There are many a folk who want to bring apps built upon Rails into the realm of the ever increasingly popular iPhone yet not too many tools may be available for use on the said platform. One that caught developer’s eyes is the rails-iphone-helper library that generates iPhone specific html tags that would allow you to go and tinker around with your iPhone.
The library download available here can be used free but apps must conform to widely accepted standards (whether from the community or Apple) for them to work properly. iPhones have captivated the world and with Apple seemingly trying their best to open their doors to the world they may have done so with the release of some secrets that have allowed the development of these extensions.

Developers should be aware of the most common forms of cross site problems that can weaken an apps security namely CSRF(Cross-Site Request Forgery) and XSS(Cross-Site Scripting) both of which can lead to infiltration or even hijacking of sessions by unauthorized people or programs that are designed to do just that. SQL injection is another way by which malware enters sites to hijack them, injecting code and doing stuff such as obtaining user information for use later. Robust security is key and should be taken seriously.

The internet is a very wide place to move through but that very movement poses serious threat to users and developers alike who aim to secure data from those who aim to use it for no good.

Ever gone through your code and discover stray or strange SQL code? Then you have been infiltrated by malware, injecting it with code that is meant to do anything they wish. Security can be improved by preventing such SQL injections, Executable files, users modifying parameters and unsecured stored passwords, all of these make for bad code and eventually failed security
One way is to prevent executable files from being uploaded for execution. Parameters that are sensitive should be filtered properly ensuring only legit ones are accepted. Ant attribute that you think can make or break down security, make it un-editable by using proper parameters.

Security is the first priority when it comes to ruby apps for without it, however robust and well thought of a program is, it’s bound to fail. Many developers have had recommendations on how to get about this but here are some of the most important points to consider when building and deploying Ruby Apps.

Authorization is two things, one is to allow people to get into the site/app and the other is to let people do things within the said app. Such is a case such as in WP which has different user levels, admin allowing you to do almost anything. Users can log-in and modify their profiles but other than that they are given no other rights. More tips in upcoming posts so do check back for more.

Because of its success, popularity and functionality, Ruby on Rails performs with an extensive variety of web servers and databases. Recommended for web servers would have to be Apache, lighttpd or nginx in place of Mongrel or it can be by means of FastCGI. Meanwhile, for database, the following have been suggested to be utilized: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2 and a lot more of servers that Ruby on Rails support and work well with. There is no limitation or strictly recommended on which operating system to use, but the best to make use of is a ‘nix-based one for deployment.

When it comes to infrastructure, Ruby on Rails is all over it. From start-ups to non-profits for venture projects of businesses, Rails can handle it. It is the best tool for almost whichever kind of web application (software collaboration, community, e-commerce, content management, statistics, management, etc). Shopify, Yellow Pages , Backpack, Github and Twitter are only some of web sites that uses Ruby on Rails. These web sites have trusted Ruby on Rails do manage their web applications that is made easy to use for people browsing, customers and people in need of the information provided by the web site.

Rip has quietly been making its way out into the world of Ruby, but the power it holds within is seen as the next generation packaging for Ruby Apps. The system that has come out is on the “development alpha” stage which can be compared to the release candidates by which developers can begin to experiment and build applications with. They however stressed that the version out of the box is still to be finalized and should not be used for production till they get it fully tested and debugged for pending release. Read more

From Phusion, who is responsible for the rails deployment system, Passenger, announced the release of DebGem a powerful tool for RubyGem to APT conversion. With many system administrators preferring to use the APT package management for everything they wish to do on their systems, DebGem allows RubyGems to be packaged differently for deployment on Ubuntu and Debian. The addition of support for the two repositories, allows more flexibility and control, previously quite difficult solely with RubyGems. Read more

Intelligent productivity enhancing development tools are some of the most powerful tools available to the many Ruby and Rails developers all over the world and with the release by JetBrains of RubyMine 1.0, it just got a whole lot better. Hailed as one of the best IDE’s yet to come out for use by developers, it has received quite a lot of attention since it was released partially last November. The development tool that is RubyMine performs a very comprehensive analysis of the whole project code and offers a sort of suggestions list as to the best-in-class code that till now hasn’t been seen in the world of Ruby. Read more

As the world turns, so does the commercialization of Ruby and Rails that have been going on two-pronged approach with respect to the strategies startups in the IT field who focus on them have been targeting. This goes to show that there is money to be made in open-source, ruby being one of the earliest forms of frameworks for open-sourced development, has been embraced and loved by many of their sponsors for more commercialized use. Read more