NovaRUG: Category Meetings

July 14: Radiant CMS: How to Understand, Use, and Extend It by Jim Gay

Gray Herter — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:15:00 -0400

Title: Radiant CMS: How to Understand, Use, and Extend It by Jim Gay

When: Weds July 14, 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Location:

Near Infinity HQ
1881 Campus Commons Drive Suite 205
Reston, VA 20191
Call 703 727-1307 (Gray's cell phone) if you have trouble getting in.

Parking: There is plenty of parking in the garage or out in front of the building.

Food: Pizza and Sodas will be provided by Near Infinity Corporation.

Description:

Take a walk through Radiant, one of the most popular Ruby content management systems in an exploration of the features and extension system.

In this discussion, we'll see the basics of content management with Radiant and talk about what it provides out of the box. Jim Gay, the lead developer of the project, will show off the latest release which has features for

internationalization
loading extensions from gems
updated user interface

He'll discuss peering into the way requests are routed to pages, using radiant with your other rails projects, extending the interface, and some common anti-patterns.

Speaker Bio:

Jim Gay is the founder of Saturn Flyer LLC, a design and development studio that bridges the gap between graphic designers and application developers.

Prior to founding Saturn Flyer he was a Senior Web Developer with WFI (now Kratos Defense & Security Solutions) where he lead UI development and wrote guidelines for application interface design and was the resident Section 508 expert.

He has been developing Ruby on Rails applications since 2006 and is the lead developer of Radiant CMS.

June 29: Curing DIV-itis with Semantic HTML, CSS and Presenters by John Athayde

Gray Herter — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:20:00 -0400

Title: Curing DIV-itis with Semantic HTML, CSS and Presenters by John Athayde (Get the slides as a PDF)

When: Tues June 29, 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Location: Near Infinity HQ, 1881 Campus Commons Drive Suite 205, Reston, VA 20191

Parking: There is plenty of parking in the garage or out in front of the building.

Food: Pizza and Sodas will be provided by Near Infinity Corporation.

Description:

In the world of web standards, semantic markup is one of those nebulous things that is often blogged about and oft forgotten in the throes of birthing a web application. Semantic markup is using HTML elements for what they are intended (e.g. a ul for a list instead of a div class=”list”). Not only does this make rendered documents easier to read from a hierarchy perspective, but it helps with search engines and reducing code.

In the last year since I’ve joined the staff at InfoEther, we’ve refactored a few sites that have come through, in many cases reducing some Rails partials from 80 lines of code down to 20. That partial was a list with a loop in it for a top-ten list. So, once processed, it rendered out to about 600 lines of code. After cleanup it came out to rendering out less than 100.

We’ve also utilized the Presenter pattern to take elements that occur regularly and remove them to presenters. CSS elements and stylesheets generated from Ruby, Navigation items that are added with one line of code and a few images, easy setup wizards, and more.

All these things can create better sites that run faster and are easier to work with.

Speaker Bio:

John is a interface and experience designer as well as programmer, filmmaker, musician, and occasional troublemaker. Prior to his current role at Northern Virginia’s Ruby on Rails consultancy, InfoEther, he ran the DC based UI/UX shop “Hyphenated People” with Amy Hoy. He also ran a 15 person creative team at a large e-commerce shop for two years. He released a short animated film, “The Sandbox”, with his company Meticulous in 2005. When he’s not emotionally attached to a website, he can be found performing in his band, Juniper Lane, or working on 3d animation and electronic music. He holds a Masters degree in Architecture (the building variety, not the information kind) from Catholic University of America. He takes entirely too many pictures of his cat.

Call 703 727-1307 (Gray's cell phone) if you have trouble getting in.

May 19: ActiveDocument and SproutCore (new location at Near Infinity)

Gray Herter — Sun, 09 May 2010 23:58:00 -0400

Title: An Introduction to ActiveDocument and All Your UIs Are Belong to SproutCore!

Agenda:

Free pizza and sodas at 6:30. Presentations start at 7 PM
FIrst Talk: Clark Richey presents an in-depth look at the new open source Ruby connector to MarkLogic, ActiveDocument.
Second Talk: Gray Herter presents an introduction to the SproutCore UI framework.

