The code structure for nubhub was already provided by Rails following the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture.
Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern.
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 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 files/vendor/rails/actionpack/README.html.
The default directory structure of a generated Ruby on Rails application:
|-- app
| |-- assets
| |-- images
| |-- javascripts
| `-- stylesheets
| |-- controllers
| |-- helpers
| |-- mailers
| |-- models
| `-- views
| `-- layouts
|-- config
| |-- environments
| |-- initializers
| `-- locales
|-- db
|-- doc
|-- lib
| `-- tasks
|-- log
|-- public
|-- script
|-- test
| |-- fixtures
| |-- functional
| |-- integration
| |-- performance
| `-- unit
|-- tmp
| |-- cache
| |-- pids
| |-- sessions
| `-- sockets
`-- vendor
|-- assets
`-- stylesheets
`-- plugins
app
Holds all the code that's specific to this particular application.
app/assets
Contains subdirectories for images, stylesheets, and JavaScript files.
app/controllers
Holds controllers that should be named like weblogs_controller.rb for automated URL mapping. All controllers should descend from ApplicationController which itself descends from ActionController::Base.
app/models
Holds models that should be named like post.rb. Models descend from ActiveRecord::Base by default.
app/views
Holds the template files for the view that should be named like weblogs/index.html.erb for the WeblogsController#index action. All views use eRuby syntax by default.
app/views/layouts
Holds the template files for layouts to be used with views. This models the common header/footer method of wrapping views. In your views, define a layout using the <tt>layout :default</tt> and create a file named default.html.erb. Inside default.html.erb, call <% yield %> to render the view using this layout.
app/helpers
Holds view helpers that should be named like weblogs_helper.rb. These are generated for you automatically when using generators for controllers. Helpers can be used to wrap functionality for your views into methods.
config
Configuration files for the Rails environment, the routing map, the database, and other dependencies.
db
Contains the database schema in schema.rb. db/migrate contains all the sequence of Migrations for your schema.
doc
This directory is where your application documentation will be stored when generated using <tt>rake doc:app</tt>
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. Also contains the dispatchers and the default HTML files. This should be set as the DOCUMENT_ROOT of your web server.
script
Helper scripts for automation and generation.
test
Unit and functional tests along with fixtures. When using the rails generate command, template test files will be generated for you and placed in this directory.
vendor
External libraries that the application depends on. Also includes the plugins subdirectory. If the app has frozen rails, those gems also go here, under vendor/rails/. This directory is in the load path.
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Get code
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Run the following commands:
bundle install rake db:create rake db:migrate mysql -u root db/development < aces.sql heroku create git push heroku master heroku open
The above commands assume that you have mysql and rails installed properly on your system and a working heroku account.
Our website currently only has its basic functionality implemented. It allows the creation and validation of users. It keeps track of users, courses for Duke, which users are following which courses, and uploads and downloads of the notes for the courses. We still need to implement the more informational pages of the website: How It Works, privacy, and Contact Us. We also need to implement User Profile editing and the constraint that a user must upload a note before being able to download notes. There are also various bugs in the Heroku deployed site that does not show in the localhost version of the site. The upload history for a user cannot be accessed on the deployed site. Downloads also do not work on the deployed site.