Rails 3 and SproutCore

Hello! There is such a wonderful JavaScript framework called SproutCore . With it, you can quite easily write web applications with an approximation to the desktop interface. The thing is quite popular, used for example by Apple at iWork.com . Under the cut, we fasten SproutCore to the last rails.

Of course, first we’ll install a gem with SproutCore:
sudo gem install sproutcore

By the way, the RubyGems version must be at least 1.2, otherwise nothing will work. But updating is easy enough:
sudo gem update --system

Ok, let's assume that we have a gem. In principle, you can try SproutCore now: After that, go to localhost: 4020 and see the result. But we will be screwing all this joy to the rails.
sc-init hello_sp
cd hello_sp
sc-server


An example with a todo RESTful application is provided on the official website, so we won’t invent anything and repeat:

Create a project: Next, we need to create and populate the database with something, plus editing this data via the web interface. Scaffolding is not the best solution, but it’s suitable for quick testing: Apply migrations: Next, we need to work a bit on the implementation of standard CRUD operations, bring app / controllers / tasks_controllers.rb to the following form:
$ rails new todos
$ cd todos


rails g scaffold Task description:string isDone:boolean order:integer


rake db:migrate

class TasksController < ApplicationController
       respond_to :json
       def index
         respond_with(@tasks = Task.all)
       end
       def show
         respond_with(@task = Task.find(params[:id]))
       end
       def create
         respond_with(@task = Task.create(:description => params[:description], 
         :isDone => params[:isDone], 
         :order => params[:order]))
       end
       def update
         @task = Task.find(params[:id])
         @task.description = params[:description]
         @task.isDone = params[:isDone]
         @task.order = params[:order]
         @task.save
         respond_with(@task)
       end
       def destroy
         @task = Task.find(params[:id])
         @task.destroy
         render(:nothing => true, :status => :ok)
       end
     end

Great, the next step is to populate the database with something. There are many options, one of the most convenient is to fill out db / seeds.rb:

     Task.create(:description => 'This is the first task', :isDone => true, :order => 1)
     Task.create(:description => 'This is the second task', :isDone => false, :order => 2)
     Task.create(:description => 'This is the third task', :isDone => true, :order => 3)

Although (if there are few values), you can also drive directly into the console: rails cforward. Next, fill out our database:
rake db:seed

Everything is almost ready for the application rails test, it remains to be removed protect_from_forgery from the ApplicationController, otherwise a terrible “InvalidAuthenticityToken error” error may occur.

Start:
rails s

At this link you should observe the text with the contents of your database.

It remains to add a little SproutCore to the project, it is not so difficult - you need to provide the correct data in JSON format. The manual suggests writing a bulky class, but the comments suggested a more correct solution.
So, let's change our ActiveRecord :: Base in the project, it should look something like this:

class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
def as_json(options = {})
ret = {
:guid => "/tasks/#{self.id}",
:id => self.id,
:description => self.description,
:isDone => self.isDone
}
end
end

Accordingly, you can use it for example like this:

store.loadRecords(Todos.Task, response.get('body'));

It remains to add a line to the buildfile of our project:

proxy "/tasks", :to => "localhost:3000"

That's all for now. Unfortunately, there are not so many documentation and articles on SproutCore, but the framework clearly deserves attention.

Project site
Demo interface and another
Wiki project
Album video on a subject on Vimeo