Spree installation error in Mandriva.

Posted on 1 May 2009 by kosmas

Problem
You are trying to install spree from the git source, following the instructions from here, but there are errors like:

gem install activemerchant --version "= 1.4.1"      
ERROR:  While generating documentation for builder-2.1.2
... MESSAGE:   Unhandled special: Special: type=17, text=""
... RDOC args: --ri --op /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/doc/builder-2.1.2/ri --title Builder 
    -- Easy XML Building --main README --line-numbers 
    --quiet lib CHANGES Rakefile README doc/releases/builder-1.2.4.rdoc 
    doc/releases/builder-2.0.0.rdoc doc/releases/builder-2.1.1.

Solution
Make sure you have the following gems installed:

sudo gem install builder haml echoe

and then run:

sudo rake gems:install

Mandriva – Rails 2.3.2 – mysql gem – ‘ERROR: Error installing mysql’

Posted on 29 April 2009 by kosmas

Problem
You are trying to install the mysql gem in Mandriva, but it fails with error messages:

ERROR:  Error installing mysql:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension...
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysclient... no ....

Solution
After searching in google, with solutions about providing different options (– –with-mysql-config, ..etc), even trying different combinations for providing the client library path, the configuration file, or the header file path, was still faced with the same error installing the mysql gem.
As the Mandriva installation was quite new, it turns out to be a couple of missing packages.
So try:

urpmi gcc
urpmi make

and run:

gem install mysql

again.

It should work out ok install the gem and output:

Building native extensions. This could take a while...
Successfully installed mysql-2.7
1 gem installed

Upgrading to 2.3.2 – Uninitialized constant ApplicationController

Posted on 30 March 2009 by kosmas

Problem
Upgrading from a previous version of Rails to the latest 2.3.2, you get an error:

NameError: uninitialized constant ApplicationController

both in the web browser and in console.

Solution
Since the introduction of Rails 2.3 the application.rb file has been renamed to application_controller.rb.
So in order to solve the problem just rename your file application.rb to application_controller.rb.

Thanks to the post here

Using ActiveScaffold in Rails 2.2 after using default scaffolding

Posted on 19 February 2009 by kosmas

Problem
You want to use ActiveScaffold in Rails 2.2, in a model that you have created using the standard Rails scaffolding script.

Solution

Install the ActiveScaffold plugin:

script/plugin install git://github.com/activescaffold/active_scaffold.git -r rails-2.2

In your layout (model or application for all models) add the following:

<%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %>
<%= active_scaffold_includes %>

In your controller file delete all the standard scaffolding code and add one line, so that your new controller should look like:
```
class SomethingsController < ApplicationController
  active_scaffold :something
end
```
To configure a RESTful scaffold add the following to your route.rb file:
```
map.resources :somethings, :active_scaffold => true
```
Delete the views that were created from the standard rails scaffolding in the views/somethings folder (edit, show, index ...)
Restart your server

You should now have an active scaffold for your model.

Comparing data from two big MySQL tables

Posted on 16 February 2009 by kosmas

Problem
You have two big tables in MySQL (>640K records), that maybe differ in the number of fields, but you want to make sure that the data in the common fields in both tables are the same.

Solution

Use mysql to export the data from the first table in a csv file, selecting only the common fields.
We use the /tmp folder on the server to make sure we have the right permissions to create the file:
```
mysql>SELECT common_field1, common_field2, ... 
INTO OUTFILE '/tmp/first_table.txt'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
FROM table1;
```

If the tables are in different databases remember to switch db:

use seconddb;

Export the second table in the second file:

mysql>SELECT common_field1, common_field2, ... 
INTO OUTFILE '/tmp/second_table.txt'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
FROM table2;

now use the diff. You can use any of the following options:
- diff -q first_table.txt second_table.txt
- diff first_table.txt second_table.txt > diff.txt

Dbconsole exit

Posted on 26 January 2009 by kosmas

Problem
You are using the script/dbconsole utility in Rails (with sqlite), and you want to exit the application but the usual keystrokes/commands like quit, exit, Ctrl + C don’t work.

Solution
You have to use the following keyword, paying particular notice in the leading dot (.exit):

.exit

Mandriva and Sqlite3

Posted on 21 January 2009 by kosmas

Problem
You want to work with sqlite3 in Mandriva (2009), but the standard installation doesn’t work, and you cannot use urpmi sqlite3.

Solution
You need to install the sqlite3 command line tools, like:

urpmi sqlite3-tools

Phusion Passenger installation in Mandriva 2009

Posted on 8 January 2009 by kosmas

Problem
You have recently installed Mandriva 2009 and you want to install phusion passenger.

Solution

First make sure that apache is installed. If it is not installed (default), do:
```
urpmi apache
```
On the selection question about the dependencies select option 1 (apache-prefork)
Use the details from the phusion passenger website. ie:
Install passenger:
```
gem install passenger
```
Run the passenger installation:
```
passenger-install-apache2-module
```
If at the second stage of the installation the installer complains that GNU C++ compiler … not found, install the gnu c++ compiler, with:
```
urpmi gcc_c++
```
Run the passenger installation (step 3) again. If at this stage the installer complains that Apache 2 development headers … not found, use:
```
urpmi apache-devel
```
Run passenger installer (step 3), once more. Now everything should be ok and the apache 2 module will be installed when the installer finishes.
Restart the Apache webserver, and you should be able to add your Rails application. Use the following to deploy your application in /somewhere/public:
```
<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName www.yourhost.com
  DocumentRoot /somewhere/public
</VirtualHost>
```

assert_difference and Rails 2.1.0

Posted on 25 November 2008 by kosmas

Problem
Trying to use the assert_difference with Rails 2.1.0 produces errors if trying to use it with the syntax of another rails version.

Solution
The correct syntax for using assert_difference with rails 2.1.0 is:

def test_should_create_user

assert_difference(User, :count, 1) do

user = create_user

assert !user.new_record?, "#{user.errors.full_messages.to_sentence}"

end

end

undefined method `find_by_contents’ ,acts_as_ferret

Posted on 31 October 2008 by kosmas

Problem
When trying to use the acts_as_ferret plugin in a search page by using the find_by_contents method then the following error appears:

undefined method `find_by_contents'

Solution
It seems that the API of the plugin has changed, and the

find_by_contents

method should be replaced with the:

find_with_ferret

method

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

42

Web notebook about thoughts and discoveries in DevOps, SRE, Software Engineering….

Author Archives: kosmas

Spree installation error in Mandriva.

Mandriva – Rails 2.3.2 – mysql gem – ‘ERROR: Error installing mysql’

Upgrading to 2.3.2 – Uninitialized constant ApplicationController

Using ActiveScaffold in Rails 2.2 after using default scaffolding

Comparing data from two big MySQL tables

Dbconsole exit

Mandriva and Sqlite3

Phusion Passenger installation in Mandriva 2009

assert_difference and Rails 2.1.0

undefined method `find_by_contents’ ,acts_as_ferret