New version of Starter Toolkit for DB2 on Rails is available!

It has only been short 5 months since we released the first Starter Toolkit for DB2 on Rails v1.0. Since then we released v1.1 in mid-June, version 2.0 on October 4 and in early November we released version 2.1. This is agile release schedule for an agile development technology.
If you did not get version 2.1 yet, go to IBM alphaWorks at http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/db2onrails. This new version includes final version of the DB2 Express – C 9; improved handling of LOBs, BLOBs, and XML data types; and significant performance and quality improvements.

Posted by Leon Katsnelson | December 05 2006 | Announcements | 2 Comments »

DB2 on Rails at IDUG Europe in Vienna

International DB2 User Group (IDUG) European Conference gets under way tomorrow Monday October 2 in Vienna, Austria at the Hilton Vienna. IDUG conferences are an excellent way to learn the latest DB2 technologies and to learn the tips and tricks from the fellow DB2 users.
This year, there is also going to be something new. We will be announcing version 2.0 of the Starter Toolkit for DB2 on Rails. This third release in 4 months delivers much improved performance, support for XML data type and improved support for LOB and BLOB data types. Also much improved are Rails migrations. And as with the previous versions, version 2.0 provides an integrated installer that build a complete development environment of Ruby on Rails and DB2. It includes a free copy of DB2 Express – C. This s a full function DB2 data server that is free to develop, deploy distribute and, unlike other database “Express” database offerings does not have limits on either the size of the database or the number of users. There is also no time limit.
To help DB2 community gain experience with Ruby on Rails I will be presenting a 2-part session on Wednesday October 4 at 1:30. This is session F10Ruby on Rails: Introducing a real gem of DB2 application development (Part 1 and 2). People attending this session will be the first ones to receive a CD-ROM containing Starter Toolkit for DB2 on Rails 2.0.

Posted by Leon Katsnelson | October 01 2006 | Conferences | Comments Off

Madison Area Technical College teaches Ruby on Rails

There are tree tell-tale signs technology has gone mainstream. One, books are selling and new books are being written. Ruby and Rails books have done very well. “Agile Web Development with Rails” won the Jolt award for the best technical book and Dave Thomas is hard at work on the second edition of the book that will ship immanently. I bought a beta copy and I really like what I see. I also liked Bruce Tate’s book “From Java to Ruby Things Every Manager Should Know”. I think I fit the target audience for this book. There are half a dozen or so major publishers getting Ruby and Rails books ready.

The second sign is conference attendance. Ruby and Rails conferences this year have sold out in record time. IBM sponsored this year’s RailsConf and introduced Starter Toolkit for DB2 on Rails. This was a great conference by the way. These conferences are for people who have already discovered Ruby and Rails. What is likely be more surprising to some people is that IBM DB2 conferences are now featuring Ruby on Rails. These conferences are targeting IT professionals in some of the largest enterprises, no social networking start-ups here. I will be presenting two one-hour sessions at the IDUG Europe in Vienna. We are also going to have a booth highlighting DB2 on Rails at the Information on Demand conference in Anaheim in October.

Last but not least, colleges and universities are offering courses on the subject. This article in Wisconsin Technology Network gives a good summary of the momentum behind Ruby on Rails and talks about the new Ruby on Rails class Eric Knapp is teaching at the Madison Area Technical College. According to the article Eric filled this class to capacity with little or no marketing. When classes for previously unknown technologies fill up just by the word of mouth, we can safely say that that technology has reached the mainstream.

Posted by Leon Katsnelson | September 17 2006 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

Speeding up the ibm_db2 adapter

If you would like to speed up the current 1.1 version of the adapter included in the Starter Toolkit for DB2 on Rails, you can replace the ‘tables’ and ‘colums’ methods from within the ibm_db2_adapter.rb file, with this code here.

This change will allow you to significantly boost your performance level when working with Rails and DB2. As you may note, the crucial change here relies on the fact that a slow driver call is replaced with an ad hoc query to the SYSCAT.

Naturally this will be included with the next toolkit release, which will be out soon.

