On May 16, 2011
A while back I released the Facebook Rails Kit, which made it easy to connect to the (then-new) Graph API. Since then, I've done a number of projects that needed to integrate with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and during those projects I've developed some code that makes it easy to interact with those APIs. As a result, I have now released a Kit that replaces the Facebook Rails Kit: the OAuth Rails Kit.
In addition to showing you how to interact with the Graph API, it also shows you how to connect user accounts to services that support the OAuth protocol (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Github, and many more) and then get info from and push info to those service using OAuth access tokens. In short, if you want to do something like publish to a user's Facebook profile from your Rails app, the OAuth Rails Kit was made for you. It has saved me a ton of time on my projects, and I'm sure it'll do the same for you.
On February 10, 2010
If you're into e-commerce, like I am, you've probably heard of Shopify. Shopify is a fantastic hosted e-commerce solution for store owners who want to quickly put up great-looking storefronts to sell their products. In fact, I like Shopify so much, that it is the first recommendation to potential clients who come to me looking for me to build a custom storefront for them. For most people, Shopify fills the bill quite nicely, and is a much cheaper option than me. :)
Since I'm such a fan of Shopify, I was thrilled when Jesse Storimer approached me about releasing a Rails Kit that would help Rails developers build a Shopify application for the Shopify Platform, a platform for developers to offer apps that can extend the functionality of Shopify for store owners. Jesse proposed offering a ready-made application that shows you just how easy it is to hook into Shopify-hosted stores and use the Shopify-powered billing system. And Jesse has done a bang-up job!
Check out the newest addition to the Rails Kits family -- the Shopify App Rails Kit. It's an insanely easy way to build a SaaS application targeted at people who are already using Shopify to sell their products. You get authentication, billing, and access to your customers' Shopify data, all throught the Shopify API, and you get help with marketing your app via the Shopify Application Store. It has never been easier to get your web app into the hands of paying customers, so try the Shopify App Rails Kit today!
On June 30, 2009
I announced the Helpdesk Kit on my personal blog, but I wanted to announce an update to that Kit here. Since it's initial release, the Helpdesk Kit has had a feature added that a high-traffic sites will find especially helpful: Issues.
When an email comes in to your support alias, or when one of your customers enters a support request via your web form, a ticket is created with the user's info and the details of their support request. If you get a lot of users submitting support requests all about the same problem (say you are running a Facebook application, you just broke something, and 100 people file tickets on it at the same time), then you may find yourself buried in a sea of tickets. If you can fix all the problems with one code update, why not be able to close all the support tickets for that problem with one update, too?
With the new issues feature of the Helpdesk Rails Kit you can. Now you can assign any number of tickets to an issue, and when you make updates to that issue, everyone who filed a ticket that is now associated with that issue get the update. Now you can fix your broken feature, deploy an update, and close all the tickets at once, letting all your effected customers know that the problem has been solved. You get to save yourself your time, and each of your customers still gets a personalized response.
If you haven't already checked out the Helpdesk Kit, now is a great time to do it. For the price of a single user license for some other support system applications, you get an unlimited license to a Rails-based support system that you can optionally integrate directly into your existing Ruby on Rails application.
