How is gui development preformed in rails

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Keith Tobin

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Jun 12, 2009, 5:37:36 PM6/12/09
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Normaly the GUI guys will do the GUI stuf and layout the pages
but in rails it seems that the developer dose the page layout,
as the page layout is done in the VIEW with code.

Have I this wrong ?

Is it possible for a GUI guy to do page layout with a tool like
dreamweaver
or any other tool that a GUI guy will use to do page layout.

And then have the developer do his bit.

Please share with me your experence ?
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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Paul Lynch

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Jun 12, 2009, 6:06:08 PM6/12/09
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If you can get the "GUI guy" to give you something in HTML & CSS, then
it should be possible to separate that into a layout and action erb
files, and edit them so that the fields are connected with your code.

In our case, we got a JPEG picture of our new page, and had to write
the HTML & CSS ourselves. At least it was a nice design.

On Jun 12, 5:37 pm, Keith Tobin <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-s.net>
wrote:

Keith Tobin

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Jun 12, 2009, 6:12:48 PM6/12/09
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So are we saying that each time the GUI guy changes his page
one would have to do this re import ?

This creates a lot of work, dos it not.


Paul Lynch wrote:
> If you can get the "GUI guy" to give you something in HTML & CSS, then
> it should be possible to separate that into a layout and action erb
> files, and edit them so that the fields are connected with your code.
>
> In our case, we got a JPEG picture of our new page, and had to write
> the HTML & CSS ourselves. At least it was a nice design.
>
> On Jun 12, 5:37�pm, Keith Tobin <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-s.net>

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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Paul Lynch

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Jun 12, 2009, 6:19:59 PM6/12/09
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In our case the GUI guy isn't assigned to the project-- we just his
services on loan, so it was a one-time thing. If we had someone like
that who would be making regular changes, my inclination would be to
give him a development system and let edit the erb files there so he
could see his changes. Ideally, the code in such files would not be
so great as to make it hard for him to see the HTML he was editing.
(You can write your own helper methods, and keep the code in the erb's
to a minimum.)
--Paul

On Jun 12, 6:12 pm, Keith Tobin <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-s.net>
wrote:

Robert Walker

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Jun 12, 2009, 7:03:25 PM6/12/09
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Paul Lynch wrote:
> In our case the GUI guy isn't assigned to the project-- we just his
> services on loan, so it was a one-time thing. If we had someone like
> that who would be making regular changes, my inclination would be to
> give him a development system and let edit the erb files there so he
> could see his changes. Ideally, the code in such files would not be
> so great as to make it hard for him to see the HTML he was editing.
> (You can write your own helper methods, and keep the code in the erb's
> to a minimum.)

Everyone's situation is different, but in modern web application
development I see at least these three roles:

1. The programmer.
2. The web developer.
3. The graphic artist.

I'm not implying that the must be three different people, just three
different roles. In some cases the programmer fill all three roles. This
leads to function, but not typically beautiful, applications.

Often two people fill these three roles where the programmer and graphic
artist share some aspects of the web developer role.

Let me define the roles in a little more detail as per the way I see
them:

1. The programmer
This is the back-end "hard-core" software developer who lives and
breaths Ruby and JavaScript (in the case of Rails).

2. The web developer
This is the guy who has a passion for the human computer interface. His
goal is to work with both the programmer and graphic designer to produce
the "perfect" user experience. He lives and breaths HTML and CSS.

3. The graphic designer
This individual is a true and pure artist. They don't think in code they
think in paint and pixels, in colors and layout, in the pure art of
design.

In an ideal world all three roles are important in today high demand for
excellence in web and web application design. In the real world there is
a good deal of crossover between these roles. If you can find a designer
willing, and able, to work directly with the HTML/CSS, and a programmer
that is willing, and able, to work hand-in-hand with the designer then
the result is typically pretty good.

Marnen Laibow-Koser

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Jun 12, 2009, 7:32:12 PM6/12/09
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Robert Walker wrote:
[...]

> Everyone's situation is different, but in modern web application
> development I see at least these three roles:
>
> 1. The programmer.
> 2. The web developer.
> 3. The graphic artist.
[...]

This is how 37signals breaks it down. There are apparently a number of
designers who are good at both 2 and 3. Personally, I'd rather be 1 and
(at least some of) 2 than rely on the designer producing HTML for me --
that's often a disaster. (It doesn't have to be, but the designers I've
been on projects with generally don't really understand what makes good
HTML.)

If you can get a designer who can do good HTML, then that person is
probably smart enough to learn at least enough Ruby to produce the
little bit of ERb necessary for views, or at least to pop it into the
appropriate place once the programmer supplies it. Or you could use
something like Amrita or Kwartz (although these don't work with Rails 2
yet), where all the Ruby is in a separate CSS-like file and the template
is pure HTML. However, DHH has made the point that this may not be any
benefit for Rails, because pages are often chopped up into partials in
nonobvious ways that a designer really shouldn't care about.

It really depends on the project and your talent pool, I think.

Best,
--
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
mar...@marnen.org

tivrfoa

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Jun 14, 2009, 3:23:44 PM6/14/09
to Ruby on Rails: Talk
great definitions, but don't javascript be a web developer's function?
and, what would be a web master? =D

On Jun 12, 8:03 pm, Robert Walker <rails-mailing-l...@andreas-s.net>
wrote:

Hassan Schroeder

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Jun 14, 2009, 5:27:11 PM6/14/09
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On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 12:23 PM, tivrfoa<lescou...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> great definitions, but don't javascript be a web developer's function?

I'd say strictly client-side JS would be part of role 2, AJAX bridges
1 and 2.

> and, what would be a web master? =D

"webmaster", one word like "postmaster" is a now deprecated term
from back in the day -- no, not that 'the day', the one before :-) -- and
meant you did 1+2+3 plus IA + system admin + explaining to people
what the heck this "world wide web" stuff was + answering emails to
"webm...@example.com" + .....

FWIW,
--
Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.s...@gmail.com

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