Registration: Register and Get Directions Here.

Location:
1881 Campus Commons Drive
Suite 205
Reston, VA 20191
Second Floor

Sponsor: Pizza and drinks graciously provided by:

First Talk: An Introduction to ActiveDocument

This talk takes an in-depth look at the new open source Ruby connector to MarkLogic, ActiveDocument. ActiveDocument is an ActiveDocument style object to XML mapping framework for XML databases (currently implemented only for MarkLogic). It allows developers to leverage the power of an XML database to find, create, update and delete XML documents within their XML database without having to write any XQuery code.

During this presentation we will talk briefly about the philosophy behind ActiveDocument and then we will start looking at the important classes and concepts that developers will need to understand in order to create applications with ActiveDocument. From there we will create a Rails application from scratch using ActiveDocument as our connection to our underlying MarkLogic XML server.

About the Speaker: Clark D. Richey, Jr. has spent over ten years architecting and implementing large scale software solutions for the federal government. Currently, Clark is the Principal Technologist, Federal and Community Champion with Mark Logic. Clark is also an adjunct professor with Loyola University where he teaches in their Master's of Computer Science program, where he is currently teaching Ruby on Rails. Clark has a Master's in Computer Science from American University and a Bachelor's in Computer Science from U.M.U.C.

Second Talk: All Your UIs Are Belong to SproutCore!

Gray Herter will introduce SproutCore, an application framework that aims to simplify the building of complex web-based UIs, and demonstrate how to use it in conjunction with Rails to create some fantastic apps.

SproutCore embraces several novel approaches to building web-based UIs. It uses only JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. This results in impressive user experiences without the need for browser plug-ins. To communicate with a server, SproutCore uses only RESTful Ajax calls. While SpourtCore maintains server technology independence, Rails makes a great partner to SproutCore UIs, providing the required access to backend web services.

About the Speaker: Gray Herter is a Senior Software Engineer at Near Infinity Corporation, the founder of DC's annual RubyNation software conference, and has taught and developed using Ruby and Rails since 2007.

April 9-10 - RubyNation Conference

Gray Herter — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:28:00 -0500

Register now for the RubyNation conference, the Nation Capital area's Ruby and Rails community conference. This year's RubyNation features many excellent speakers including Dave Thomas, Gregg Pollack, Jim Weirich, Joe O'Brien, Jeremy McAnally, Glenn Vanderburg, Nick Sieger, Neal Ford and lots of others.

When at Where: Apr 9-10 6 AM - 6 PM both days, at the Sheraton in Reston, Virginia.

To register or learn more click on the image below:

Note: Since this event is produced in conjunction with the NovaRUG, there will be no regular NovaRUG meeting in April.

Mar 3: Dynamic Generation of Images and Video with Ruby-Processing (plus Rails 3 Beta Overview)

Gray Herter — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:02:00 -0500

Agenda: Jeff Casimir will present "Dynamic Generation of Images and Video with Ruby-Processing" at the March meeting of the Northern VA Ruby Users Group.

Note: This meeting will feature Jeff's presentation, but will also now include a half-hour overview of the Rails 3 Beta (what's new and what to expect) provided by Chris Flipse.

When at Where: Mar 3rd from 6:30 PM - 9 PM at FGM, 12021 Sunset Hills Rd, Suite 400, Reston, VA 20175

Pizza and sodas at 6:30. Presentations start at 7 PM

Sponsored by:

To register for the NovaRUG Meeting: Click Here!

Description: Ruby-Processing is an awesome library which wraps Processing with a JRuby interpreter and a simple Ruby syntax. Using ruby-processing your Rails app can programmatically create complex images using static images, 2D shapes, 3D with OpenGL, animation and video.

We can leverage the power of Processing and existing Java libraries from the comfort of Ruby.

In this session we’ll take a quick look at ruby-processing to understand how it works, then add dynamic image creation to a sample Rails app. We’ll discuss the potential of leveraging Processing from Rails and layout directions for further research.

