thr3ads.net - Rails - [Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application [Jul 2006]

If this information is useful, please help other people find it:
Share via:

Robert Jones

2006-Jul-01 09:26 UTC

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

I am the developer of FreeMIS - an Open Source management information 
system for schools.  It currently holds the data for one school - so 
different schools host different instances of FreeMIS.

I would like to expand the domain of a single instance of FreeMIS, so 
that it covers all the schools in an education authority.  THis will 
enable me to implement authority-wide functionality.

Is there a standard pattern for this kind of extension?  As I see it, 
everything that is in the database will need also to belong to a school, 
and when someone logs in they will only see the data relevant to their 
school (unless they are education authority managers who will have their 
own interface).

Any advice on how to implement this in the DRYest, most Rails-esque way 
will be most gratefully received :)

Robert Jones

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Michael Glaesemann

2006-Jul-01 14:34 UTC

head link

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

On Jul 1, 2006, at 18:25 , Robert Jones wrote:> I would like to expand the domain of a single instance of FreeMIS, so
> that it covers all the schools in an education authority.  THis will
> enable me to implement authority-wide functionality.
Sounds like what you want is an Authority model that  
has_many :schools. I don''t think you want a separate database for  
each school.

Michael Glaesemann
grzm seespotcode net

Ezra Zygmuntowicz

2006-Jul-01 18:17 UTC

head link

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

On Jul 1, 2006, at 2:25 AM, Robert Jones wrote:
> I am the developer of FreeMIS - an Open Source management information
> system for schools.  It currently holds the data for one school - so
> different schools host different instances of FreeMIS.
>
> I would like to expand the domain of a single instance of FreeMIS, so
> that it covers all the schools in an education authority.  THis will
> enable me to implement authority-wide functionality.
>
> Is there a standard pattern for this kind of extension?  As I see it,
> everything that is in the database will need also to belong to a  
> school,
> and when someone logs in they will only see the data relevant to their
> school (unless they are education authority managers who will have  
> their
> own interface).
>
> Any advice on how to implement this in the DRYest, most Rails-esque  
> way
> will be most gratefully received :)
>
> Robert Jones
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
You should have a look at the acount_location plugin. Its built for  
this situation. It allows you to have accounts keyed off of  
subdomains. like foo.example.com and bar.example.com. This way you  
have an Account model and you use a before filter on every request  
that takes the subdomain and finds the account that matches that  
subdomain. Then you scope your queries to the account model.


-Ezra

Daniel N

2006-Jul-02 01:30 UTC

head link

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

On 7/2/06, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezmobius@gmail.com>
wrote:>
>
> On Jul 1, 2006, at 2:25 AM, Robert Jones wrote:
>
> > I am the developer of FreeMIS - an Open Source management information
> > system for schools.  It currently holds the data for one school - so
> > different schools host different instances of FreeMIS.
> >
> > I would like to expand the domain of a single instance of FreeMIS, so
> > that it covers all the schools in an education authority.  THis will
> > enable me to implement authority-wide functionality.
> >
> > Is there a standard pattern for this kind of extension?  As I see it,
> > everything that is in the database will need also to belong to a
> > school,
> > and when someone logs in they will only see the data relevant to their
> > school (unless they are education authority managers who will have
> > their
> > own interface).
> >
> > Any advice on how to implement this in the DRYest, most Rails-esque
> > way
> > will be most gratefully received :)
> >
> > Robert Jones
> >
> > --
> > Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rails mailing list
> > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
> You should have a look at the acount_location plugin. Its built for
> this situation. It allows you to have accounts keyed off of
> subdomains. like foo.example.com and bar.example.com. This way you
> have an Account model and you use a before filter on every request
> that takes the subdomain and finds the account that matches that
> subdomain. Then you scope your queries to the account model.
>
>
> -Ezra
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

With the account_location plugin, does it automatically setup the required
DNS entries? Or does an app need to look after this itself?  \
This is a very weak point for me, and has basically stopped me from looking
at it too closely.

