1. sudo gem install geokit (if you haven’t already)
2. script/plugin install git://github.com/andre/geokit-rails.git
3. for new app, create heroku app (
   • on 1.8.7 stack – heroku create APPNAME –stack bamboo-ree-1.8.7 –remote REMOTENAME
   • add the following to app’s .gems file:

     1 2 3

     rails -v 2.3.5 pg geokit --version '=1.5.0'

4. get new developer keys for your heroku app
   • http://developer.yahoo.com/maps/simple/
   • http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html
5. add config.gem “geokit” to config/environment.rb
6. edit your application controller file:

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

   include Geokit include Geokit::Geocoders include Geokit::IpGeocodeLookup class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base   helper :all   protect_from_forgery   geocode_ip_address     before_filter :geokit   def geokit     store_ip_location     @current_location = session[:geo_location]  # @current_location is a GeoLoc instance.   end   def store_location     session[:return_to] = request.request_uri   end   end

From this point forward, the geocoding methods of the Geokit gem are available. There’s more that needs to be done if you want to treat one of your models as geolocatable… but I’ll pick that up later

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Invalid URI: the hostname could not be parsed.

Chances are, you are trying to create the project in a directory that is inaccessible to Windows. In the New Project window, check out the Location field. If it contains psf://, you’re trying to save to the Parallels shared folder – a location Visual Studio apparently can’t handle. Change the location to somewhere on your C: drive, and you should be good to go.

Related posts:

1. Display Line Numbers in Visual Studio

From the Tools menu, select Options > TextEditor > All Languages > General…… then check the box beside Line Numbers.

You can also turn on line numbers for specific languages too – just select the target language instead of “All Languages.”

If you’re on the right screen and you still don’t see it, make sure the “Show all settings” option in the bottom left corner of the Options windows is checked.

Related posts:

1. Creating Visual Studio projects from Parallels

Oy vey.

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Not a problem – I had backed up my hard drive en toto, so recovering my addresses and calendars wasn’t difficult… but since a quick google search didn’t return any suggestions, I thought I’d share what I did in case you find yourself with the same need.

note:

~/ = /Users/soychicka/ = my user home directory, just like ~/ = /Users/yourHomeDir/ = your home directory.

Sadly, it appears that although they now have much nicer names, all of my screenshots in Snow Leopard are no more than black boxes of appropriate dimensions…. so that means you’ll actually have to *gasp* read directions (just for the time being).

To recover your Address Book contacts:

Open up two finder windows, one for your backup drive and one for your regular old hard drive that you’ll be using on a daily basis… and go to ~/yourHomeDir/Library, then find

~/Library/Application Support

in both windows.

You should see a folder called

AddressBook

in both windows. Drag the copy of AddressBook on the backup drive into

~/Library/Application Support.

If you dragged the folder into the right location, you’ll see a dialog that asks if you want to Keep the original, Keep Both, or Replace. Go ahead and click Keep both – it’ll keep a backup copy of the original for you in case something goes dreadfully wrong.

Then launch Address Book: you should see all of your contacts happily coexisting once again…well, at least as happily as they co-existed before, as sadly, Snow Leopard was not shipped with the power to resolve family quarrels or workplace personality conflicts.

To recover your iCal calendars:

Open up two finder windows, one for your backup drive and one for your regular old hard drive that you’ll be using on a daily basis… and go to ~/yourHomeDir/Library.

You should see a folder called

Calendars

in both windows. Drag the copy of Calendars from the backup drive into

~/Library/

on your regular hard drive.  If you dragged the folder into the right location, you’ll see a dialog that asks if you want to Keep the original, Keep Both, or Replace. Go ahead and click Keep both – it’ll keep a backup copy of the original for you in case something goes dreadfully wrong.

Then launch iCal : you should see all of your calendars happily coexisting once again…again, at least as happily as work and your personal life existed before, as Snow Leopard was not shipped with the power to add hours to the day and give you a raise.

Unless there was some new setting I forgot to enable…..

Random fact: One of Snow leopard’s new spots is pretty nice: if you are attempting to copy a file that has the same name as an existing one, instead of offering the option of replacing or canceling, it gives you the option of keeping both, and renames the original

Filename (original).
 Although it still doesn't allow you to merge the contents of two directories (hint hint), it's a step in the right direction.   Thanks, friendly apple UX team!

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This tutorial assumes that you have already installed and configured the following:
- Rails (2.3.4)
-  Git (1.6.4.1)
- Heroku gem (1.3.0)

Specifically, it also assumes that you either a) have configured an ssh keys for use with git, or b) know how to deal with it if you haven’t.

If you don’t meet all of the above criteria,  get crackin’… but once you’re ready, read on.

Install gems:

You’ll need, at bare minimum, the radiant (v0.8.1), taps (v0.2.19), and rspec (v1.2.9) gems.

Create your app

This step automagically creates your Radiant app, and spits out the names of the files it creates followed by a set of instructions for completing installation. Ignore what you see there and follow these instructions instead.

Create your database

This will set up the necessary database structure in your local install. There are a few options you’ll need to select:

Get git

Initializes your new git repository.  If you don’t get git, get it here

Make caching Heroku-Friendly

In your environment config file (config/environment.rb), you need to update the cache configuration. Heroku’s file system is read-only, so all cache must be written in the tmp directory.

replace config.middleware.use ::Radiant::Cache:

Let Heroku know what gems you need.

