I have written a paper called “Introducing Ruby on Rails to your workplace”:introducing-ruby-on-rails-to-your-workplace. It covers a number of approaches to using both Ruby and the Rails Framework at your work. These suggestions apply to organisations of all sizes – from small startups through to large corporates.
So have a read. What other ways can we use Ruby on Rails to enhance our workplace productivity?
Firefox 2.0 is going to be released to the public in the next few weeks. One of the changes in this new version break some of the accessibility features of “KiwiSaver”:http://www.kiwisaver.govt.nz and many other NZ Government websites.
h3. Accessibility Requirements
The accessibility requirements of New Zealand Government websites are defined by the e-government initiative of the State Services Commission. Their “Web Guidelines document requires govt websites use the access keys feature”:http://www.e.govt.nz/standards/web-guidelines/web-guidelines-v-2-1/chapter6.html#Heading761 of web browsers to enhance usability for those people who have difficulty using a mouse.
The access keys are as follows:
bq. 0 list of access keys
1 home
2 site map
3 search
4 to 8 agency defined
9 contact us
[ beginning of main content
/ go to govt.nz
h3. Firefox 2.0 changes
Historically, access keys have been activated by the user holding down the ALT key (on Windows browsers) or the APPLE key (on Mac browsers), and then pressing the desired key. From the example above, I would press ALT-1 to visit the homepage.
Firefox 2.0 has changed the activation keys, and now requires users to press SHIFT and ALT together (on the Mac, it is SHIFT and APPLE).
But, when visiting the new KiwiSaver website, and other New Zealand Government websites – none of the mandated access keys seem to work. Yet, on some of my other web applications I have developed for Inland Revenue – they work fine.
h3. Bug or feature?
What the mandated access keys have in common is that none of them are alphabetic. They are all numerals or slashes, etc.
It appears that Firefox 2.0 is treating them as their SHIFTed equivalents. You can trial this with some simple HTML code:
On Firefox 1.5 and earlier, you’ll visit the Google homepage when pressing ALT-1. On Firefox 2.0pr3, you’ll visit the KiwiSaver website when pressing ALT-SHIFT-1.
I would suggest that this is a bug. I have created a “bug report”:https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=357317 at the Mozilla website. If you are able, please “vote to have this bug fixed”:https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/votes.cgi?action=show_user&bug_id=357317#vote_357317.
Michael is speaking today at “RailsConf Europe”:http://europe.railsconf.org/ in London. His topic “Playing Nice with Others” covers application integration strategies. What technologies should you use? What ‘silver-bullets’ should you avoid? How can you structure your application to avoid common pitfalls.
We look forward to hearing how it goes, and hopefully seeing some videos of it online. We’ll post links to them when they become available.
We specialise in building professional web applications for businesses seeking:
* highly capable and experienced staff
* smart intuitive web designs
* cost effective development tools and agile processes
* shared risk development options
We can help solve your integration problems using our team’s broad and deep IT experience.
Thinking about moving to Ruby on Rails? We can offer:
* architectural and design advice
* team training and mentoring
* jump-start for your development team
Want to see where we’ve been surfing today? We’ve created a “Del.icio.us account”:http://del.icio.us/network/abletech for Able Technology. All three of us will contribute – that’s Nigel Ramsay, Michael Koziarski and Marcus Baguley.
Expect to see content such as:
* Ruby on Rails
* Java
* Web technologies
* Apple products and services
* Whatever seems cool!
Clicks on “links”:http://del.icio.us/network/abletech in the navigation bar to check it out.
There’s also an “RSS feed”:http://del.icio.us/rss/network/abletech if you’re really keen.
I signed up for the “iTalk”:http://www.italk.co.nz (internet telephone) service with “Slingshot”:http://www.slingshot.co.nz about a month ago. Here are my impressions after a month of using the service.
h3. Signup and Setup
This is probably the worst part of the “iTalk”:http://www.iTalk.co.nz experience. If you can get over this hurdle, then it’s pretty much plain sailing. The problems I experienced were:
* Unsupported hardware – I was using a Netgear VOIP box, and iTalk only support their own hardware. The forums are a good resource, but it’s pretty much a DIY approach. If you’re non-technical and you don’t have any technical friends, then I’d suggest only using supported hardware.
* Username and password issues – these are generated and then displayed on the setup webpages. They don’t email them to you automatically. Fortunately I have the foresight to have the webpage as a PDF and email it to my gmail account for permanent storage. otherwise you’ll need to call their support people of assistance.
* Customer support – you have to wait on hold forever, and the machine keeps telling you they value you call – yeah right. When you finally get through, they’re nice people and seem to know what they’re doing.
h3. Reliability
When we first started using the service, we had a few issues with calls not coming through. But those problems only lasted a few days and everything came right.
A month down the track, and the reliability seems great. Better than a mobile phone, but not quite as good as Telecom.
