automagically.co.uk

I've been playing around with various book related sites, gems, plugins etc. in order to get my next web application up and running.

In order to get some seed data for the website (as a test), I also used Hpricot to scrape some sites, I just wanted to nod towards an amazing tool - although I'm also looking into HTTParty in this space.

The gem I settled on to get deep information on books was the Amazon ECS gem by Pluit Solutions (who are also behind BookJetty).

I'm hoping to get the site up and running in (very limited) beta soon, as I had a few days off from work last week and was able to make huge advances on it.

Please stay tuned...

Taking yesterday's learnings with Ruby and Sinatra, I decided to make my app in less than 24 hours.

Now, the application is a starting point for a large app that I have in mind for authr.co.uk, and it only allows you to search and find articles on Wikipedia (so nothing amazing!)

I'm using Hpricot, the Wikipedia API.and the MediaCloth gem to cobble together something of use to me in a short timeframe.

I'll be improving the application over the next few days hopefully (given time) and adding features along with fixing bugs, but I'm impressed with my ability to stick to a plan (getting the app up) and learning new things fast!

Any feedback, please leave a comment.

Yesterday afternoon, after being sent home from work early, I thought I'd try out Sinatra as a way of learning more Ruby

I've been needing to learn more in-depth Ruby for a while, and looking for an excuse to do so, being bored yesterday was one reason, and Sinatra sounded cool, so I thought I'd give it a go!

It literally is as easy as it says in the docs, and below is all you need for your Hello, World! application:

  require 'rubygems'
  require 'sinatra' 

  get '/' do
    "Hello, World!" 
  end

Off to have more fun, and hoping to launch my first app before the weekend is out!

Okay, first off, I’m starting a blog (again!) a tad after the world and his dog has caught on and has one of their own.

I’ve had personal blogs before, but never seemed to stick to them, so this one is going to be technical, and will be about my experiences in both my day job and company life.

I’m doing this for a number of reasons, but this time it’s for real…

  # starting all over again
  previous_blogs.destroy_all
  this_blog = Blog.new()