1. Download the current stable version of the Aptana IDE
2. Launch the Aptana IDE (and choose a workspace location)
3. Install the Aptana RadRails plugin from the Aptana Start Page
4. Restart Aptana
5. Choose Window … Preferences, then Install/Update and enter the following policy url: http://update.aptana.com/update/rails/beta/3.2/policy.xml
6. Click Ok, and restart Aptana
7. Choose Help .. Software Updates … Find and Install then “Search for Updates of currently installed features”. If you expand the Rails plugin option you should see the following version listed: 0.8.0.200706111240
8. Install it.
9. I’m sure you could skip installing two versions of the plugin if you really knew the score …

The deadline is fast approaching, and Matthew and I have been coding hard to meet it. Last week we were discussing what seemed to be a fairly generic problem – what’s the best way to HTML escape content you put in the flash?

We turned up this answer via google, which suggests escaping it when you render it in your view, i.e.

<%=h(flash[:notice])%>

All well and good, but sometimes you want a mixture of HTML and user generated content in the flash, e.g.

Sinbad has sent you a message

So escaping the lot is not really an option.

One solution is to use render_to_string with a partial as shown below:

Controller

def index
  if current_user.messages.any?
    flash[:notice] = render_to_string :partial => 'message', 
      :object => current_user.messages.first
  end
  # rest of action ...
end

Partial

<%= h(message.sender) %> has sent you a 
<%= link_to "message", :controller => 'messages', 
  :action => 'show', :id => message %>

Layout

<div class="notice">
	<%= flash[:notice] %>
</div>

I imagine :inline would also work, if a partial for a flash message seems like overkill.

Buoyed by my new found productivity, released from my shackles of indecision (which MVC framework? What about transactions? How will this work in a cluster?) I could just jump right it and get on with building the site. Every line of code was going to the customer. No need to worry about the tricky stuff, it’s a full stack framework and there’s a plugin for everything.

But what has working with Rails done for me, as a former Java developer? Well the project timescales are generally tighter and the work productive yet stressful. But these are subjective measures, what about the cold, hard cash?

Figures are 3 month averages, source

I’ve included a variety of technologies which fit within the web development domain because I’m conscious that there aren’t that many Rails jobs listed. The lower salary may just be a result of lower demand – I don’t have any numbers for the supply side of the equation. Currently Rails does seem to sit more towards the PHP rather J2EE end of the salary scale.

Less filthy lucre == less snowflake moments

At the moment, Rails is great if you are in the product development business and you want to get Wet Dream 2.0 to market on a budget. It’s great if you’re a small company aggressively bidding to win work at open tender. It’s great if you are a lot smarter than me, on the lecture circuit with a cool blog and a bunch of plugins under your belt.

But if you are an average Joe Coder, choose wisely. Perhaps ruminating over application architecture decisions and marshaling endless XML files was overpaid – or maybe “convention over configuration” makes web development easier, and cheaper. Either way I’d better raise my game: If I’m going to install acts_as_french_fries I at least want to have written it.