Hey Michael, Yep, I think it was a combination of the docs being a bit challenging to go through, which ones to use, etc, and also the fact that I didn't know about the as_routes method which Jon mentioned. Things are much, much easier now and I'm excited to actually test this out. It looks like some things need fixing a bit, but in a much more easy to handle way (get a model to display nicely in the list, etc).
I'm actually working on a project called Writeme which will be a readme generator/specification. I think we all do ourselves a bit of a disservice by having README's be so unorganized, and I think this might be a great example of a project which could use some of the ideas I'm playing with in Writeme. Anyway, appreciate your thoughts. Looking forward to really testing this out now that I can get the basics going. Jack On Sep 8, 11:32 am, Michael Bahnmiller <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey Jack, > > AS has been incredibly helpful to me. I'm sort of the other mindset, in > that they have developed this thing with a very good set of defaults. > > It's been my experience (though I'm using Rails 2.3.8) that /most/ stuff > works right out of the box. That said, even the stuff that doesn't work > immediately, I write to the list about and it either gets worked on and > fixed within a day or two or someone from the list writes back > explaining how things should be done. > > At first the documentation is hard to navigate and figure out, I agree. > But once you get an idea of what's going on, it's not quite so bad. > > If you need any help, just write! Sometimes it's just a matter of > getting relationships set up correctly, etc. > > Also, a note on defaults - you can, in fact, set your own set of > defaults in the application controller so that you don't have to worry > about setting them every time. > > Anyway, feel free to write. > > Thanks, and welcome to the group :) > Mikelb > > On 09/08/2010 12:31 AM, jack dempsey wrote: > > > > > I recently tried using ActiveScaffold in a simple application of mine. > > I've found the process extremely frustrating and had basically given > > up. After looking through some of the other common choices for admin > > type interfaces, I'm looking at ActiveScaffold again, as the other > > choices are even more frustrating. > > > This is of course my opinion, but as a user new to this lib, I would > > expect some semblance of an ability to get things running without too > > much hassle. > > > So, I setup the basics, added active_scaffold :model to a controller, > > and then set about to try things out. > > > Things blow up immediately with an error about a route not matching > > show_search. Search? I'm not even thinking about search yet. Why is > > this a default that can't work on its own? > > > I eventually find the API docs and figure out some way of avoiding the > > search action. I try loading things up again. > > > This time it bombs with an error about edit_associated something or > > other. Ok...I comment out the has_and_belongs_to_many call in my model > > and refresh. Voila, the page loads! So after that first success I go > > back and try to figure out what to do next. After trying a variety of > > things I somehow get it to work, sort of. > > > So, in short, I think you've done an incredible job of trying to > > handle a huge variety of situations and use cases. I know this stuff > > is complex and I can only imagine the time put into the project. I > > don't send this with any sort of entitlement or feeling that anyone > > owes me something. Quite the contrary. > > > However, I do think there are some basic improvements that could be > > made that would hugely help people get up and get going with > > ActiveScaffold. > > > 1. if configuration is needed for an option, don't include it in the > > defaults. Don't make me think about search when I may not even want > > it. Don't make me add in other methods, routes, links, or whatever if > > I just want to get a simple scaffolding view of some models going. > > It's so much better to opt-in to the more advanced capabilities once > > ready than force them on a user to start with. > > > 2. A certain amount of configuration is acceptable of course. For > > instance, adding in include helpers, changing things like what js > > framework to use, etc. makes a lot of sense to me. I still don't like > > having to do that sort of thing each time I want to generate a new > > idea, so I've wrapped it up in a rails 3 compatible recipe in a > > project of mine, which you can see here: > >http://github.com/jackdempsey/beet/blob/master/lib/beet/recipes/rails... > > > The line I would draw though is using beet to setup config options in > > a controller to exclude search and so on as a default. I really think > > that should be the default choice from the lib itself. > > > 3. If certain choices remain standard, then it'd be great to have a > > small section of "this is what you need to do to get going", showing > > configs for search, how to setup edit_associated urls, and other > > things like that. There may very well be this sort of page out there, > > but I couldn't find it, and gave up after a good amount of searching. > > > The reason I'm so frustrated is that this project is so close to being > > something amazingly useful for me and I imagine many others, but these > > first stumbling steps were almost enough to make me want to quit > > trying and not look back, and that would be a shame. > > > I'm not one to complain and expect others to code for me. I'd be happy > > to help document things (once I understand them better) and engage in > > a discussion about defaults, how easy it should or shouldn't be to get > > up and running, etc. At this point though I don't want to jump back in > > without a better sense of hope that each new thing I try to do won't > > be broken to start, and force me to scour pages looking for a fix. Is > > > Thank you for the time, effort, and consideration put into AS. I truly > > appreciate it and hope I can help with improving it even more. > > > best, > > Jack -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ActiveScaffold : Ruby on Rails plugin" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/activescaffold?hl=en.