Speaker:

Jeff Casimir runs the respected Jumpstart Labs, where he will be glad to teach you Ruby, Rails, Flex, SQL, etc!

Feb 3: Shoutreel Mirco-Forums and the Grant Plug-In

Gray Herter — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:35:00 -0500

Agenda: Ammar Yousuf will present a behind the scenes look at Shoutreel, a micro-forum site and Jeff Kunkle will present Grant, a Rails security plug-in at the February meeting of the Northern VA Ruby Users Group.

When at Where: Feb 3rd from 6:30 PM - 9 PM at FGM, 12021 Sunset Hills Rd, Suite 400, Reston, VA 20175

Pizza and sodas at 6:30. Presentations start at 7 PM

Sponsored by:

Register: Click Here!

Description: Yousuf will present an overview of the design and features of Shoutreel, a micro-forum Rails site. This talk will include a discussion of the technical aspects of Shoutreel, including design choices and solutions.

Jeff Kunkle will present Grant, a Ruby on Rails plugin for securing access to your ActiveRecord model objects by declaratively specifying rules permitting CRUD operations on your models. This short talk will discuss the reasons for creating Grant and provide some short code examples demonstrating how to use it.

Speakers: Ammar Yousuf is the principal designer and developer of Shoutreel.

Jeff Kunkle is the Chief Technology Officer for Near Infinity and is the author of the Grant plug-in for Rails.

Dec 2: Debugging Ruby: Understanding and Troubleshooting the VM and Your Application by Aman Gupta

Gray Herter — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:37:00 -0500

Main Topic: Debugging Ruby: Understanding and Troubleshooting the VM and Your Application by Aman Gupta

When at Where: Dec 2nd from 6:30 PM - 9 PM at FGM, 12021 Sunset Hills Rd, Suite 400, Reston, VA 20175

Pizza and sodas at 6:30. Presentations start at 7 PM

Sponsored by:

Register: Click Here!

Description: A new presentation consisting of content from Aman's threading talk, which he has presented at various Ruby conferences, and add some newer stuff about ruby-level debugging.

Speaker: Aman Gupta is a serial entrepreneur, ruby hacker and a recent winner of a Ruby Heroes award. He currently maintains the EventMachine project and various other gems that help build high-performance distributed and asynchronous systems in ruby, including em-mysql, em-spec, jsSocket and amqp.

Most recently, Aman has been hacking on performance improvements to MRI, releasing several patches to ruby and perftools.rb, a sampling profiler for ruby code based on google-perftools.

Nov 4: ActiveScaffold and Stop Talking, Start Teaching: 5 Rules for Successful Communication

Gray Herter — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:56:00 -0400

Two Topics: ActiveScaffold by David Medinets and Stop Talking, Start Teaching: 5 Rules for Successful Communication by Jeff Casimir

When at Where: Nov 4th from 6:30 PM - 9 PM at FGM, 12021 Sunset Hills Rd, Suite 400, Reston, VA 20175

Pizza and sodas at 6:30. Presentations start at 7 PM

First Presentation: ActiveScaffold by David Medinets

ActiveScaffold is a tool that produces on-the-fly scaffolding that looks much better than the default Rails scaffolding. It uses Ajax to create, update, and delete without page reloads. Also, the scaffold is nearly totally customizable in well-documented ways. In this presentation, David will show how to use ActiveScaffold to produce a custom user interface while still letting the tool do the hard work of generating forms.

BIO: David Medinets has been programming since 1980, starting with a TRS-80 Model 1. He still fondly remembers the days when he could cross-wire the keyboard to create funny-looking characters on the display. Since those days, he has written three books teaching the Perl, PHP, and BASH languages. David is a SCRUM Master and expert application developer specializing in Ruby and Java. He is knowledgeable about the business domains of Insurance, Supply Chain, and Airline Inventory.

Second Presentation: Stop Talking, Start Teaching: 5 Rules for Successful Communication by Jeff Casimir

Some of the most important work we do as programmers involves pitching ideas. Whether it’s inside the team, searching for funders, or running demos for potential clients, we all need to present ideas and cultivate an audience.

