referenced mailing list and gitorious

[selectricity-live] / README

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-== Welcome to Rails
+===============================================
+=== Getting Selectricity ======================
+===============================================

 
 

-Rails is a web-application and persistence framework that includes everything
-needed to create database-backed web-applications according to the
-Model-View-Control pattern of separation. This pattern splits the view (also
-called the presentation) into "dumb" templates that are primarily responsible
-for inserting pre-built data in between HTML tags. The model contains the
-"smart" domain objects (such as Account, Product, Person, Post) that holds all
-the business logic and knows how to persist themselves to a database. The
-controller handles the incoming requests (such as Save New Account, Update
-Product, Show Post) by manipulating the model and directing data to the view.
-
-In Rails, the model is handled by what's called an object-relational mapping
-layer entitled Active Record. This layer allows you to present the data from
-database rows as objects and embellish these data objects with business logic
-methods. You can read more about Active Record in 
-link:files/vendor/rails/activerecord/README.html.
+Selectricity is free software and is distributed under the GNU Affero
+General Public License version 3. You are free to use, modify, and
+distribute, or rework Selectricity under the terms of that license. Of
+course, we'd sure like it if you would send fixes back to us and tell us
+about cool stuff you do with our software!

 
 

-The controller and view are handled by the Action Pack, which handles both
-layers by its two parts: Action View and Action Controller. These two layers
-are bundled in a single package due to their heavy interdependence. This is
-unlike the relationship between the Active Record and Action Pack that is much
-more separate. Each of these packages can be used independently outside of
-Rails.  You can read more about Action Pack in 
-link:files/vendor/rails/actionpack/README.html.
+The best way to get Selectricity is just to download it from our source
+tree.  At the moment, we're hosting our code at Gitorious which is a
+free software hosting provider. You can download Gitorious at the
+project page by following detailed instructions at Gitorious:

 
 

+  http://gitorious.org/selectricity

 
 

-== Getting started

 
 

-1. Start the web server: <tt>ruby script/server</tt> (run with --help for options)
-2. Go to http://localhost:3000/ and get "Welcome aboard: You’re riding the Rails!"
-3. Follow the guidelines to start developing your application
+===============================================
+=== Getting Help and Contributing =============
+===============================================

 
 

+If you have a question, you can always email the core team at:

 
 

-== Web servers
+  team@selectricity.org

 
 

-Rails uses the built-in web server in Ruby called WEBrick by default, so you don't
-have to install or configure anything to play around. 
+If you want to get involved in development, want to discuss
+selectricity, or want to participate, please subscribe to our mailing
+list here:

 
 

-If you have lighttpd installed, though, it'll be used instead when running script/server.
-It's considerably faster than WEBrick and suited for production use, but requires additional
-installation and currently only works well on OS X/Unix (Windows users are encouraged
-to start with WEBrick). We recommend version 1.4.11 and higher. You can download it from
-http://www.lighttpd.net.
+  http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/selectricity

 
 

-If you want something that's halfway between WEBrick and lighttpd, we heartily recommend
-Mongrel. It's a Ruby-based web server with a C-component (so it requires compilation) that
-also works very well with Windows. See more at http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/.
+In terms of bugs and documentation, we current plan to build this out in
+our Gitorious wiki so feel free to get started with your own efforts
+along these lines there:

 
 

-But of course its also possible to run Rails with the premiere open source web server Apache.
-To get decent performance, though, you'll need to install FastCGI. For Apache 1.3, you want
-to use mod_fastcgi. For Apache 2.0+, you want to use mod_fcgid.
+  http://gitorious.org/selectricity/pages/Home

 
 

-See http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/FastCGI for more information on FastCGI.

 
 

-== Example for Apache conf
+===============================================
+=== Dependencies ==============================
+===============================================

 
 

-  <VirtualHost *:80>
-    ServerName rails
-    DocumentRoot /path/application/public/
-    ErrorLog /path/application/log/server.log
-  
-    <Directory /path/application/public/>
-      Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
-      AllowOverride all
-      Allow from all
-      Order allow,deny
-    </Directory>
-  </VirtualHost>
+To use Selectricity, you'll need to install the following gems in
+addition to Ruby on Rails (gem:rails), MySQL (gem:mysql), and its
+dependencies:

 
 

-NOTE: Be sure that CGIs can be executed in that directory as well. So ExecCGI
-should be on and ".cgi" should respond. All requests from 127.0.0.1 go
-through CGI, so no Apache restart is necessary for changes. All other requests
-go through FCGI (or mod_ruby), which requires a restart to show changes.
+ * rmagick
+ * gruff (http://nubyonrails.com/pages/gruff)
+ * sparklines (http://nubyonrails.com/pages/sparklines)

 
 

+To use Selectricity in development mode, you'll need to install the
+following gems:

 
 

-== Debugging Rails
+ * ruby-debug

 
 

-Have "tail -f" commands running on both the server.log, production.log, and
-test.log files. Rails will automatically display debugging and runtime
-information to these files. Debugging info will also be shown in the browser
-on requests from 127.0.0.1.
+Also, you will need install the other applications installed first:

 
 

+ * imagemagick (http://www.imagemagick.org/)

 
 

-== Breakpoints
+On Ubuntu, you can install install the dependencies with: 
+  apt-get install imagemagick libmagick9-dev ruby1.8-dev libwmf-bin rdoc \
+  libopenssl-ruby1.8 libreadline-ruby1.8 libmysqlclient15-dev

 
 

-Breakpoint support is available through the script/breakpointer client. This
-means that you can break out of execution at any point in the code, investigate
-and change the model, AND then resume execution! Example:
+Our server configuration uses Mongrel (installed from gems) behind an
+Apache2 load balancing proxy using mod_proxy.

