AgileRails

Watch introduction videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM66pztpUC0DVAqZvIAqH3Khb_RzJdD3W

What is AgileRails

AgileRails simplifies the programming of business Intranet applications with Ruby on Rails. Minimal database experience and only basic programming skills are needed to create a data entry program. You can do it in 6 simple steps.

Step 1: Know your data and create Rails migration and model
Step 2: Generate AgileRails form
Step 3: Edit form to your requirements
Step 4: Define Labels and Help Text
Step 5: Create additional logic in Controls File (if required)
Step 6: Include in application menu

Most of the time, you will end up with 3 source files.

1. Migration file

Rails uses migrations to make changes to the database schema, such as creating tables or altering table attributes.

An example of migration file.

class Diary < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
  def change
    create_table :diaries do |t|
      t.string    :title
      t.text      :body
      t.datetime  :time_begin
      t.integer   :duration
      t.text      :search
      t.boolean   :closed, default: true
      t.integer   :ar_user_id

      t.timestamps

      t.index :ar_user_id
    end
  end
end

2. Model file

Model's primary purposes is to represent the data and logic of the application. It contains business logic, relations between data, validations

An example of a typical model file:

class Diary < ApplicationRecord

validates :title,      presence: true
validates :time_begin, presence: true
validates :duration,   presence: true 

before_save :fill_search_field
 
#############################################################################
# Before save remove all html tags from body field and put data into search field.
#############################################################################
def fill_search_field
 text = ActionView::Base.full_sanitizer.sanitize(self.body, :tags=>[]).to_s
 text.gsub!(/\,|\.|\)|\(|\:|\;|\?/,'')
 text.gsub!('&#13;',' ')
 text.gsub!('&gt;',' ')
 text.gsub!('&lt;',' ')
 text.squish!
 
 self.search = (self.title + text).downcase
end

end

3. Form file

AgileRails Form's purpose is to define data entry fields and actions which can be taken on data. It contains two main sections.

index: Defines view on table data (data_set) and actions that can be performed on database documents or set of documents.
form: Defines data entry fields for adding, editing or viewing a database record.

Form is written in the YAML markup language which is human friendly and can be edited with any text editor.

Example of form file:

table: note

index:
  filter: search as text_field
  actions: standard

result_set:
  filter: current_users_documents
  actions:
    1: edit
    2: delete

  columns:
    10:
     name: title
     width: 25%
    20:
      name: time_started
      width: 10%
      format: '%d.%m.%Y'
    30:
      name: duration

form:
  fields:
  10:
    name: user_id
    type: readonly
    eval: dc_name4_id,dc_user,name
    default:
      eval: 'session[:user_id]'    
  20:
    name: title
    type: text_field
    size: 50
  30:
    name: time_started
    type: datetime_picker
    options:
      step: 15
  40:
    name: duration
    type: select
  50:
    name: body
    type: html_field
    options: "height: 500"

Add data entry field labels and help text to your project locales files.

en:
  helpers:
    label:
      diary:
        table_title: Diary
        choices_for_duration: "10 min:10,15 min:15,20 min:20,30 min:30,45 min:45,1 hour:60,1 hour 30 min:90,2 hours:120,2 hours 30 min:150,3 hours:180,4 hours:240,5 hours:300,6 hours:360,7 hours:420,8 hours:480"

        title: Title
        body: Description
        time_started: Start time
        duration: Duration 
        search: Search
        ar_user_id: Owner

    help:
      diary:
        title: Short title of event
        body: Description of event or note
        time_started: Time or date when note is created or event started
        duration: Duration of event
        search: Body text striped of html code for text searching 
        ar_user_id: Owner of the note

Combination of three source files and localisation data makes application data entry program. Application data entry program implements all data entry operations on a database:

add new document

edit document

delete document

view document

Add data entry application into your application menu:

agile_link_to('Diary', 'book', { table: 'diary' }, target: 'iframe_edit')

And if you need advanced program logic, you can implement it in the control file. Control files code is injected into agile controller during form load and provides additional control logic required by data entry program. In control files you can control program workflow by implementing callback methods.

*before_new
new_record
dup_record
*before_edit
*before_save
after_save
*before_delete
after_delete

Methods marked with asterisk can also effect flow of the application. If method return false (not nil but FalseClass) normal flow of the program is interrupted and last operation is canceled

######################################################################
# AgileRails controls for Diary database table
######################################################################
module DiaryControl

######################################################################
# Fill in currently logged in user's data on new record action.
######################################################################
def new_record
  @record.user_id = session[:user_id]
  @record.time_started = Time.now.localtime
end

###########################################################################
# Filter only owned documents to logged on user 
###########################################################################
def current_user_documents
  user_filter_options(Note).and(ar_user_id: session[:user_id]).order(id: 'desc')
end

end

Features

AgileRails uses Ruby on Rails, one of the most popular frameworks for building websites. Ruby on Rails guarantees highest level of application security and huge base of extensions which will help you when your application grows.

AgileRails is also full-featured CMS which was build to run multiple web sites on single Ruby on Rails instance. All sites can share design, data, users ...

AgileRails has built-in admin friendly two level role based application access system. On the first level administrator defines roles and roles rights as web site policies. Policies define if user can view content or not or if user can edit content. Roles are then assigned to users and policies are assigned to documents (web content), parts of content, menus ...
Second level defines roles to access database tables. Each table can have defined which user roles can read, edit, create or delete records.

Integrates journal with options to undo single field

Integrates CK Editor as HTML editor and ElFinder file manager with with drag & drop support through agile_rails_html_editor gem.

Installation

Go and jumpstart Intranet portal application with AgileRails in just few minutes.

Compatibility

Technology behind AgileRails is being actively developed since 2012 and has been live tested in production since early days. It runs against latest technology Ruby (>= 3.2), Rails (>= 7.2) and had so far little or no problems advancing to latest versions of Ruby or Ruby on Rails.

Documentation

Visit the agile-rails.com website for more information:

License (MIT LICENCE)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Credits

Damjan Rems: damjan dot rems at gmail dot com

agile_rails

Runtime