Posted by Antonio Cangiano | August 21 2006 | Tips&Tricks | Comments Off

IBM DB2 and migrations

There’ve been a few questions about migrations and the IBM DB2 adapter. I’ve written a short list that explains what transformations are supported and what are not so far.

Posted by Antonio Cangiano | June 27 2006 | How-to | Comments Off

DB2 on Rails at RailsConf: Day One - Dave Thomas’s keynote

Dave Thomas opened the conference with his keynote and it absolutely struck the right cord with me. His message was both blunt and simple: “For Ruby on Rails to succeed i.e. to gain much wider adoption it must embrace legacy i.e. the stuff that already exists.” Given the fact that I spend all of my time in the enterprise, I could not agree more. Dave talked about 3 challenges but the one that I really resonated with me (the all did) the challenge of embracing data integration. Active Record is an incredibly elegant piece of technology. The value that derives form DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) can not be overstated. But Active Record fails to exploit constraints that are already defined in most databases. In a typical enterprise application you will have data architects and DBAs spend significant effort to define constraints on the data that reflect real world business rules. So why is it that that the framework that espouses to live and die by the principle of DRY makes programmers respecify these constraints in the Active Record instead of just using what has already been specified in the database? It just makes sense for Active Record to build validations from the constraints that are defined in the database. This would take Rails from “elegant” to “brilliant”. I do not mean any disrespect towards the Rails programmers, they really are cream of the crop … but in an enterprise application you simply will not have all of the information to do all of the validations to enforce all of the business rules and constraints. Not over a span of many years (decades) that the application will stay in production. One thing that is true about data gathered by successful applications is that is always accessed by other applications. This is why enterprise class database systems define and enforce constraints in the database. Given that their job is to is ensure data integrity no matter which application they serve, how can they not? I really hope that RoR community heads Dave Thomas’s call and makes Active Record really brilliant.

Posted by Leon Katsnelson | June 24 2006 | Announcements | 3 Comments »

New article on DB2 on Rails by Edd Dumbill

When you download Startup Toolkit for DB2 on Rails you get 3 flash movies that help to get you started. But these demos will only give you a taste. On the other hand there are many really good books out there on both Ruby and Rails but they don’t talk about DB2. Now there is also an article on developerDomain. This article is written by Edd Dumbill a guy with a lot of practical experience both doing and teaching Ruby on Rails. So, clear out 15 minutes on your calendar and point your browser to http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0606dumbill/ to read An introduction to Ruby on Rails for DB2 developers.

Posted by Leon Katsnelson | June 23 2006 | Announcements and How-to | Comments Off

DB2 on Rails at RailsConf: Day Zero

Well DB2 on Rails is finally at the RailsConf 2006. The start of this week was our preparation for the confernece that IBM is actually sponsoring. DB2 on Rails is a debutant in the Ruby on Rails world and RailsConf is its coming out party of sorts. Naturally we are all a bit nervous.

Posted by Leon Katsnelson | June 22 2006 | Conferences | Comments Off

How to connect Rails to DB2

I’ve just created a page that explains how to configure the database.yml file in Rails so that it works with the IBM DB2 adapter. You can find it here.

We plan to create an extensive FAQ section on this site, where we’ll address several of the main questions that we’ve been receiving over the past few weeks.

Posted by Antonio Cangiano | June 22 2006 | How-to | 2 Comments »

RailsConf 2006 is only 2 days away

This year IBM is sponsoring RailsConf in Chicago. Our sponsorship is in place to highlight the introduction of the Starter Toolkit for DB2 on Rails. If you are one of the lucky 550 or so attendees, you can pick up DB2 on Rails CD-ROM at the registration desk. If you are not coming to the conference, point your browser to Startup Toolkit for DB2 on Rails and download your own copy.

I am attending the conference. So, if you see me around, say hello. I’ll be the guy (or one of the guys) in a black golf shirt with DB2 on Rails logo. And I guess I should mention that my name is Leon Katsnelson but “DB2 guy” will also work. By the way, if you are going to the conference, you should check out RailsConf Facebook at http://facebook.railsconf.org/. Here is my entry.

Posted by Leon Katsnelson | June 20 2006 | Conferences | Comments Off