Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Save more on your purchases! discount-offer-chevron-icon
Savings automatically calculated. No voucher code required.
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Newsletter Hub
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
timer SALE ENDS IN
0 Days
:
00 Hours
:
00 Minutes
:
00 Seconds
Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects
Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects

Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects: A step-by-step tutorial to building web mashups

eBook
$26.09 $28.99
Paperback
$39.19 $48.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m

What do you get with Print?

Product feature icon Instant access to your digital copy whilst your Print order is Shipped
Product feature icon Paperback book shipped to your preferred address
Product feature icon Redeem a companion digital copy on all Print orders
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Shipping Address

Billing Address

Shipping Methods
Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects

Chapter 2. 'Find closest' mashup plugin

What does it do?

This mashup plugin allows your Rails website or application to have an additional feature that allows your users to find the location of the closest facility from a particular geographic location based on a specified search radius. This mashup plugin integrates with your existing website that has a database of locations of the facilities.

What does it do?


This mashup plugin allows your Rails website or application to have an additional feature that allows your users to find the location of the closest facility from a particular geographic location based on a specified search radius. This mashup plugin integrates with your existing website that has a database of locations of the facilities.

Building a kiosk locator feature for your site


Your company has just deployed 500 multi-purpose payment kiosks around the country, cash cows for the milking. Another 500 more are on the way, promising to bring in the big bucks for all the hardworking employees in the company. Naturally your boss wants as many people as possible to know about them and use them. The problem is that while the marketing machine churns away on the marvels and benefits of the kiosks, the customers need to know where they are located to use them. He commands you:

"Find a way to show our users where the nearest kiosks to him are, and directions to reach them!"

What you have is a database of all the 500 locations where the kiosks are located, by their full address. What can you do?

Requirements overview


Quickly gathering your wits, you penned down the following quick requirements:

  1. 1. Each customer who comes to your site needs to be able to find the closest kiosk to his or her current location.

  2. 2. He or she might also want to know the closest kiosk to any location.

  3. 3. You want to let the users determine the radius of the search.

  4. 4. Finding the locations of the closest kiosks, you need to show him how to reach them.

  5. 5. You have 500 kiosks now, (and you need to show where they are) but another 500 will be coming, in 10s and 20s, so the location of the kiosks need to be specified during the entry of the kiosks. You want to put all of these on some kind of map.

Sounds difficult? Only if you didn't know about web mashups!

Design


The design for this first project is rather simple. We will build a simple database application using Rails and create a main Kiosk class in which to store the kiosk information including its address, longitude, and latitude information. After populating the database with the kiosk information and address, we will use a geolocation service to discover its longitude and latitude. We store the information in the same table. Next, we will take the kiosk information and mash it up with Google Maps and display the kiosks as pushpins on the online map and place its information inside an info box attached to each pushpin.

Mashup APIs on the menu


In this chapter we will be using the following services to create a 'find closest' mashup plugin:

  • Google Maps APIs including geocoding services

  • Yahoo geocoding services (part of Yahoo Maps APIs)

  • Geocoder.us geocoding services

  • Geocoder.ca geocoding services

  • Hostip.info

Google Maps

Google Maps is a free web-based mapping service provided by Google. It provides a map that can be navigated by dragging the mouse across it and zoomed in and out using the mouse wheel or a zoom bar. It has three forms of views—map, satellite and a hybrid of map and satellite. Google Maps is coded almost entirely in JavaScript and XML and Google provides a free JavaScript API library that allows developers to integrate Google Maps into their own applications. Google Maps APIs also provide geocoding capabilities, that is, they able to convert addresses to longitude and latitude coordinates.

We will be using two parts of Google Maps:

  • Firstly to geocode addresses as part of GeoKit's APIs

  • Secondly...

What we will be doing


As this project is a mashup plugin, normally you would already have an existing Rails application you want to add this to. However for the purpose of this chapter, I show how the mashup can be created on a fresh project. This is what we will be doing:

  • Create a new Rails project

  • Install the Rails plugins (GeoKit and YM4R/GM) that will use the various mashup APIs

  • Configure the database access and create the database

  • Create the standard scaffolding

  • Populate the longitude and latitude of the kiosks

  • Create the find feature

  • Display the found kiosk locations on Google Maps

Creating a new Rails project

This is the easiest part:

$rails Chapter2

This will create a new blank Rails project.

