New support for Rails 2.1

Support for Rails 2.1 has been added to the latest version of the ibm_db gem (0.9.5). To install this version run gem install ibm_db on Windows. On Linux run the following:

$ . /home/db2inst1/db2profile
$ export IBM_DB_DIR=/opt/ibm/db2/V9.5
$ export IBM_DB_LIB=/opt/ibm/db2/V9.5/lib32
$ sudo gem install ibm_db

Adjust these commands for your paths, shell and architecture (e.g. 32 vs. 64 bits).

Please note that at this stage we don’t recommend that you download the outdated Starter Toolkit for DB2 on Rails. Instead, please grab and install DB2 Express-C, install Ruby through the One-Click Installer, install Rails through gems (gem install rails) and then proceed to install the ibm_db gem as explained above. When you install DB2, ensure to select the “Base application development tools” as illustrated here.

June 26 2008 | Announcements and How-to | 4 Comments »

DB2 and Rails 2.1

Rails 2.1 was released last week at RailsConf 2008, in Portland. Despite being a “minor version” increase from 2.0.2, it introduces quite a few changes. Some of these affect the DB2 adapter, so it is recommended that you don’t upgrade to Rails 2.1 yet.

The API team is fully aware of the outstanding issues and is working on bringing DB2 compatibility to Rails 2.1. An announcement in this blog will be made when a new release is available.

June 06 2008 | Announcements | 3 Comments »

Ruby for building Yahoo! BrowserPlus services?

There has been much discussion (if you can call it that) in the Ruby on Rails community regarding a need for using applications while disconnected. I happen to be believe that despite the proliferation of connectivity options, ability to use web applications off-line is absolutely crucial. So, I’ve been looking at various technologies for taking web applications off-line. I am a big fan of Adobe Flex partly because it can be used to produce web-based applications that run on Adobe Air. I’ve also been watching Google Gears (now unbranded from Google). Just a few days back Yahoo went for a “Sneak Peek” availability of their BrowserPlus. So, I decided to install Yahoo BrowserPlus and give it a try with a few Yahoo properties that use it today.

I tried the FlickrUploader demo and go this dialog. This is actually expected and it is a good thing. Basically, what this means is that FlickrUploader needs these services and BrowserPlus is offering me to activate them:

This dialog suggests that FlickrUploader needs Ruby.  I presume that this is because FlickrUploader is written at least in part using Ruby? After a bit more reading I am getting a feeling that we will be able to use Ruby to add extra functions and services to BrowserPlus. At least that is implied by all of the info I was able to find on the subject. Unfortunately, BrowserPlus is still in the “Sneak Peak” release mode (Yahoo must of run out of Greek letters) so it is not possible to try to add BrowserPlus capability to anything but a Yahoo operated site in Ruby or otherwise. I do however like the direction in which BrowserPlus seems to be heading and I love the fact that they chose to support Ruby.

Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention … at this point in time it is more of a promise than reality. I tried to activate the RubyInterpreter service and got “Not compatible”:

June 03 2008 | Musings | No Comments »