plugins & gems

[Dan Croak]

At last night's hackfest, we were looking for a Rails plugin to
convert to a gem (we went with validates_email_format_of) and got to
talking about our favorite plugins and gems. Greg listed his in the
hackfest thread here:

http://groups.google.com/group/boston-rubygroup/msg/2420affcd8cc8bb7?

Here's a few more:

GEMS
---------

mocha

http://github.com/floehopper/mocha/tree/master
mocking and stubbing using syntax similar to JMock. sudo gem install
mocha

RedCloth

http://github.com/jgarber/redcloth/tree/master
module for Textile, a text format that is converted to HTML. sudo gem
install RedCloth

factory_girl

http://github.com/thoughtbot/factory_girl/tree/master
easily define factories as a replacement for fixtures

fastercsv

http://fastercsv.rubyforge.org
intended as replacement for Ruby’s standard CSV library, parses CSV.
sudo gem install fastercsv

quietbacktrace

http://github.com/thoughtbot/quietbacktrace/tree/master
suppresses noise in Test::Unit backtrace. sudo gem install
quietbacktrace

shoulda

http://github.com/tsaleh/shoulda-gem/tree/master
Shoulda gem (non-Rails specific).

PLUGINS
--------------


shoulda

http://github.com/thoughtbot/shoulda/tree/master
adds helpers, macros, and assertions to Test::Unit, makes tests easy
on the eyes and fingers

helper_test

http://topfunky.net/svn/plugins/helper_test/
test stubs and generators to make testing app/helpers easier

squirrel

http://github.com/thoughtbot/squirrel/tree/master
extends ActiveRecord so SQL queries can be performed elegantly in
Ruby, especially helpful for advanced search

paperclip

http://github.com/thoughtbot/paperclip/tree/master
lightweight attachment manager for ActiveRecord

validates_email_format_of

http://code.dunae.ca/validates_email_format_of.html
stop writing those damned crazy RegExes over and over.

GeoKit

http://geokit.rubyforge.org/
Geolocation, particularly useful with Google Maps, locating by IP
address.

ym4r

http://ym4r.rubyforge.org
Google Maps

calendar_date_select

http://code.google.com/p/calendardateselect/
semi-light-weight and easy to use. It takes full advantage of the
prototype.js library, resulting in less code, but maintaining a great
deal of functionality. script/plugin install git://github.com/timcharper/calendar_date_select.git

acts_as_taggable_on_steroids

http://github.com/mattetti/acts_as_taggable_on_steroids/tree/master
This plugin is based on acts_as_taggable by DHH but includes extras
such as tests, smarter tag assignment, and tag cloud calculations.

[Dan Pickett]

Some additional plugins we like to use at Second Rotation - 

active_merchant
annotate_models
attachment_fu
exception_notification
Ultrasphinx

The shipping gem is pretty cool - we've extended it to add USPS and DHL support. I believe both are pending acceptance into the master branch.

[Pat Allan]

Beyond the rspec plugins...

- attachment_fu

- exception_notification

- haml

- will_paginate

- not-a-mock

http://github.com/notahat/not_a_mock/tree/master

And plugins that I use all the time that I wrote - so there's just a bit of bias:

- active-matchers (written before shoulda, so perhaps could be retired)

http://github.com/freelancing-god/active-matchers/tree/master

- thinking-sphinx

http://github.com/freelancing-god/thinking-sphinx/tree/master

-- 

Pat