Since direct access to the command line is not available on the heroku server, create a .gems file to let Heroku know what gems (and what versions of the gems!) are required for your app. When you push your project, the required gems will automagically be installed for you.

Check in

Deploy!

The returned lines will include the url for your new app, and the address of the git repository pushed to heroku.

is what you should see if all goes well.  You can see that the server was started, so you’re almost ready to go.  But first, you need to…

Push your database to Heroku

is what you should see if all goes well here.

At this point, your app should be live at the url you received when deploying.  Make sure to check it out before tinkering with anything…  and then you know that you have a safe starting point to return to when you have caused what otherwise would have been irreparable damage to your app.

On that note, I’d recommend taking advantage of Heroku’s new Bundles feature that lets you create an archive (tarball) of your application code repository and a dump of the database. By default, the bundle is stored on the Heroku servers, but you can download the bundle to your local machine, keep one  or more on Heroku (, upload bundles from your local machine and re-animate a bundle with the “heroku bundles” commands.  You can get one bundle for free, or unlimited bundles for $20/month.  The re-animation process seems a little wonky for the time being, but it’s a good option if you want to unabashedly tinker with abandon (and without fear).

So there’s a simple installation path for deploying a standard Radiant application on Heroku.  Play around with your install and see if it suits your needs.

Heads up, though: if you want to install extensions in your Heroku-deployed app,  there is a custom path for that too!  Using the built-in ./script/extension install extensionName doesn’t play nicely with heroku – it installs the extensions as submodules, which are not supported by Heroku at this time.

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In case you need to modify your httpd.conf on your local system and restart apache, but you can’t bear the thought of 20 seconds downtime when you could be getting back to …. the important stuff.

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So I put my map-based projects on hold… until yesterday, that is, when I came across this easy-to-understand 3-part tutorial with sample code that very clearly shows how all the pieces are put together. A simple “Dude, where’s my car” app shows how to gets your current location, then allows you to place a marker at your current location.

Now, the original developers intent was simply to provide an example of how to use MapKit, so I’m not chiding them for lack of foresight in any way… but in its current state, it’s a bit too simplistic to be really useful as a parking app. But it could easily be tinkered with to provide additional functionality to make it useful:

• allow you to add markers at a location you define (in case you forgot to set where you parked when you were there)
• allow you to set a timer to let you know when your meter is about to run out (or in SF, when the two-hour period of time for people without permits has expired)
• store location info when you exit the app (’cause as is, you lose it when you answer a phone call, etc.)
• etc., etc.

Regardless, for whatever app you need a map, this project is a great start for learning how to get started with MapKit.

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But my adventures with Cocoa/Obj-C present a new challenge: no stand-alone php or perl files that can easily be shuffled and renamed… when you work with a language that requires the software be compiled, there’s a much deeper structure that needs to be modified in order to assign a new identity to the project.

Sadly, Xcode doesn’t have an option that allows you to create a new project from an existing project with a new name (note to Apple: this would be a great feature to include in 3.2, *wink wink nudge nudge*).

But in the meantime, when you have some sample code you want to play around with, but still hang on to the original and not muck up your hard drive with copies of copies of duplicates of copies… try this:

1. Make a copy of the folder containing the project, and rename it from

   1	OldProjectName

   to

   1	NewProjectName

   .

2. I like to lock the

   1	OldProjectName

   folder to make sure I don’t accidentally muck up the original: (select

   1	OldProjectName

   folder, command-i, under General click the Locked checkbox.) You can always undo it later.

3. In the

   1	NewProjectName

   folder, rename:

   • 1	OldProjectName.pch

     to

     1	NewProjectName.pch

   • 1	OldProjectName.xcodeproj

     to

     1	NewProjectName.xcodeproj

   • 1	OldProjectName-info.plist

     (if it exists) to

     1	NewProjectName-info.plist

4. Delete the build folder.
5. Right-click

   1	NewProjectName.xcodeproj

   and select Show Package Contents.

6. Open

   1	project.pbxproj

   in your favorite text editor and do a find/replace to update all instances of

   1	OldProjectName

   to

   1	NewProjectName

   . (see #10 if any of your class files

   1	OldProjectName

   have in the filename.

7. Open the project in Xcode.
8. From the

   1	Build menu

   , select

   1	Clean all targets

   .

9. Try to build and see if it goes. If you’re working on an iPhone app, try it out in the simulator first… if you have any provisioning files for the old application name, you’ll have to go through the steps to create a new one before you can test it on your device.
10. if any of your classes contain

    1	OldProjectName

    in the class fileName, you’ll need to

    • update the names of any .h/.m files that include the name of the project… don’t forget you’ll have to update import statements too
    • rename any of the

      1	@interface

      and

      1	@implementation

      declarations that contain

      1	OldProjectName

      to contain

      1	NewProjectName

      .

    • 1

      Build

      >

      1	Clean all targets

      again, build again, and fix anything you missed.

You now have a fully renamed project, ready for mutilation. Enjoy!

Thanks to Aleksandar Vacić for posting this tutorial that I used to learn the basics of renaming a project…

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