The past decade has seen the rise of the presentation as an important communication medium, but few people do it well. There are many resources on how to make good-looking slides, but we need to focus on the method, structure, and content.

We don’t need to be “speakers” – we need to be teachers. In this session we’ll explore the five most essential rules to successful teaching and how they apply to you.

Attendees will, by the end of the session, have a framework for designing and critiquing their work and that of others. This new understanding will make them better teammates and more successful salespeople.

BIO: After majoring in Computer Systems Engineering Jeff joined Teach for America and began a career in education. He taught high school Computer Science for four years before moving into school administration. As a Vice Principal he was responsible for evaluating and hiring new teachers, observing and coaching existing teachers, and defining much of the school’s academic process. As part of that process, he built a “School Information System” (SIS) in Ruby that ran every aspect of the school.

Most of all, Jeff hates boring presentations. He wants everyone to Stop Talking, and Start Teaching.

Aug 27: Rails 101: Persistence Night

Gray Herter — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:09:00 -0400

Title: Rails 101: Persistence Night

When: Aug 27, 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Register: Click here to register.

Abstract: We have had several requests for some beginner topics lately, so I figured it was time for another Newbie event. This time we will concentrate on Rails persistence. We have three talks arranged. Additional short Rails persistence-related topics are welcomed if you want to propose one. It doesn't have to be strictly about the ActiveRecord.

First, Gray Herter will demonstrate creating a small, but complete and (relatively) realistic database-backed domain model using ActiveRecord.

Second, for an intermediate topic, Arild Shirazi will present an ActiveRecord replacement framework he recently created to wrap a legacy Java-based persistence component. It includes most of the expected ActiveRecord methods providing saves, finds, and validations.

And third, David Keener will present "Rails Tips and Best Practices," a compendium of Rails beginner tips, covering some query optimizations, some migration tactics, a few typical gotchas to watch out for, etc.

Any short topic that you think might pique the interest of someone curious about Rails persistence is fair game.

And don't forget to bring your Rails Newbie friends.

Bios: Gray Herter is a Project Manager leading a JRuby on Rails project for the US State Dept supporting international export control. Gray has worked with Rails since 2007, and also produces the RubyNation conference. Arild Shirazi is a software engineer at CodeSherpas with a background in Java EE and Rails, and former protein biochemist. David Keener speaks frequently at the NovaRUG. He is currently working on a Rails project for the US State Dept supporting video-based contests.

Where:

FGM, Inc
12021 Sunset Hills Rd, Suite 400
Reston, VA 20175

Call 703 727-1307 to get in (the outside door is locked after 6 PM).

July 15: Search using Sphinx and Thinking Sphinx, lessons learned by Christophe Lucas

Gray Herter — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:37:00 -0400

Title: Search using Sphinx and Thinking Sphinx, Lessons Learned

Food: Pizza and sodas will be provided.

Time: Weds July 15, 6:30 PM - 9 PM.

Note: Prior to the main talk, Charles Calvert will give a brief overview of the Independent Computer Consultants Association and its usefulness as a resource for both consultants and those hiring consultants.

Description: We all experienced how easy it is to get started with Sphinx and Thinking Sphinx but it becomes complex very quickly with sophisticated data models. We will talk about the folowing topics:

Indexing through has_many relationships using multi-value attributes and the limitations of that solution.

The goal of this presentation and discussion is to give and illustrate simple code solutions to solve common search problems using Sphinx and Thinking Sphinx.

Speaker: Christophe Lucas is currently the lead software engineer at VisualCV, Inc. Prior to VisualCV, he worked at Revolution Health Group, LLC, designing and developing web applications using the Ruby on Rails framework. He also developed desktop applications using Java at the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a guest researcher and at Meta Integration Technology. He is a firm believer in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and eXtreme Programming best practices.

Location:

FGM HQ,
12021 Sunset Hills Rd, Suite 400
Reston, VA 20190
Call 703 727-1307 (Gray) to get in.