Working With Rails

In the first of the Hackfest winner interviews we talk to Rails core contributor Zack Chandler:

Q: What is your connection to Ruby on Rails?

Short version: I watched the infamous DHH blog screencast, downloaded Rails, and started playing around.

Long version: I had previously built a custom CRM using .NET for a large service company. The project was a success but very specific to a vertical market. I had the idea to build something much simpler and broader based - a front-office web app for the small service business. I was looking for the best technology to use and basically found Rails. That idea is now Service Sidekick

Q: What Rails projects are you working on right now?

Mainly the aforementioned Service Sidekick

Q: How did you first get involved contributing to the Rails source?

I had submitted one patch before the hackfest but the competition was really the first time I dove in and made a substantial go at patching Rails.

Q: Tell us about the sort of contribution you made during the contest.

I patched up some documentation for a number of classes and methods. On the code side, my patch to allow ActionWebService (AWS) to handle various HTTP methods was applied. Before, a client could not use HTTP GET to communicate with your AWS web service. I recently worked with an external client that would occasionally send HTTP GET requests. The patch now allows fine-grained specification of exactly which HTTP methods you want your web service to allow.

Q: If you worked on the Rails source before the contest what kind of contributions have you made?

I didn't contribute before the contest.

Q: Tell us a bit about your development environment

-- Hardware --

MacBook Pro, 24" monitor

-- Software --

TextMate, Parallels, FireFox + web developer toolbar

-- Really great libraries/plugins I've used recently --

mocha, hpricot, rcov, tz_time, redhillonrails_core, piston

Q: What is the best part about contributing to the Rails source?

To give back to the community that has helped me so much. When you learn a new language or framework you start off solely as a consumer. You consume human and server resources downloading source code, watching screencasts, and asking questions. There is nothing wrong with this as it is part of the natural progression. After you get up to speed and have the wherewithal to contribute back you should. It helps bring others across the gap.

Q: With 1.2 released we are now looking forward to 2.0. What kind of features and functionality do you think we are likely to see in this release?

As of now, the core team hasn't talked a lot of the vision of 2.0. They have said that some libraries that aren't necessary in the majority of projects will be slated for removal from Rails (like ActionWebService). I think this is a great idea. I would guess that 99% of people have never used AWS. So why have it as a dependency to Rails? If you do need it, 'sudo gem install actionwebservice' and you're good to go.

Q: Closing words

Service Sidekick takes up most of my time right now but is not likely a relevant service to other web developers. I recently put together a quick sample app to help others learn REST in Rails. You can find the code in my public repository . I've also developed a plugin for subscription-based billing that my be helpful to others. Other than that I try to post on interesting Rails topics from time to time at www.depixelate.com.

You can likely catch me at the next San Francisco Ruby meetup. Thanks to CD Baby for supporting Rails and I hope the second RailsConf is as great as the first.