Dan
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060702/75425b7e/attachment.html

Ezra Zygmuntowicz

2006-Jul-02 01:43 UTC

head link

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

On Jul 1, 2006, at 6:30 PM, Daniel N wrote:
>
>
> On 7/2/06, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezmobius@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Jul 1, 2006, at 2:25 AM, Robert Jones wrote:
>
> > I am the developer of FreeMIS - an Open Source management  
> information
> > system for schools.  It currently holds the data for one school - so
> > different schools host different instances of FreeMIS.
> >
> > I would like to expand the domain of a single instance of  
> FreeMIS, so
> > that it covers all the schools in an education authority.  THis will
> > enable me to implement authority-wide functionality.
> >
> > Is there a standard pattern for this kind of extension?  As I see  
> it,
> > everything that is in the database will need also to belong to a
> > school,
> > and when someone logs in they will only see the data relevant to  
> their
> > school (unless they are education authority managers who will have
> > their
> > own interface).
> >
> > Any advice on how to implement this in the DRYest, most Rails-esque
> > way
> > will be most gratefully received :)
> >
> > Robert Jones
> >
> > --
> > Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rails mailing list
> > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
> You should have a look at the acount_location plugin. Its built for
> this situation. It allows you to have accounts keyed off of
> subdomains. like foo.example.com and bar.example.com. This way you
> have an Account model and you use a before filter on every request
> that takes the subdomain and finds the account that matches that
> subdomain. Then you scope your queries to the account model.
>
>
> -Ezra
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
> With the account_location plugin, does it automatically setup the  
> required DNS entries? Or does an app need to look after this  
> itself?  \
> This is a very weak point for me, and has basically stopped me from  
> looking at it too closely.
>
> Dan

Dan-

	Yeah you have to set up a wildcard dns entry for your domain in  
order to use this in production. But you can set up aliases in /etc/ 
hosts for when you are developing locally.

for local stuff ad a line like this to your /etc/hosts file:

127.0.0.1       advisrdev.org ezmobius.advisrdev.org demo.advisrdev.org

That gives me a few subdomains and a main domain to work with locally.

-Ezra





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060702/0af5d140/attachment.html

Daniel N

2006-Jul-02 01:53 UTC

head link

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

On 7/2/06, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezmobius@gmail.com>
wrote:>
>
> On Jul 1, 2006, at 6:30 PM, Daniel N wrote:
>
>
>
> On 7/2/06, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezmobius@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Jul 1, 2006, at 2:25 AM, Robert Jones wrote:
> >
> > > I am the developer of FreeMIS - an Open Source management
information
> > > system for schools.  It currently holds the data for one school -
so
> > > different schools host different instances of FreeMIS.
> > >
> > > I would like to expand the domain of a single instance of
FreeMIS, so
> > > that it covers all the schools in an education authority.  THis
will
> > > enable me to implement authority-wide functionality.
> > >
> > > Is there a standard pattern for this kind of extension?  As I see
it,
> > > everything that is in the database will need also to belong to a
> > > school,
> > > and when someone logs in they will only see the data relevant to
their
> >
> > > school (unless they are education authority managers who will
have
> > > their
> > > own interface).
> > >
> > > Any advice on how to implement this in the DRYest, most
Rails-esque
> > > way
> > > will be most gratefully received :)
> > >
> > > Robert Jones
> > >
> > > --
> > > Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Rails mailing list
> > > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> > > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> >
> > You should have a look at the acount_location plugin. Its built for
> > this situation. It allows you to have accounts keyed off of
> > subdomains. like foo.example.com and bar.example.com. This way you
> > have an Account model and you use a before filter on every request
> > that takes the subdomain and finds the account that matches that
> > subdomain. Then you scope your queries to the account model.
> >
> >
> > -Ezra
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rails mailing list
> > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
>
> With the account_location plugin, does it automatically setup the required
> DNS entries? Or does an app need to look after this itself?  \
> This is a very weak point for me, and has basically stopped me from
> looking at it too closely.
>
> Dan
>
>
>
> Dan-
>
> Yeah you have to set up a wildcard dns entry for your domain in order to
> use this in production. But you can set up aliases in /etc/hosts for when
> you are developing locally.
>
> for local stuff ad a line like this to your /etc/hosts file:
>
> 127.0.0.1       advisrdev.org ezmobius.advisrdev.org demo.advisrdev.org
>
> That gives me a few subdomains and a main domain to work with locally.
>
> -Ezra
>
Thanx for the response, but I''m afraid I''m a bit thick with
this stuff.  I
can see what you''ve done in the /etc/hosts file wrt local requests, is
it
enough to add to the hosts file on the server in a live app for external
users to have their browsers do the right thing or does it need to update a
dns server?

