Errata for Rails Recipes

#43308: Not sure whether the code here is correct in Rails 2.3.x
What I have working so far is:

module ApplicationHelper

class TabularFormBuilder < ActionView::Helpers::FormBuilder
(field_helpers - %w(check_box radio_button hidden_field)).each do |selector|
define_method "#{selector}" do |field, *options|
@template.content_tag("tr",
@template.content_tag("td", field.to_s.humanize + ":") +
@template.content_tag("td", super))
end
end
end
end
--Patrick Mulder

#25410: I'm not sure of the version of the text used in what I saw, because it is the pdf extract for "Rails Without a Database" (I do not currently have an actual copy of the book, or the full pdf).

Anyway, on page 53 the example DatabaselessApplication/lib/tasks/clear_database_prerequisites.rake does not really work. If you use the example code given, rake test_units will not run any of your unit tests. The task which actually needs to have its prerequisites cleared is test:units, not test_units. Clearing test_units prereqs causes the unit tests to not be run at all. Here is code I'm using in my database-less rails app to make all the rake test_* tasks work:

[:'test:units', :'test:functionals', :'test:recent', :'test:uncommitted', :'test:integration'].each do |name|
Rake::Task[name].prerequisites.clear
end
--Nick

#29175: Recipe 19, "Tagging Your Content", uses a plugin that is no longer available. Attempting to follow the book fails at the first step (script/plugin install acts_as_taggable). The plugin is now considered legacy, as per DHH comment on dev.rubyonrails.org. The book needs to instruct on how to retrieve a legacy plugin, or (preferred) be updated with one of the community-supported tagging systems (agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/search?search=acts_as_taggable)

#31094: script/plugin discover
script/plugin install acts_as_versioned
--- This doesn't work

chapter.version
--- This doesn't work either

As I got the book specifically for acts_as_versioned - I have to say I was quite dissapointed--Ran Moshe

#25356: In the 2nd example of versioning, the one that introduces chapter.revert_to(2), I don't understand the final version number. The example starts with 3 versions, then revert_to is supposed to add a new version according to the text, and then the title is modified and chapter.save is called. This should then bump up the versions again, so the final chapter.version should be 5. Ok, if that's not correct, then perhaps you could clarify the explanation a little :-).--Thorsten

#25845: Halfway down the page, you have the simplified signin action. At the bottom of the page, you pring the the entire controller, but the signin method there is missing the "if request.post?" test.--Eric Wagoner

#33166: Don't know is this is Rails 2.x specific, but self.password_salt, self.password_hash = salt, Digest::SHA256.hexdigest(pass+salt) should be self[:password_salt] = salt
self[:password_hash] = Digest::SHA2.hexdigest(pass+salt)

--Christopher Villalobos

#26436: model_class = Object.const_get(table.classify) should be
model_class = Object.const_get(table.to_s.classify)

Otherwise you get an error NoMethodError: undefined method `classify' for :contacts:Symbol

if you pass in :contacts as shown in the example --Jim Morris

#30703: At least using Rails 2.0.2, I get an "unknown table roles_users" message when I run this recipe. I had to add a new migration to rename roles_users to users_roles in order to get the code to execute without errors. So I think that the AddRolesAndRightsTables migration may need an update.--Ben Kimball

#29373: The calculation in def session_expiry:
@time_left = (session[:expires_at] - Time.now).to_i
fails with the following error message:
NoMethodError (You have a nil object when you didn't expect it!
You might have expected an instance of Array.
The error occurred while evaluating nil.-):
when the expiry time is exceeded. This method actually requires code such as:
if Time.now < session[:expires_at]
@time_left = (session[:expires_at] - Time.now).to_i
else
reset_session
render '/session/redirect'
end--Jon Seidel

#27556: The setup() method suggested doesn't appear to work with current Rails (1.2) -- namely the last line. An update to this recipe would be nice in future editions.--James H

#24933: Globalization example does not work.

Since I'm still waiting for the printed book and have no access to the beta, I'm referering to the excerpt (so this error might have been fixed already).

Before you can switch the locale and create a translation (here in ar-LB) you need to explicitely save and reload the record with the base locale.

For more info see here:

http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/65900#79816 --Martin Bernd Schmeil

#38079: In the example "SecretURLs/app/models/inbox.rb" the line

@attributes['access_key'] = MD5.hexdigest((object_id + rand(255)).to_s)

should read

@attributes['access_key'] = Digest::MD5.hexdigest((object_id + rand(255)).to_s)

the class also needs to require 'Digest' at some point.

--Scott Grimmett

#25048: It seems that if you call the view for the HTML part "multipart_alternative", as is suggested in the manual, Rails will use this as the first part of the email, as well as the HTML part. This produces a three part email, instead of the desired two, and Mail at least presumes that the first part is the plain text alternative, which causes some problems. When I changed the name of the view being called to "multipart_alternative_rich" this solved the problem.--James Doy

#27273: The code from notifier.rb as it stands doesn't work in the latest version of Rails because Rails automagically inserts the contents of multipart_alternative first (but without @name resolving) and then inserts the two parts as coded. This can be fixed by renaming multipart_alternative to multipart_alternative_html and altering the render_message accordingly.

This whole setup should have been tested on more than one (Mac-based) email agent. Google mail only displays the plain text section; Outlook only displays the HTML section.--Old Dog