Installing the Rails plugins that will use the various mashup APIs

In this mashup plugin we'll need to use GeoKit, a Ruby geocoding library created by Bill Eisenhauer and Andre Lewis, and YM4R/GM—a Ruby Google Maps mapping API created by Guilhem Vellut. Install them according to the instructions given...

Summary


What we've learned in this chapter is to create a mashup with Ruby on Rails on a number of mapping and geocoding providers including Yahoo, Google, geocoder.us, geocoder.ca, and hostip.info. We learned to create a mashup that gives us a map of the closest kiosks to a particular location, given an existing database of kiosks that have location addresses. This is just an introduction to the synergistic value that mashups bring to the table, creating value that was not available in individual APIs. When they are all put together, you have a useful feature for your website.

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

What you will learn

  • You will learn what a mashup application and a mashup plug-in are and how you can effectively use mashup technology to do more than just Web 2.0 startups. You will also learn how to use Ruby and Ruby on Rails to combine, mix, and match up nearly 30 mashup APIs from small to really large scale, and from completely free to commercial to: Map a fleet of kiosks in an online map Send marketing messages through e-mail, SMS, and fax Sell and track the sales of books Search for jobs through a Facebook application Show all sorts of information on a geographic location Buy and pay for movie tickets then post the screening information in an online calendar Apply, approve, and pay for employee expense claims
Estimated delivery fee Deliver to United States

Economy delivery 10 - 13 business days

Free $6.95

Premium delivery 6 - 9 business days

$21.95
(Includes tracking information)

Product Details

Country selected
Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Apr 24, 2008
Length: 272 pages
Edition :
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781847193933
Languages :

What do you get with Print?

Product feature icon Instant access to your digital copy whilst your Print order is Shipped
Product feature icon Paperback book shipped to your preferred address
Product feature icon Redeem a companion digital copy on all Print orders
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Shipping Address

Billing Address

Shipping Methods
Estimated delivery fee Deliver to United States

Economy delivery 10 - 13 business days

Free $6.95

Premium delivery 6 - 9 business days

$21.95
(Includes tracking information)

Product Details

Publication date : Apr 24, 2008
Length: 272 pages
Edition :
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781847193933
Languages :

Packt Subscriptions

See our plans and pricing
Modal Close icon
$19.99 billed monthly
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Simple pricing, no contract
$199.99 billed annually
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just $5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts
$279.99 billed in 18 months
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just $5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts

Frequently bought together


Stars icon
Total $ 74.38 92.98 18.60 saved
Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects
$39.19 $48.99
Cloning Internet Applications with Ruby
$35.19 $43.99
Total $ 74.38 92.98 18.60 saved Stars icon

Table of Contents

8 Chapters
Introduction to Web Mashups Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
'Find closest' mashup plugin Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Proxy mailing list mashup plugin Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Book sales tracking mashup plugin Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Job board mashup application Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Trip organizer mashup application Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Ticketing mashup application Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Expenses claims mashup plugin Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
(1 Ratings)
5 star 0%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 100%
1 star 0%
James Stewart Jul 29, 2008
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
Providing a whistlestop tour through building a range of Ruby on Rails applications on the back of other services, Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects is aimed at those who are already comfortable building rails applications and want some sense of how they can be enhanced using a variety of other visualisation, data and processing providers.Aside: The term `mashup' is one of those tech terms that's almost impossible to pin down. I should note that the way it used in this book (seemingly any application that draws on a third-party services) is not a way I'd choose to use it, but I'd rather focus on the book itself than on titling semantics.The book hits all the usual suspects--google maps, flickr, technorati, wikipedia--and also covers the basics of building a facebook application, using paypal for payment processing, and sending faxes and SMS messages through a third party gateway. For those who want a quick overview of all of those options it'll give you enough to get started, though as a result of the pace only the very basics of each service is covered and anyone wanting to build a sophisticated app will have quite a bit of work in front of them learning the nuances of their chosen service providers.Along with providing little detail of each service, the book suffers from not really digging into a number of topics that would make it a much more useful companion. Big challenges when building applications dependent on other peoples' servers include effective testing, caching, surviving third-party service outages, and good ways of integrating your interface code into your application.Lip service is paid to the need to be prepared for a third-party service outage, but no examples of how to survive are offered. It wouldn't have been hard to illustrate ways of falling back to local databases or to secondary services, but none is offered. There's no mention of writing tests, so no opportunity to offer ways to use mocks to test the local code or to discuss how you might automate your testing of the integration itself, and caching is similarly overlooked except in the case of amazon e-commerce services where it is used to preserve historical data that amazon doesn't make accessible.The absence of testing really shows through in some of the code offered. Much of the code demonstrated in the book is overly complex and procedural, with little in the way of modular, reusable components. Similarly there's little by way of discussion of where such code fits into your rails application, with some classes that are clearly models (albeit non-ActiveRecord models) dropped into the lib folder, and numerous very fat controllers.Rather than covering seven separate projects, this box would have been much stronger had it focussed on two or three, but worked through them in significantly more detail. Possibly there wouldn't have been a chance to touch on as many services, but by building up one of the more diverse systems like the ticketing application in detail, covering failover, testing, clean integration with a rails app, and other such topics this could have been a much richer book with appeal for a far wider range of developers. As is, it's worth skimming through if you're looking for advice on sending faxes or SMS, but won't help much with the real challenges of building a robust application that's dependent on third-party services.Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for review by the publisher.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Get free access to Packt library with over 7500+ books and video courses for 7 days!
Start Free Trial

