-== Welcome to Rails
-
-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.
-
-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.
-
-
-== Getting started
-
-1. Run the WEBrick servlet: <tt>ruby script/server</tt> (run with --help for options)
- ...or if you have lighttpd installed: <tt>ruby script/lighttpd</tt> (it's faster)
-2. Go to http://localhost:3000/ and get "Congratulations, you've put Ruby on Rails!"
-3. Follow the guidelines on the "Congratulations, you've put Ruby on Rails!" screen
-
-
-== Example for Apache conf
-
- <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>
-
-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.
-
-
-== Debugging Rails
-
-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.
-
-
-== Breakpoints
-
-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:
-
- 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:
-
-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"
-
-...and even better is that you can examine how your runtime objects actually work:
-
- >> 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
-
-
-== Console
-
-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>console production</tt>.
-
-
-== 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.
-
-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.
-
-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.
+Contributors to Selectricity Include:
+
+ * Benjamin Mako Hill <mako@atdot.cc>
+ * John Dong <jdong@ubuntu.com>
+ * Justin Sharps <jlsharps@mit.edu>
+
+07/31/07
+jlsharps: I've added a user authentication system known as
+"acts_as_authenticated" to the code. The plugin is the the vendor/plugins
+directory. The two most noticeable changes are the AccountController and a
+redone User model. I've left the UserController in place for now, but the
+AccountController works in a different manner, so am switching over to that
+gradually. I saved the 5 lines or so in the old User model, overwrote
+it with the authenticated generator and then recopied the old stuff back in:
+has_many :elections and the name() method. The generator also creates its own
+migration file, but since we are using a create.sql file I adopted the
+migration file into a new users table in the create.sql file. I have yet to
+delete the old table because I haven't fully combed through the code yet and
+determined how many of the old attributes (such as first_name, last_name) may
+need to be retained.
+http://technoweenie.stikipad.com/plugins/show/Acts+as+Authenticated is the
+best site for documentation regarding acts_as_authenticaed. Also, currently
+it only stores the user_id in the session, but i just found a guide to help
+me make it store the entire user object, so I'll do that while my battery
+charges.
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