The method has_many has several options that help you refine an association. The :extend option is one that I found myself using recently, and thought it would be nice to share with the internet.

Say you have a Friendship class that belongs to a User class, and that your User class has_many :friends, :through => :friendships. A good old fashioned @user.friends would return all the user records for @user’s friends.

Let’s also say your friendships table contains the fields user_id:integer, friend_id:integer, and state:string, where state can either be ‘active’, ‘requested’, or ‘pending’.

You might be tempted to do something like this in your User class:
has_many :friends do
def active
...some query...
end
...and so on for each state
end

I suppose, this would be fine if you only needed one method. You need something for each state, though, and this direction leads to unsightliness quite fast. Enter :extend.

Using this method, you can define methods in a module and call that module using extend. So the association looks like this:
has_many :friends, :through => :friendships, :extend => FriendshipState

FriendshipState is the module where your methods are defined:
module FriendshipState
Order = "users.last_name asc, users.first_name desc"
def pending
find(:all, :conditions => ['friendships.state = ?', 'pending'], : order => Order)
end
def requested
find(:all, :conditions => ['friendships.state = ?','requested'], : order => Order)
end
def active
find(:all, :conditions => ['friendships.state = ?','active'], : order => Order)
end
end

NOTE: there should be no space between ‘:’ and ‘order’. I did that to prevent god forsaken emoticons

The join is handled for you, so @user.friends.active returns all user records for @user’s active friendships; and so on with pending and requested.

SELECT `users`.* FROM `users` INNER JOIN `friendships` ON `users`.id = `friendships`.friend_id WHERE ((`friendships`.user_id = 1) AND (friendships.state = 'active')) ORDER BY users.last_name asc, users.first_name desc

Nice, huh?

There are many options to choose from when you need to store an encrypted value in a database. After trying a few, I recently settled on Sean Huber’s delightful attr_encrypted gem.

To use attr_encrypted you’ll need to first install the gem (gem install shuber-attr_encrypted --source http://gems.github.com), then either require it in your class or via config.gem. I’ll demonstrate how to use attr_encrypted with a User record that, for whatever reason, needs to store the users Social Security Number (SSN).

Starting from scratch, let’s generate a User model with columns for the users name and encrypted SSN:

script/generate model User name:string encrypted_ssn:string.

You probably noticed that I created the column encrypted_ssn rather than ssn. This is because attr_encrypted expects the attribute you want to encrypt to be titled encrypted_#{attribute}. I’ll show you how to manipulate this in a moment.

Let’s encrypt the users SSN by calling attr_encrypted in our User model:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
require 'attr_encrypted' #if you aren't using config.gem
attr_accessible :name, :ssn
attr_encrypted :ssn, :key => "some_key_you_like"

Be sure to declare :ssn in both your mass-assignment allowance and your encrypted attributes. Otherwise, you will get the famous “can’t mass assign…” warning in your log, or if you are validating presence of any encrypted attributes you will receive an error that they are blank.

From here, feel free to proceed as normal. Save the users SSN to the database from a form using the :ssn method, not the :encrypted_ssn method (text_field_tag 'ssn'). This will save the encrypted SSN to your db. Calling @user.ssn will yield the users decrypted SSN.

A Couple Extras

Pass the :attribute option to attr_encrypted if you would like the column to be something other than encrypted_#{attribute}.

attr_encrypted :ssn, :key => "some_key", :attribute => "private_ssn"

You will probably need to make sure that the SSN is unique, yes? In this case you want to validate the encrypted value:

validates_uniqueness_of :encrypted_ssn

As long as you are encrypting every SSN record with the same :key this will validate properly. Cover your bases and add a unique index on encrypted_ssn in your database, also.

attr_encrypted offers quite a bit more functionality, such as custom encryptors, custom algorithms, default options and marshaling. Be sure to read through the documentation at github.com/shuber/attr_encrypted.

Finally, thanks to Sean for helping me clear up a few things in my own use. He’s quite accessible.

Quick disclaimer, I’m no command line guru, but I am a huge fan of anything that helps me do my job faster, so I decided to load up some aliases in .bashrc this morning. A perfectly good Sunday morning activity.

I quickly ran in to a problem, though. My aliases weren’t working. The only way I could get them to work was to run source .bashrc. Logging out of Terminal didn’t do me any good, and setting a Terminal startup preference to run source .bashrc only worked for the first new window. Drag. So, to the Google Machine I went.

A simple search for Terminal doesn’t recognize .bashrc returned a helpful thread from macosxhints.com. A quick look at all the files in my home directory revealed no .bash_profile file. Aha! All I needed to do was create that file then add if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc; fi and voila, problem solved. Update: After I tried to fire up a Rails project I realized that I should have modified .bash_login on my machine. The mix up caused a little problem where my version of RubyGems wasn’t being found. If you have .bash_login, add the aforementioned line there.

Now I can alias to my hearts content. I like to alias my ssh commands and other common directories that I frequently work from. Below are a few examples of popular aliases as well as how to use alias.

