Berube Practical Ruby Gems

Practical Ruby Gems is a comprehensive guide to utilizing and creating Ruby Gems - ready-made Ruby code modules that can be easily added to Ruby and Rails projects. This book is ideal for Ruby programmers as well as web developers who use Rails and wish to extend the functionality of their projects.You'll get a prime selection of 34 of the best and most useful Gems, which makes up the core of this book. Each of these also comes complete with actual use cases and code examples that you can use immediately in your own projects. You'll learn how Ruby Gems can be used to * Validate credit cards. * Create graphical interfaces on multiple platforms. * Speed up Rails applications. * Develop lightweight web applications. * Use ActiveRecord to make databases easy. * Process RSS feeds. * Prevent spam using CAPTCHA. * Crop and scale images. * Tap into the same caching system that runs LiveJournal.com. And much, much more! You'll also learn how to package and distribute your own Ruby Gems. This lets you tap into powerful mechanisms for resolving dependencies. And the book takes a detailed look at how Gems differ between operating systems, so you'll be prepared whether your desktop runs OS X, Windows, or Linux. You'll also learn how you can share code more easily between projects, optionally sharing your contributions with the world!

Practical Ruby Gems is a comprehensive guide to utilizing and creating Ruby Gems—ready-made Ruby code modules that can be easily added to Ruby and Rails projects. This book is ideal for Ruby programmers as well as web developers who use Rails and wish to extend the functionality of their projects.

You'll get a prime selection of 34 of the best and most useful Gems, which makes up the core of this book. Each of these also comes complete with actual use cases and code examples that you can use immediately in your own projects.

Table of Contents

1. What Is RubyGems?
2. Installing RubyGems
3. Using RubyGems in Your Code
4. Managing Installed Gem Versions
5. Data Access with the ActiveRecord Gem
6. Easy Text Markup with the BlueCloth Gem
7. Creating Web Applications with Camping
8. Creating Command-Line Utilities with cmdparse
9. HTML Templating with erubis
10. Parsing Feeds with feedtools
11. Creating Graphical User Interfaces with fxruby
12. Retrieving Stock Quotes with YahooFinance
13. Parsing HTML with hpricot
14. Writing HTML as Ruby with Markaby
15. Parsing CSV with fastercsv
16. Multiple Dispatch with multi
17. Serving Web Applications with mongrel
18. Transferring Files Securely with net-sftp
19. Executing Commands on Remote Servers with net-ssh
20. Validating Credit Cards with creditcard
21. Writing PDFs with pdf-writer
22. Handling Recurring Events with runt
23. Building Websites with Rails
24. Automating Development Tasks with rake
25. Manipulating Images with RMagick
26. Speeding Up Web Applications with memcache-client
27. Managing Zip Archives with rubyzip
28. Speeding Up Function Calls with memoize
29. Tagging MP3 Files with id3lib-ruby
30. Shortening URLs with shorturl
31. Creating Standalone Ruby Applications with rubyscript2exe
32. Cleaning Dirty HTML with tidy
33. Parsing XML with xml-simple
34. Creating Our Own Gems
35. Distributing Gems

Practical Ruby Gems is a comprehensive guide to utilizing and creating Ruby Gems--ready-made Ruby code modules that can be easily added to Ruby and Rails projects. This book is ideal for Ruby programmers as well as web developers who use Rails and wish to extend the functionality of their projects. You'll get a prime selection of 34 of the best and most useful Gems, which makes up the core of this book. Each of these also comes complete with actual use cases and code examples that you can use immediately in your own projects. You'll learn how Ruby Gems can be used to: Validate credit cards; Create graphical interfaces on multiple platforms; Speed up Rails applications; Develop lightweight web applications; Use ActiveRecord to make databases easy; Process RSS feeds; Prevent spam using CAPTCHA; Crop and scale images; Tap into the same caching system that runs LiveJournal.com. You'll also learn how to package and distribute your own Ruby Gems. This lets you tap into powerful mechanisms for resolving dependencies. And the book takes a detailed look at how Gems differ between operating systems, so you'll be prepared whether your desktop runs OS X, Windows, or Linux. You'll also learn how you can share code more easily between projects This book is a comprehensive guide to utilizing and creating Ruby Gems. Coverage provides an enormous code library that will help developers improve their projects. It details 34 of the best and most useful Gems, including ones to speed up web applications, process credit card payments, produce PDF documents, read and update RSS feeds, and acquire real-time shipping prices from FedEx and UPS. Each of these also comes complete with actual use cases and code examples that readers can immediately use in their own projects. In addition, the book describes how readers can package and distribute their own Ruby Gems.