 
 

-  class WeblogController < ActionController::Base
-    def index
-      @posts = Post.find_all
-      breakpoint "Breaking out from the list"
-    end
-  end
-  
-So the controller will accept the action, run the first line, then present you
-with a IRB prompt in the breakpointer window. Here you can do things like:
+You'll also need to have a MTA installed. We use Postfix and have not
+tried it with any other system. Presumably though, anything that
+provides '/usr/bin/sendmail' should work.

 
 

-Executing breakpoint "Breaking out from the list" at .../webrick_server.rb:16 in 'breakpoint'

 
 

-  >> @posts.inspect
-  => "[#<Post:0x14a6be8 @attributes={\"title\"=>nil, \"body\"=>nil, \"id\"=>\"1\"}>, 
-       #<Post:0x14a6620 @attributes={\"title\"=>\"Rails you know!\", \"body\"=>\"Only ten..\", \"id\"=>\"2\"}>]"
-  >> @posts.first.title = "hello from a breakpoint"
-  => "hello from a breakpoint"
+===============================================
+=== Contributors to Selectricity Include ======
+===============================================

 
 

-...and even better is that you can examine how your runtime objects actually work:
+ * Benjamin Mako Hill <mako@atdot.cc>
+ * John Dong          <jdong@ubuntu.com>
+ * Justin Sharps      <jlsharps@mit.edu>

 
 

-  >> f = @posts.first 
-  => #<Post:0x13630c4 @attributes={"title"=>nil, "body"=>nil, "id"=>"1"}>
-  >> f.
-  Display all 152 possibilities? (y or n)

 
 

-Finally, when you're ready to resume execution, you press CTRL-D
+=====================================
+=== XML-RPC INFO                    ==
+======================================

 
 

+The XML-RPC API is still under development, but is somewhat functional already:

 
 

-== Console
+To instantiate a client in Ruby, try something like:
+client=ActionWebService::Client::XmlRpc.new(SelectricityAPI,"http://localhost:3000/selectricity_service/vote")

 
 

-You can interact with the domain model by starting the console through script/console. 
-Here you'll have all parts of the application configured, just like it is when the
-application is running. You can inspect domain models, change values, and save to the
-database. Starting the script without arguments will launch it in the development environment.
-Passing an argument will specify a different environment, like <tt>script/console production</tt>.

 
 

-To reload your controllers and models after launching the console run <tt>reload!</tt>
+Getting the results of a quickvote is quite simple:
+?> client.get_quickvote_results("test")
+=> #<VoteResultStruct:0x336f92c @approval_winners=[1, 2], @borda_winners=[1], @plurality_winners=[1], @ssd_winners=[1], @errors=[], @condorcet_winners=[1]>

 
 

+Casting a quickvote:
+client.cast_quickvote("test",1,[[1,2]])

 
 

+To figure out what you're voting for:
+>> client.get_quickvote_candidate_map("test")=> #<CandidateMap:0x335bbc0 @errors=[], @candidate_names=["test", "test2"], @candidate_ids=[1, 2]>

 
 

-== Description of contents

 
 

-app
-  Holds all the code that's specific to this particular application.

 
 

-app/controllers
-  Holds controllers that should be named like weblog_controller.rb for
-  automated URL mapping. All controllers should descend from
-  ActionController::Base.

 
 

-app/models
-  Holds models that should be named like post.rb.
-  Most models will descend from ActiveRecord::Base.
-  
-app/views
-  Holds the template files for the view that should be named like
-  weblog/index.rhtml for the WeblogController#index action. All views use eRuby
-  syntax. This directory can also be used to keep stylesheets, images, and so on
-  that can be symlinked to public.
-  
-app/helpers
-  Holds view helpers that should be named like weblog_helper.rb.

 
 

-app/apis
-  Holds API classes for web services.
-
-config
-  Configuration files for the Rails environment, the routing map, the database, and other dependencies.
-
-components
-  Self-contained mini-applications that can bundle together controllers, models, and views.
-
-db
-  Contains the database schema in schema.rb.  db/migrate contains all
-  the sequence of Migrations for your schema.
-
-lib
-  Application specific libraries. Basically, any kind of custom code that doesn't
-  belong under controllers, models, or helpers. This directory is in the load path.
-    
-public
-  The directory available for the web server. Contains subdirectories for images, stylesheets,
-  and javascripts. Also contains the dispatchers and the default HTML files.
-
-script
-  Helper scripts for automation and generation.
-
-test
-  Unit and functional tests along with fixtures.
-
-vendor
-  External libraries that the application depends on. Also includes the plugins subdirectory.
-  This directory is in the load path.