Rails - May 2005 - New to Rails

Hi!

I''m as new as you can be to Rails, discovered it yesterday. But I have 
big plans for converting a Java application to use Rails instead. But 
I''m not sure if I understand what Rails can do for me.

The webbapp is written in Java  and will receive POST requests from a 
Flash application. The backend will then do some computing and write the 
result back as XML. My question is this
can this be done with Rails, ie. can I respond the POST requests and 
receive the data that the Flash application sends to me. Then doing some 
computing and talking with a MySQL database only to write the result 
back as an XML file?

I haven''t had the time to really understand all that Rails can do but 
I''m looking forward to the next few days with it.

Please have patient with my eager newbee question!

Thanks!
Marcus

No problem at all. Flash is just sending a POST - and serverside
technology capable of handling and responding to the POST could be
used - and Rails can certainly manage it.

Putting my consultancy hat on for a minute though, what is the reason
for changing the existing technology?

On 5/11/05, Marcus Dübois
<marcus.dubois-GWLJtjCW+GcOPmVbiNFCMNBPR1lH4CV8@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I''m as new as you can be to Rails, discovered it yesterday. But I
have
> big plans for converting a Java application to use Rails instead. But
> I''m not sure if I understand what Rails can do for me.
> 
> The webbapp is written in Java  and will receive POST requests from a
> Flash application. The backend will then do some computing and write the
> result back as XML. My question is this
> can this be done with Rails, ie. can I respond the POST requests and
> receive the data that the Flash application sends to me. Then doing some
> computing and talking with a MySQL database only to write the result
> back as an XML file?
> 
> I haven''t had the time to really understand all that Rails can do
but
> I''m looking forward to the next few days with it.
> 
> Please have patient with my eager newbee question!
> 
> Thanks!
> Marcus
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> 

-- 
sam
http://www.magpiebrain.com/

Hi!

Sorry for sending double mail to the list, I''ve had a fight with our
mail
server this morning ;)

The main reason for migrating to ruby and rails is that the project I''m
working on has just begun.
I''ve managed to setup tomcat and mysql created some of the domain
objects and
nearly finished the flash
presentation layer. But as I understand most of what I''ve done so far
comes
nearly free with rails, so from my
point of view it seems that I''m writing alot of code that rails can
make for
me, which leaves me to concentrate on
the coming domain model.

I may be wrong, but it seems smarter to use ruby and rails. Please enlight me!

Thanks!
Marcus

On 11 May 2005, at 09:35, Marcus Dübois wrote:
> The webbapp is written in Java  and will receive POST requests from  
> a Flash application. The backend will then do some computing and  
> write the result back as XML. My question is this
> can this be done with Rails, ie. can I respond the POST requests  
> and receive the data that the Flash application sends to me. Then  
> doing some computing and talking with a MySQL database only to  
> write the result back as an XML file?
You''ll be pleased to know that Rails has excellent support for  
generating XML out of the box. Take a look at the "Builder" section  
on this page of the Rails docs:

http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionView/Base.html

Generating XML in this way is much, much less hassle than generating  
it by gluing strings together, and it eliminates the chance of  
producing invalid XML due to forgetting to escape an ampersand or  
something.

Hope that helps,

Simon Willison
http://simon.incutio.com/