rails

Using Omnigraffle to visualise Rails model associations

August 2nd, 2006  |  Published in rails

This week I’m doing some Rails consulting work for a company that’s already developed and deployed a major application. Getting to know a new codebase takes a little time and every diagram or visualisation helps. To help me understand their ActiveRecord model relationships, I knocked together a quick script to scan the associations between models and output it in the Graphviz DOT format.

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BBC Programme Catalogue is live

April 26th, 2006  |  Published in rails

I’ve returned to the working world from sabbatical and now it’s a big day. I’ve been looking forward to this all year.

This afternoon I flipped the switch on the BBC Programme Catalogue and let everyone in. Stop reading this now and get in there.

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London Web Frameworks night was great

November 18th, 2005  |  Published in rails

I had a great time presenting yesterday evening at the London Web Frameworks night. Huge round of applause to Dean Wilson for putting it together. I learnt interesting things about Catalyst and Django from the other speakers, and did my first public demo of the BBC Programme Catalogue. I’m immensely proud of the site, and I think it came across.

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REST On Rails

November 3rd, 2005  |  Published in rails, rest, xml

XML.com have just published an article I wrote for them last month entitled REST On Rails.

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The BBC’s programme catalogue (on Rails)

October 31st, 2005  |  Published in rails

UPDATE: The BBC Programme Catalogue has launched at https://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax

“The BBC plans to open up its archive to make a treasure trove of material available to everyone.”BBC Press Release, August 2003

Ever wondered what’s in that archive? Who looks after it? It turns out there’s a huge database that’s been carefully tended by a gang of crack BBC librarians for decades. Nearly a million programmes are catalogued, with descriptions, contributor details and annotations drawn from a wonderfully detailed controlled vocabulary.

I’m the lucky developer who gets to turn this hidden treasure into a public website. No programme downloads yet, but a massive searchable programme catalogue.

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