector = Hash.new
tree = Dir.entries(path).delete_if {|entry| entry.slice(0,1) == "."}
tree = tree.delete_if {|entry| entry.include?('application_controller.rb')}
unless tree.empty?
for element in tree
element = element.gsub('_controller', '')
if element.include?('.rb')
element = element.gsub('.rb', '')
collector['File-' + element] = element.camelize
else
collector['Dir-' + element] = site_map(path + '/' + element)
end
end
end
return collector
end


as you probably noticed, the site_map method returns a Hash.
regular controllers are returned with a key in this format. 'File-', so ClientsController for example will be issued a 'File-Clients' key.
Sub folders will be hashed as well and the same, except that the directory element's key will be in the format of 'Dir-'

Enjoy.