How to:

alias newcommand=”commandToBeExecuted”

Examples:

alias ll=”ls -ltr” #lists, in long form, non-hidden files in reverse order according to most recently modified

alias lf=”ls -F” #returns a file listing with / at the end of directories and @ at the end of symbolic links

alias l=”ls -al” #lists, in long form, all files, even hidden dot files, in long form

alias rm=”rm -i” #this command will prompt you when you attempt to remove a file

As I mentioned, I like to create aliases for quick access to directories I frequent. For example, when I fire up GoComics locally I use the following alias:

alias gc=”cd ~/path/to/gocomics/” #this gets me there no matter where I am in the files.

For more on alias check out http://www.itworld.com/operating-systems/59407/handy-dandy-aliases.

When I was interviewing at UCLICK one interviewer said to me, In the end, it’s only comics. At the time, that put me at ease. I had just been introduced to programming and was nervous that I would somehow destroy the entire company by writing some errant code. Some years, a GoComics.com rebuild, and a GoComics.com relaunch later I believe that statement is far from true.

We just relaunched GoComics.com with a significant facelift as well as some really tasty goodness under the hood. One thing we recognized in the previous release of GoComics was that people were using the comments more as a meeting place. We decided to encourage that activity by creating more opportunities for people to comment. Another thing we did was add more sharing opportunities. Somewhat to my surprise, GoComic’s Twitter traffic has skyrocketed. Both of these features are evidence that GoComics isn’t only comics, it’s a community. People show up for the comics, but they stay for the camaraderie and are compelled to share what they find across the Internet.

Internally we built a page that lists every comment in real time. It’s fascinating to see what people are talking about. Everything from the mundane – what’s on the dinner menu for the evening – to the profound – a woman’s miscarriage experience and how it affected her feelings on abortion. Of course, there are trolls and troublemakers, but that’s any community. It’s great to watch how people handle them as well. Some get flamed, as would be expected, others are given the benefit of the doubt.

I think in the development process it’s very easy for the developer to lose site of the humanity of the project. You may be developing another entertainment/commerce/management/accounting/whatever application, but the truth is you are creating something for people. Ideally, real people are going to use what you create. For me, there’s a lot of weight in that realization.

The difficulty is in balancing this reality with the ever looming deadline. Whether you are contracting or employed by a company, you’ve, no doubt, got a deadline on your current project. The struggle becomes make it work versus make it work right. There is room for both. I’ve made it my focus to learn best practices, to not be embarrassed to ask, and to learn something new, no matter how minute, everyday. My goal is that this balance will become second nature. Lofty? Perhaps, but certainly attainable.

It is a real honor when something you contributed to becomes important to someone else. I’m proud of the work we’ve done with GoComics. So much of what was done will never be noticed by anyone but those of us that did the work and that’s alright. Active participation may be the highest form of appreciation.

It’s easy and free to unlock Emoji icons for your iPhone with out spending $.99 or jailbreaking your iPhone. This method works with version 2.2.1 for your iPhone.

First, in the iTunes App Store download Spell Number (iTunes link). If you downloaded the app to iTunes, then you need to sync your iPhone to install the app on the device.

Next, on your iPhone launch Spell Number. In the entry box enter 9876543.21 91929394.59. Then, close the application.

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I was eight-and-three-quarters years old in 1985 when my family moved from West Palm Beach, FL to Kansas City, MO. My Dad had accepted a job with Bott Broadcasting. All I knew was that my grandparents lived in Kansas City. So, I packed up my GI Joes, Star Wars figures, my brown Fisher Price tape player, my Thriller cassette, and said good-bye to my childhood best friend, Tommy Hahn. Two months to the day that my Dad started Dick Bott, himself, fired my Dad. He gave him no severance and told him he didn’t have what it took to be in radio.

We had left behind a brand new house in Florida that wasn’t selling. The mortgage was quickly depleting what savings my Mom and Dad had. For the next year Dad did odd jobs to make ends meet. I remember delivering phone books with him one weekend for what I assume earned less than $25. Pretty soon, boxes of food and clothes started appearing on our front stoop every Saturday morning. I put it all together. We had nothing.

We rented a duplex from a Hindu family. Early one evening they showed up at our door with their children who were my age. I heard them tell my parents they had decided we should stay in their duplex for as long as we needed because they knew we were “good and Christian people.” That moment constantly challenges my faith and learned belief that Heaven is reserved for Christians. It was in that duplex that I remember my Dad bounding up the stairs after a day of job hunting laughing and exclaiming in relief and disbelief, “I got the job! I got the job!”

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The Growing Up Star Wars photo pool on Flickr is stellar.

Stellar.

There are over 500 pictures of pictures of kids and adults alike displaying their most prized Star Wars possessions and moments.

I was chatting about the Star Wars era with a friend last week and realized that Return of the Jedi was my first real experience with Star Wars. I remember it vividly. The dessert rescue scene. Whatever that monster in the sand was scared the life out of me. Secretly, though, I couldn’t wait for someone to get pushed in.

The picture above is one of my favorite in the pool. Darth Vader, an Ewok, and some poor kid who had to go as a clown. Look how sad the kid is. Can’t help but laugh.

