This could be most useful in the near future…
Most web applications have many more model objects exposed on the backend, or admin side, than they do on the front. Coding interfaces for all those models is redundant and a waste of resources when all you need is CRUD functionality that’s smart enough to handle all your ActiveRecord associations.
ActiveScaffold is a Ruby on Rails plugin that provides you with a wealth of dynamically created goodness, just plug the ActiveScaffold into your controller, you can have a AJAXified table interface for creating, updating, and deleting objects then. It has the following main features as well.
- Automatic handling of ActiveRecord associations
- Sorting, Search and Pagination
- Graceful JavaScript degradation
- RESTful API support (XML/YAML/JSON) baked in
- Sexy CSS styling and theming support
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I’d looked at Handbrake a while back but the GUI was far too confusing for a simpleton like me. It seems like it’s been cleaned up quite a bit now and looks rather useful! (The little video giving an overview of how to work things helps too!)
Handbrake is one of those applications that we adore here at TUAW HQ. It makes converting DVDs into a variety of digital files a snap (though only use it with DVDs you own. Don’t be pirates, kids). Chris Breen, of Macworld fame (and an amateur astronomer it would seem) shows us how to use HandBrake like a pro. Breen goes a step beyond ‘use the presets’ and delves into what many of the options HandBrake offers up actually do, and how they impact your files.
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Yet more chart drawing goodness. This takes a different approach to the Google model by generating really good looking graphs all on the client-side in javascript - very nice!
Flot is a pure Javascript plotting library for jQuery. It produces graphical plots of arbitrary datasets on-the-fly client-side. The focus is on simple usage (all settings are optional), attractive looks and interactive features like zooming. Although Flot is easy to use, it is also advanced enough to be suitable for Web 2.0 data mining/business intelligence purposes which is its original application. The plugin is targeting all newer browsers.
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The chaps over at Google have come up with a neat webservice - an easy way to get charts onto your webpages, the Google Chart API.
Google has finally released Google Charts API, which returns a PNG-format image in response to a URL. Several types of image can be generated: line, bar, and pie charts for example. For each image type you can specify attributes such as size, colors, and labels.
You can include a Chart API image in a webpage by embedding a URL within an <img> tag. When the webpage is displayed in a browser the Chart API renders the image within the page.
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