Well, if you weren’t there, you will want to be next time. What is hackfest, how did I miss it you ask? Well, hackfest was a gathering of local Orlando Ruby on Rails developers who came together for a single purpose – sit down a hack out some code that can form the basis of later projects. As for the missing it question, stay tuned to this blog or visit the ORUG site, or better yet the ORUG meeting (happens to be tomorrow) to find out when and where it is. So, enough gloating, let me tell you what we did.
We wanted a few features – a login system, a places database, and google maps integration. I will outline each below. The entire thing got up an running in about 8 hours so keep that in mind.
Login system
- Members can create their own account and once logged in, edit their information.
- Members can add places to the database, and edit places currently in the database.
- If a member forgets their password, they can click the “I forgot my password” link and have a reset code sent to them, allowing them to reset their password.
- Members can search for places within and near a zip code.
Places
- As stated above, places are added to the system by members.
- When a place is added, a geocode lookup is done using the Google maps api, retrieving the latitide and longitude using the address; this is then stored in the database, or if it cannot be retrieved (mispelling, etc.) the user is shown an error and requested to try again (perhaps after checking the address).
- Searching for places – users (don’t have to be logged in) can enter in a zip code and the system will retrieve all places that are close to the mid-point of the zip code. Each place is then shown on the map after the distance from the zip code is calculated. Each point is given a letter, and the place information is shown in the pop-up when the marker is clicked.
Google Maps Integration
- Lat/long lookup when place added.
- When the zip code search is performed a lat/long search for the zip is done, making an invisible point on the map as the center.
- Each place has a marker on the map which is assigned a letter.
- Each place is displayed in a list, assigned a letter, and the distance from the mid-point is calculated and shown.
Yes folks, all of that was done in about 8 hours! Amazing what can be done by a determined group of RoR developers given time, coffee, and pretzels. The interface needs a little improving but we leave that up to those with the code – the functionality is there. The next question of course would be if we are publishing the code. Well, leaning on the selfish side of things what reason would you have to come and contribute if we gave you all the goods eh? If you want it, come and contribute and get it. To see what you missed, screenshots are on the way!
The lesson of the day is to stay tuned to this blog and the ORUG site for details on the next hackfest. We hope to see you there!
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