Basecamp seems to have their accounts available on subdomains immediatley
when you sign up so I don''t imagine that they have to propergate this
change
though the net DNS system.

Is there anywhere that gives a fairly in-depth explaination or tutorial
that''s not quite as dry as a DNS spec?

Cheers
Dan

Thanx for any help

_______________________________________________> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
>
>-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060702/19d90b52/attachment-0001.html

Ezra Zygmuntowicz

2006-Jul-02 02:36 UTC

head link

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

On Jul 1, 2006, at 6:53 PM, Daniel N wrote:
>
>
> On 7/2/06, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezmobius@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Jul 1, 2006, at 6:30 PM, Daniel N wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 7/2/06, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezmobius@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Jul 1, 2006, at 2:25 AM, Robert Jones wrote:
>>
>> > I am the developer of FreeMIS - an Open Source management  
>> information
>> > system for schools.  It currently holds the data for one school  
>> - so
>> > different schools host different instances of FreeMIS.
>> >
>> > I would like to expand the domain of a single instance of  
>> FreeMIS, so
>> > that it covers all the schools in an education authority.  THis  
>> will
>> > enable me to implement authority-wide functionality.
>> >
>> > Is there a standard pattern for this kind of extension?  As I  
>> see it,
>> > everything that is in the database will need also to belong to a
>> > school,
>> > and when someone logs in they will only see the data relevant to  
>> their
>> > school (unless they are education authority managers who will have
>> > their
>> > own interface).
>> >
>> > Any advice on how to implement this in the DRYest, most
Rails-esque
>> > way
>> > will be most gratefully received :)
>> >
>> > Robert Jones
>> >
>> > --
>> > Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Rails mailing list
>> > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
>> > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>>
>> You should have a look at the acount_location plugin. Its built for
>> this situation. It allows you to have accounts keyed off of
>> subdomains. like foo.example.com and bar.example.com. This way you
>> have an Account model and you use a before filter on every request
>> that takes the subdomain and finds the account that matches that
>> subdomain. Then you scope your queries to the account model.
>>
>>
>> -Ezra
>> _______________________________________________
>> Rails mailing list
>> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
>> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>>
>> With the account_location plugin, does it automatically setup the  
>> required DNS entries? Or does an app need to look after this  
>> itself?  \
>> This is a very weak point for me, and has basically stopped me  
>> from looking at it too closely.
>>
>> Dan
>
>
> Dan-
>
> 	Yeah you have to set up a wildcard dns entry for your domain in  
> order to use this in production. But you can set up aliases in /etc/ 
> hosts for when you are developing locally.
>
> for local stuff ad a line like this to your /etc/hosts file:
>
> 127.0.0.1        advisrdev.org ezmobius.advisrdev.org  
> demo.advisrdev.org
>
> That gives me a few subdomains and a main domain to work with locally.
>
> -Ezra
>
> Thanx for the response, but I''m afraid I''m a bit thick
with this
> stuff.  I can see what you''ve done in the /etc/hosts file wrt
local
> requests, is it enough to add to the hosts file on the server in a  
> live app for external users to have their browsers do the right  
> thing or does it need to update a dns server?
>
> Basecamp seems to have their accounts available on subdomains  
> immediatley when you sign up so I don''t imagine that they have to
> propergate this change though the net DNS system.
>
> Is there anywhere that gives a fairly in-depth explaination or  
> tutorial that''s not quite as dry as a DNS spec?
>
> Cheers
> Dan
>
> Thanx for any help
Dan-

	Yeah you need to set up what''s called a wildcard dns A record. This  
looks like *.mydomain.com. What dns server are you using? Here is a  
nice tutorial for bind, not rails specific but it should help anyway.

http://photomatt.net/2003/10/10/wildcard-dns-and-sub-domains/


-Ezra





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060702/6d94aa7d/attachment.html

Robert Jones

2006-Jul-03 08:09 UTC

head link

[Rails] Re: Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Applica

Ezra Zygmuntowicz wrote:> On Jul 1, 2006, at 2:25 AM, Robert Jones wrote:
> 
>> school,
>>
>> -- 
>> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Rails mailing list
>> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
>> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> 
> You should have a look at the acount_location plugin. Its built for
> this situation. It allows you to have accounts keyed off of
> subdomains. like foo.example.com and bar.example.com. This way you
> have an Account model and you use a before filter on every request
> that takes the subdomain and finds the account that matches that
> subdomain. Then you scope your queries to the account model.
> 
> 
> -Ezra
Thanks for this (and for the other advice by other people) - this looks 
like just what I need.  The scoping of my queries to the account model 
is going to take a while, but I know where I''m heading now.

