Darren Nolan

Well.

Bit more of a trouble than I wish to deal with today, but apparently Mongrel has changed somewhat in the latest version and doesn't deliver content as HTML, instead delivering it as text/plain (source html).

If you are using Mongrel to deliver your Ruby Apps, and you're sure your versions of gems meet the requirements - take a look at the below to try.

Add this file in, restart your application - and hopefully away you go. Again there is a lot of read/take in when it comes to dealing with this issue - hopefully I'm saving you about 1.5 hours of research. Original Source for the Patch I've forked..

Add this to redmine/config/initializers/mongrel.rb (create a new file)

# Pulled right from latest rack. Old looked like this in 1.1.0 version.
  # 
  # def [](k)
  #   super(@names[k] ||= @names[k.downcase])
  # end
  # 
  module Rack
    module Utils
      class HeaderHash < Hash
        def [](k)
          super(@names[k]) if @names[k]
          super(@names[k.downcase])
        end
      end
    end
  end
  
  # Code pulled from the ticket above.
  # 
  class Mongrel::CGIWrapper
    def header_with_rails_fix(options = 'text/html')
      @head['cookie'] = options.delete('cookie').flatten.map { |v| v.sub(/^\n/,'') } if options.class != String and options['cookie']
      header_without_rails_fix(options)
    end
    alias_method_chain :header, :rails_fix
  end
  
  # Pulled right from 2.3.8 ActionPack. Simple diff was
  # 
  # if headers.include?('Set-Cookie')
  #   headers['cookie'] = headers.delete('Set-Cookie').split("\n")
  # end
  # 
  # to 
  # 
  # if headers['Set-Cookie']
  #   headers['cookie'] = headers.delete('Set-Cookie').split("\n")
  # end
  #       
  module ActionController
    class CGIHandler
      def self.dispatch_cgi(app, cgi, out = $stdout)
        env = cgi.__send__(:env_table)
        env.delete "HTTP_CONTENT_LENGTH"
        cgi.stdinput.extend ProperStream
        env["SCRIPT_NAME"] = "" if env["SCRIPT_NAME"] == "/"
        env.update({
          "rack.version" => [0,1],
          "rack.input" => cgi.stdinput,
          "rack.errors" => $stderr,
          "rack.multithread" => false,
          "rack.multiprocess" => true,
          "rack.run_once" => false,
          "rack.url_scheme" => ["yes", "on", "1"].include?(env["HTTPS"]) ? "https" : "http"
        })
        env["QUERY_STRING"] ||= ""
        env["HTTP_VERSION"] ||= env["SERVER_PROTOCOL"]
        env["REQUEST_PATH"] ||= "/"
        env.delete "PATH_INFO" if env["PATH_INFO"] == ""
        status, headers, body = app.call(env)
        begin
          out.binmode if out.respond_to?(:binmode)
          out.sync = false if out.respond_to?(:sync=)
          headers['Status'] = status.to_s
          if headers['Set-Cookie']
            headers['cookie'] = headers.delete('Set-Cookie').split("\n")
          end
          out.write(cgi.header(headers))
          body.each { |part|
            out.write part
            out.flush if out.respond_to?(:flush)
          }
        ensure
          body.close if body.respond_to?(:close)
        end
      end
    end
  end

I'm all for progress. But what I question is when workflow of the latest desktop interfaces are seeming to take a turn backwards (MetroUI, OS X, Gnome3, Ubuntu's Unity etc). Like using Windows 3.11 for Workgroups all over again. Where having one opening application is the thing to do, and switching between applications is now more complex then switching a tab in a web browser.

Now we're using things like gestures, swiping movements over the touchpad, mouse hover previews of open apps or new key-combos which simply adds more steps to get to the application you're after or that are already running.

For typical users, I'm sure they don't care. I mean, hey, it looks pretty, and if Apple (and other big names) have learnt anything over the years - it's that pretty sells.

Full credit to Ron Savage over at Stack Exchange. He's written this fantastic function which creates a temporary table with two columns, 'interval_start' and 'interval_end'.

You call this function with a MySQL datetime ('2011-02-23 05:00:00'), and a MySQL end datetime ('2011-02-23 16:00:00'). You then specify what you want returned back to you (Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days etc. See the function below for the full list of options).

What is returned is below will be similar;

I've been helping out of couple of friends with their University assignments recently and one thing that has bugged me to no end, is how they're not being shown how to keep code clean and manageable.

Take the following example (which is close to what their University lecture's have been giving out as an example).

<?php
	$fruitArray	= array(
					"apple" => "green",
					"tomato" => "red", 
					"banana" => "yellow", 
					"grape" => "purple", 
					"orange" => "orange");
	
	echo "<table>";
	echo "<tr>";
	echo "<th>Fruit</th>";
	echo "<th>Colour</th>";
	echo "</tr>";
	ksort($fruitArray);
	foreach ($fruitArray as $fruit => $colour) {
		echo "<tr>";
		echo "<td>" . $fruit . "</td>";
		echo "<td>" . $colour . "</td>";
		echo "</tr>";
	}
	echo "</table>";
?>

Should have written this a few days ago, but as you’ve no doubt noticed, the Darren Nolan website has gotten a real design now!  One I absolutely love and promise not to change for at least 3 months.

So sporting in this fantastic new theme designed by my ever so talented flat mate Karl Short who works at Always Interactive, is a really cool Page Not Found 404 Error Page – because every personal website requires more black holes, folding sidebar (for viewers of screens less than 960px) and a temporary Mobile version of this site.  Which can be found by going to mobile.darrennolan.com on your handset or down the bottom of every page is a “Switch to Mobile Theme” link.

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