ResumeOnRails

It has been recommended to me that I redo my resume to make it more of a narrative. That got me to thinking... if the purpose of the resume is to get me an awesome job writing rails apps, then why not write a rails app to be my resume. Incidentally he said that my resume made sense from a programmer's perspective, but was a bit confusing as far as telling my story, so I am now going to design in as short a time as possible (think RailsDay - where contestants have 24 hours to design write and produce a working rails app which is then judged) my resume in the form of a sweet web 2.0 application.

Yeah, I'm strutting my stuff...

So part one of this project was to go buy a new computer, as my partner is using the dev machine to work on another project, and my G4 laptop is too slow to write this app with all the speed of a scared cheetah.

So I got home from class at 7:15pm, went to the Apple store, bought the cheapest Mac Mini they had, and brought it home. I set it up and transferred my files from my old Mac. This is the first time I am online with the new computer, and I am posting this as sort of a time stamp for my jumping off point, as I am racing myself to see how fast I can get it done. I haven't setup ruby, rails, or any of that yet.

Adrenaline is pumping. When I am finished with this project, I'll release it OS on RubyForge... ;)

When I am finished with it, my resume will be available here:
http://resume.peterboling.com/

[10/24/06 - 11:06pm] Right after I posted this I saw the softaware update wanted to DL several hundred MB of 'new hotness Apple software' so I am going to DL the ingredients I'll need to bake rails following the Hivelogic recipe while that's going on. In addition I'll need to install XCode 2 from the MacOS X install DVD.

[10/24/06 - 11:40pm] The Apple Software Updates are finished, and the XCode Developer Tools are installed. Now onto the Hivelogic recipe.

[10/25/06 - 12:50am] Hivelogic recipe completed, and development environment (RadRails + Lighttpd + MySQL) completely setup. I have not yet written a single line of code, or any database migrations yet... Engage! (I watched too much Star Trek TNG as a kid)

[10/25/06 - 3:30am] Need sleep, stopping now. CSS Layout is basically complete.

[10/25/06 - 6:15pm] Back at it...

[10/25/06 - 9:45pm] CSS is done. Tried setting up the site on TextDrive, and found their documentation lacking. I'd heard good things about DreamHost, so I just signed up with them for 2 years, and registered the domain peterboling.com. I am now trying to set it up on DreamHost...

[10/26/06 - 12:40am] Color scheme is acceptable. Migrations are done for 13 core tables. I was able to base the entire program structure on a table called "events". Woot!

[10/26/06 - 1:27am] Installed acts_as_taggable and modified heavily. Improved migrations, and made the display of the event columns derive from placement data in the db. Need sleep, stopping now.

[10/26/06 - 10:00pm] Apparently I have other things that I need to do as well, since I am only now back to work on ResumeOnRails. First thing to do: Figure out a 'em' based measuring system for months.

[10/27/06 - 3:05am] I got a lot done. I hope to be able to finish it up tomorrow night! I setup my hosting at Dreamhost a bit more. http://resume.peterboling.com/ will be my resume. http://svn.peterboling.com/ResumeOnRails/trunk will be the project source. I almost have Capistrano setup... but I am going to sleep now. I have to be at work @ 8am!

[10/27/06 - 10:25pm] Just finished creating my 'real' resume in a table layout which I will use to guide me in designing the UI for ResumeOnRails. It must be easier to understand, use, and improve comprehension beyond what an MS Word table could ever do.

[10/28/06 - 2:15am] ResumeOnRails is in a semi-functional state! I have quite a few things working... The login system is done. Admin CRUD is close to done and protected by ACLplusRBAC goodness. I should be able to release it in the morning sometime! But first some sleep. Also new sites are:
Project Homepage:
http://ResumeOnRails.peterboling.com/
Demo:
http://resume.peterboling.com/

[10/28/06 - 9:05am] Back at it. Today will be awesome because I think I should just about have this thing licked by the end of the day!

[10/29/06 - 2:40am] I have gotten out of my chair a few times to make ramen, or spaghetti-o's. So there are a few minutes in there when I wasn't working on ResumeOnRails... so it is really looking good now. The code is progressing at a break neck rate, and I will be at a release ready state soon. Tomorrow [technically today, since it is after midnight] I won't get a whole lot done though due to it being Sunday...
Don't forget about the DST switch. (And add another hour to how long I worked today as well!)

[10/29/06 - 10:00pm] It was a long day of church, choir, home teaching, dinner, and now @ 10pm finally back to code... I really want to release it tonight! I just hope I can polish it up enough.

[10/30/06 - 12:15am] I've only been at this for 2.25 hours, but I am beat, and I did accomplish a lot. I have separated the front end controller (handling all public display requests) from the admin CRUD controller to enter the resume information. The front end is certainly far enough along to release. The back end requires more work... So tomorrow (and when I say that I mean late tonight after I get home from work) if all goes well I will release the front end. It is so gooey, you'll love it... I do.

[10/30/06 - 10:00] Got home from FHE, and am now finishing up work on the app before I send it to rubyforge!

[10/31/06 - 4:05am] Done. Released. Applied for project on RubyForge. Still can't get Capistrano to work. It is refusing my authentication, though when I log into the same servers outside of the Cap'n I can get in fine... so I am cornfussed... But I have to be at work in 3 hours and 50 minutes, and I still need to sleep! So goodnight!

[10/31/06 - 6:00pm] Trying again with Capistrano.

[10/31/06 - 10:00pm] Got Capistrano working! The links above now all work (Homepage, demo, and svn).

Update: I have ironed out a few more bugs, and it is really looking pretty good. Soon I'll get the RubyForge svn working...
Update: Released on RubyForge:
http://galtzo.blogspot.com/2007/01/resumeonrails-source-available-on.html