FAQs

What is the digital copy I get with my Print order? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

When you buy any Print edition of our Books, you can redeem (for free) the eBook edition of the Print Book you’ve purchased. This gives you instant access to your book when you make an order via PDF, EPUB or our online Reader experience.

What is the delivery time and cost of print book? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Shipping Details

USA:

'

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the US within 10-15 business days

Premium: Trackable Delivery to most addresses in the US within 3-8 business days

UK:

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 7-9 business days.
Shipments are not trackable

Premium: Trackable delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 3-4 business days!
Add one extra business day for deliveries to Northern Ireland and Scottish Highlands and islands

EU:

Premium: Trackable delivery to most EU destinations within 4-9 business days.

Australia:

Economy: Can deliver to P. O. Boxes and private residences.
Trackable service with delivery to addresses in Australia only.
Delivery time ranges from 7-9 business days for VIC and 8-10 business days for Interstate metro
Delivery time is up to 15 business days for remote areas of WA, NT & QLD.

Premium: Delivery to addresses in Australia only
Trackable delivery to most P. O. Boxes and private residences in Australia within 4-5 days based on the distance to a destination following dispatch.

India:

Premium: Delivery to most Indian addresses within 5-6 business days

Rest of the World:

Premium: Countries in the American continent: Trackable delivery to most countries within 4-7 business days

Asia:

Premium: Delivery to most Asian addresses within 5-9 business days

Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

  1. Afghanistan
  2. American Samoa
  3. Belarus
  4. Brunei Darussalam
  5. Central African Republic
  6. The Democratic Republic of Congo
  7. Eritrea
  8. Guinea-bissau
  9. Iran
  10. Lebanon
  11. Libiya Arab Jamahriya
  12. Somalia
  13. Sudan
  14. Russian Federation
  15. Syrian Arab Republic
  16. Ukraine
  17. Venezuela
What is custom duty/charge? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customs duty are charges levied on goods when they cross international borders. It is a tax that is imposed on imported goods. These duties are charged by special authorities and bodies created by local governments and are meant to protect local industries, economies, and businesses.

Do I have to pay customs charges for the print book order? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

The orders shipped to the countries that are listed under EU27 will not bear custom charges. They are paid by Packt as part of the order.

List of EU27 countries: www.gov.uk/eu-eea:

A custom duty or localized taxes may be applicable on the shipment and would be charged by the recipient country outside of the EU27 which should be paid by the customer and these duties are not included in the shipping charges been charged on the order.

How do I know my custom duty charges? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

The amount of duty payable varies greatly depending on the imported goods, the country of origin and several other factors like the total invoice amount or dimensions like weight, and other such criteria applicable in your country.