“New Year” blog posts typically deal with lists. Lists of the best and worst of the preceeding year. This post will be no different. Observe

2008: The Best

Discovering that my pr0n name is Jake Ponderosa and getting people to actually refer to me accordingly.

2008: The Worst

We have a tie between Mamma Mia! and being rejected for Celebrity Rehab.

I do not really want to focus on 2008 with 2009 currently so shiny. 2009 holds so much promise: a new new deal, a new president, new friends, a new Star Trek movie that actually looks good, and a new motto “Feelin’ fine in oh-nine!”

I figured the new year was a great time to redesign erichurst.com. I kicked around a few approaches before settling on this package. I started rewriting the blog engine with Rails. Then realized that to do this the way I really wanted to I would need a virtual private server which I would have to maintain. Rails is a blast for me, but maintaining a server is not. That’s why this blog continues to be powered by good old fashioned Wordpress.

This turned out to be beneficial since at UCLICK we also decided that we would provide creator sites – to those who want them – powered by WP. This leaves us with the task of skinning the app appropriately and adding plugins and widgets as desired. I decided to experiment with my own site and what you now see is the result of said experiments.

I don’t know what to call the design. I’ve narrowed it down to Asian Cowboy, Parquet Party, Fake Brass, & Booyah Bowler. Your thoughts are certainly welcome. I’ll announce a winner this time in 2010.

Besides blogging and developing more there are a few things I’m looking forward to in the coming year.

First, Jen, my wife, is scheduled to give birth to our first child. We’re hoping for a Panda since they are so rare.

Second, in March I’m going to attend SXSWi for the first time. I’m hoping to make new friends, learn a lot, and make convention lanyards sexy again.

Third, I will be joining the Under 200lbs Club again. I’ve been hitting the gym with a buddy and I’m liking how much spandex agrees with me.

I hope you will join me here often in 2009. I’ll share a little of my world, if you will share a little of yours.

I’m an avid reader of a We The Robots, a great comic written by Chris Harding (a fellow Kansas Citian). The strip follows the misadventures of Bob, a robot running the rat race day in and day out.

Chris Harding linked to this video from Matt Harding (no relation) recently. I don’t know what the impetus for making this video was, but it’s fun and stunning. Enjoy.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/1211060[/vimeo]

I should first begin with a brief apology. A few weeks ago I posted my thoughts on the KCATA.org website. They weren’t the kindest, and I should have put myself in that designers shoes first. It’s tough designing and developing websites for large organizations; a lot of hands get in the pot and stir things up. I am sure that team did the best they could, and I shouldn’t have criticized the site. That being said, from here on out I shant criticize sites anymore. Flaws are often obvious and don’t need pointing out. If I don’t have something nice to write, I’ll keep it to myself.

Which brings me to the subject of this post: Electra Bikes. Holy moley are these bikes smooth and a complete joy to ride. As this posts headline states, though, it’s more than fantastic bikes that makes Electra great. They are an innovative company that seeks to restore the joy you had riding a bike as a kid.

I started riding my bike to work about three weeks ago. I don’t get to ride every week, but I ride most days. It’s a comfortable four miles each way, although mostly uphill from my office to my home. Before I got the bike in the picture I was riding a Trek 4500 – a great bike for riding trails and such. However, I wanted something more suited for commuting. Enter Jarrod Jarod McBride (twitter.com/concertman), he introduced me to Electra bikes (electrabike.com). The sleek design had me hooked immediately.

It wasn’t long on the site that I was looking for places in Kansas City that sold these bikes. I found a place near me and made my way there (Midwest Cyclery, on Broadway). Fortunately they had one in stock for me to test ride. I knew pretty quickly this was the bike I was looking for and it was in my price range. I still had some questions, though, and decided to ask them directly to Electra if I could.

This is also part of what makes them great, in my humble opinion: on Electra’s website, under the Contact heading you will not find a standard contact form. Instead you will find the names and actual email addresses of the people you may ask questions of. I emailed Elayne, in Marketing, because why not, right? Elayne replied to me within an hour and a half. Perfect. I was even more convinced this would be a company that would stand behind their bikes and offer exceptional service.

Naturally, the lack of contact form got me thinking about web usability. If you are a small business what does it hurt to put a name and email address on your contact page rather than a contact form? Chances are the contact form is just going to go straight to the person you would have the form direct to.

I can see if you need to get technical information from the user, such as browser and OS info, but if you are product oriented, or service oriented, small business like Electra adding a name and email address is a subtle way to build trust with your users and potential customers.

Anyway, I put my scooter up for sale on Craigslist since I had not been riding it and wouldn’t take the time to maintain it properly. Within a few days it sold and I ordered my Townie 21 original in black satin. I also ordered fenders for the tires and the rack on the back. Midwest assembled everything for me and called me yesterday to let me know it was all ready.

If you are looking for a new commuter bike I highly recommend Electra. Spend some time on their site. You will find it informative and full of pictures of their various bikes. Also, if you decide you want one, and you are in the KC area, talk to the guys at Midwest Cyclery, they are cool guys, one dude has a wicked moustache, and they will make sure you are happy with your bike before and after your first ride.