I’m using a answer machine at home, but I have heard their voicemail is unreliable.
h3. Call Quality
Fine. You get the odd echo every now and again, but it’s hardly noticeable. We used the service for two weeks before we told anyone we were using an Internet phone – no one had noticed.
Also, you get free caller ID.
h3. The Bill
What can I say – it’s great value. At $10 a month plus 5c a minute calling 24×7 it’s awesome. Mobile calls for 30c a minute – that’s less than half of what I was paying Telecom.
And… the format of the bill is incredible. They:
* itemise all calls, even local ones.
* give you the name of the person you called – WOW!
* date, time etc
* city called
and it’s all categorised into local, national, international and mobile sections. Great work Slingshot!
h3. The Outcome
I’m going to call up Telecom tomorrow to say bye bye. The cable will be snipped. I’ve waited a long time to do this. No longer will we be paying the $40 tax each month.
h3. My Advice
If you interested in this kind of thing, I’d suggest following this process:
# Sign up with iTalk but just get the softphone option
# Get that going first
# Try it out – if you’re happy with it, then buy a “VOIP adapter”:http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/en/product/XH9440 for your regular phone
# Call Telecom and ask for their Call Diversion service
# Divert your Telecom number to your new iTalk phone number
# Start using your iTalk phone only. Unplug your Telecom phone
# Don’t tell anyone about this for two weeks or so, and see if anyone notices
# After the two week period, start telling people
# When you get your first bill from Slingshot, start telling all your friends about your new number
# Give it a week or so, and the give the Telecom number the chop
Michael Koziarski will be “speaking about Ruby on Rails”:http://webstandards.net.nz/august-meeting-ruby-on-rails-writemark/ next Thursday afternoon at Web Standards. Marcus and I will be there too. The details are:
* Time: 4.00pm to 6.30pm
* Date: Thursday 24th August
* Venue: “National Library Auditorium, corner Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Wellington”:http://www.zoomin.co.nz/nz/wellington/pipitea/molesworth+street/-national+library+of+new+zealand/.
They will be charging $10 a head – to cover the drinks and food. Also, they give everyone a personalised name tag, so you need to RSVP – see the details at “their website”:http://webstandards.net.nz/august-meeting-ruby-on-rails-writemark/.
Do you want to try out the new beta version of Firefox 2.0, but none of your extensions are compatible? This brief howto guide will explain how to manually update those important extensions to run in Firefox 2.0.
*About*
Most of the extensions you use will probably work just fine in Firefox 2.0. I have updated many of the extensions I use, and have not had any problems so far. My guess is that there are few, if any changes to the APIs that most Firefox extensions use.
*Step 1: get the XPI file*
Download the XPI file from the mozilla website, or the extension developers website. Save this to a temporary file on your hard drive.
*Step 2: open the file with WinZip*
The XPI file format is a simple Zip archive. You can open it with WinZip or any other compatible Zip archive viewer. You should see something like the screenshot below:
!/images/12.jpg (screenshot of XPI file contents)!
*Step 3: extract the install.rdf file*
The file called install.rdf describes the contents of the XPI file. Extract this file into a temporary directory on your hard drive. With WinZip, you should be able to drag’n'drop the file onto your desktop.
*Step 4: edit the install.rdf file*
Use notepad, or a similar text editor to open the install.rdf file. It contains a number of XML tags. You should look for an entry named em:targetApplication – this defines which applications and versions the extension will operate with. It should look similar to the screenshot below:
!/images/11.jpg (screenshot of install.rdf file)!
You will need to change the maxVersion setting to match the version of Firefox that you are using. In the example above, I have set the maxVersion to 2.0+
Note: there may be other instances of the targetApplication tag – these may declare that the extension can operate with other Mozilla based applications – for example the Flock browser. You can safely ignore those applications that you are not interested in.
*Step 5: update the XPI file*
Open up WinZip a second time, and add the updated install.rdf file back into the XFI archive. Using drop’n'drop may be the simplist way to achieve this. Confirm that the file has been updated by checking the date field of the install.rdf file. It should be today.
*Step 6: install the XPI file*
Install the XPI file by dragging and dropping it into Firefox. The Software Installation dialog will appear. Press the Install button to proceed. You will be prompted to restart Firefox.
*Step 7: confirm the installation*
After you have restarted Firefox, you can check that your extension has been installed by selecting the Add-ons option from the Tools menu. You should see your extension listed.
*When it all goes bad – uninstall*
The extension you have manually upgraded may not work correctly in Firefox 2.0. This may be due to some upgrade issues that can only be solved by the extension author. You’ll just have to be patient and wait until a new release supports the new Firefox.
To uninstall your faulty extension, you can remove it from the Add-ons panel. If this fails, you may need to start Firefox in safe mode. Select Start > Programs > Mozilla Firefox > Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode). Then remove the extension from the Tools > Addons menu.