For example:

  • If you live in Mexico, and the declared value of your ordered items is over $ 50, for you to receive a package, you will have to pay additional import tax of 19% which will be $ 9.50 to the courier service.
  • Whereas if you live in Turkey, and the declared value of your ordered items is over € 22, for you to receive a package, you will have to pay additional import tax of 18% which will be € 3.96 to the courier service.
How can I cancel my order? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Cancellation Policy for Published Printed Books:

You can cancel any order within 1 hour of placing the order. Simply contact customercare@packt.com with your order details or payment transaction id. If your order has already started the shipment process, we will do our best to stop it. However, if it is already on the way to you then when you receive it, you can contact us at customercare@packt.com using the returns and refund process.

Please understand that Packt Publishing cannot provide refunds or cancel any order except for the cases described in our Return Policy (i.e. Packt Publishing agrees to replace your printed book because it arrives damaged or material defect in book), Packt Publishing will not accept returns.

What is your returns and refunds policy? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Return Policy:

We want you to be happy with your purchase from Packtpub.com. We will not hassle you with returning print books to us. If the print book you receive from us is incorrect, damaged, doesn't work or is unacceptably late, please contact Customer Relations Team on customercare@packt.com with the order number and issue details as explained below:

  1. If you ordered (eBook, Video or Print Book) incorrectly or accidentally, please contact Customer Relations Team on customercare@packt.com within one hour of placing the order and we will replace/refund you the item cost.
  2. Sadly, if your eBook or Video file is faulty or a fault occurs during the eBook or Video being made available to you, i.e. during download then you should contact Customer Relations Team within 14 days of purchase on customercare@packt.com who will be able to resolve this issue for you.
  3. You will have a choice of replacement or refund of the problem items.(damaged, defective or incorrect)
  4. Once Customer Care Team confirms that you will be refunded, you should receive the refund within 10 to 12 working days.
  5. If you are only requesting a refund of one book from a multiple order, then we will refund you the appropriate single item.
  6. Where the items were shipped under a free shipping offer, there will be no shipping costs to refund.

On the off chance your printed book arrives damaged, with book material defect, contact our Customer Relation Team on customercare@packt.com within 14 days of receipt of the book with appropriate evidence of damage and we will work with you to secure a replacement copy, if necessary. Please note that each printed book you order from us is individually made by Packt's professional book-printing partner which is on a print-on-demand basis.

What tax is charged? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Currently, no tax is charged on the purchase of any print book (subject to change based on the laws and regulations). A localized VAT fee is charged only to our European and UK customers on eBooks, Video and subscriptions that they buy. GST is charged to Indian customers for eBooks and video purchases.

What payment methods can I use? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

You can pay with the following card types:

  1. Visa Debit
  2. Visa Credit
  3. MasterCard
  4. PayPal
What is the delivery time and cost of print books? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Shipping Details

USA:

'

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the US within 10-15 business days

Premium: Trackable Delivery to most addresses in the US within 3-8 business days

UK:

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 7-9 business days.
Shipments are not trackable

Premium: Trackable delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 3-4 business days!
Add one extra business day for deliveries to Northern Ireland and Scottish Highlands and islands

EU:

Premium: Trackable delivery to most EU destinations within 4-9 business days.

Australia:

Economy: Can deliver to P. O. Boxes and private residences.
Trackable service with delivery to addresses in Australia only.
Delivery time ranges from 7-9 business days for VIC and 8-10 business days for Interstate metro
Delivery time is up to 15 business days for remote areas of WA, NT & QLD.

Premium: Delivery to addresses in Australia only
Trackable delivery to most P. O. Boxes and private residences in Australia within 4-5 days based on the distance to a destination following dispatch.

India:

Premium: Delivery to most Indian addresses within 5-6 business days

Rest of the World:

Premium: Countries in the American continent: Trackable delivery to most countries within 4-7 business days

Asia:

Premium: Delivery to most Asian addresses within 5-9 business days

Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

  1. Afghanistan
  2. American Samoa
  3. Belarus
  4. Brunei Darussalam
  5. Central African Republic
  6. The Democratic Republic of Congo
  7. Eritrea
  8. Guinea-bissau
  9. Iran
  10. Lebanon
  11. Libiya Arab Jamahriya
  12. Somalia
  13. Sudan
  14. Russian Federation
  15. Syrian Arab Republic
  16. Ukraine
  17. Venezuela
Modal Close icon
Modal Close icon