Cheers,

Robert Jones

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Daniel N

2006-Jul-05 12:36 UTC

head link

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

On 7/2/06, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezmobius@gmail.com>
wrote:>
>
> On Jul 1, 2006, at 6:53 PM, Daniel N wrote:
>
>
>
> On 7/2/06, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezmobius@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Jul 1, 2006, at 6:30 PM, Daniel N wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > On 7/2/06, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezmobius@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > On Jul 1, 2006, at 2:25 AM, Robert Jones wrote:
> > >
> > > > I am the developer of FreeMIS - an Open Source management
> > > information
> > > > system for schools.  It currently holds the data for one
school - so
> > > > different schools host different instances of FreeMIS.
> > > >
> > > > I would like to expand the domain of a single instance of
FreeMIS,
> > > so
> > > > that it covers all the schools in an education authority. 
THis will
> > > > enable me to implement authority-wide functionality.
> > > >
> > > > Is there a standard pattern for this kind of extension?  As
I see
> > > it,
> > > > everything that is in the database will need also to belong
to a
> > > > school,
> > > > and when someone logs in they will only see the data
relevant to
> > > their
> > > > school (unless they are education authority managers who
will have
> > > > their
> > > > own interface).
> > > >
> > > > Any advice on how to implement this in the DRYest, most
Rails-esque
> > > > way
> > > > will be most gratefully received :)
> > > >
> > > > Robert Jones
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Rails mailing list
> > > > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> > > > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> > >
> > > You should have a look at the acount_location plugin. Its built
for
> > > this situation. It allows you to have accounts keyed off of
> > > subdomains. like foo.example.com and bar.example.com. This way
you
> > > have an Account model and you use a before filter on every
request
> > > that takes the subdomain and finds the account that matches that
> > > subdomain. Then you scope your queries to the account model.
> > >
> > >
> > > -Ezra
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Rails mailing list
> > > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> > > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> >
> >
> > With the account_location plugin, does it automatically setup the
> > required DNS entries? Or does an app need to look after this itself? 
\
> > This is a very weak point for me, and has basically stopped me from
> > looking at it too closely.
> >
> > Dan
> >
> >
> >
> > Dan-
> >
> > Yeah you have to set up a wildcard dns entry for your domain in order
to
> > use this in production. But you can set up aliases in /etc/hosts for
when
> > you are developing locally.
> >
> > for local stuff ad a line like this to your /etc/hosts file:
> >
> > 127.0.0.1        advisrdev.org ezmobius.advisrdev.org
demo.advisrdev.org
> >
> > That gives me a few subdomains and a main domain to work with locally.
> >
> > -Ezra
> >
>
> Thanx for the response, but I''m afraid I''m a bit thick
with this stuff.  I
> can see what you''ve done in the /etc/hosts file wrt local
requests, is it
> enough to add to the hosts file on the server in a live app for external
> users to have their browsers do the right thing or does it need to update a
> dns server?
>
> Basecamp seems to have their accounts available on subdomains immediatley
> when you sign up so I don''t imagine that they have to propergate
this change
> though the net DNS system.
>
> Is there anywhere that gives a fairly in-depth explaination or tutorial
> that''s not quite as dry as a DNS spec?
>
> Cheers
> Dan
>
> Thanx for any help
>
>
> Dan-
>
> Yeah you need to set up what''s called a wildcard dns A record.
This looks
> like *.mydomain.com. What dns server are you using? Here is a nice tutorial
> for bind, not rails specific but it should help anyway.
>
> http://photomatt.net/2003/10/10/wildcard-dns-and-sub-domains/
>
>
> -Ezra
>
Ezra,

Thanx for the pointer.  Being on windows it took me a while to get it
going...  Eventually got it with the treewalk dns server.

Cheers
Dan

_______________________________________________> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
>
>-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060705/b662adaa/attachment-0001.html

Reasonably Related Threads

Search for more reasonably related threads

Rails - Jul 2006 - Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

[Rails] Re: Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Applica

[Rails] Seeking Advice on Pattern for Multi-Organization Application

Reasonably Related Threads