[ANN] Rails 0.6.0, Active Record 0.9.3, Action Pack 0.7.9

I gather that most people are now familar with the RoR suite, so I'm 
skipping the formal introductions and will just bring you the meat.

Get it all from http://www.rubyonrails.org, talk it up on #rubyonrails 
(FreeNet).


Rails 0.6.0: AAC, Environments, Easier starts
=============================================

This is a major upgrade to the Rails infrastructure. There's a new 
AbstractApplicationController that can hold filters and methods 
available to all controllers. There's a new concept of [[Environments]] 
that should make it much easier to write maintenance scripts and to 
interact with a live system through IRB. It basically gives you access 
to the fully configured model by just including one file. This release 
also contains a bunch of fixes to make it easier to get started on 
Rails. See the ChangeLog for more.

* Added AbstractionApplicationController as a superclass for all 
controllers generated. This class can be used to carry filters and 
methods that are to be shared by all. It has an accompanying 
ApplicationHelper that all controllers will also automatically have 
available.

* Added environments that can be included from any script to get the 
full Active Record and Action Controller context running. This can be 
used by maintenance scripts or to interact with the model through IRB. 
Example:

     require 'config/environments/production'

     for account in Account.find_all
       account.recalculate_interests
     end

   A short migration script for an account model that had it's interest 
calculation strategy changed.

* Accessing the index of a controller with "/weblog" will now redirect 
to "/weblog/" (only on Apache, not WEBrick)

* Simplified the default Apache config so even remote requests are 
served off CGI as a default. You'll now have to do something specific 
to activate mod_ruby and FCGI (like using the force urls). This should 
make it easier for new comers that start on an external server.

* Added more of the necessary Apache options to .htaccess to make it 
easier to setup

* Upgraded to Action Pack 0.7.9 (lots of fixes)

* Upgraded to Active Record 0.9.3 (lots of fixes)



Active Record 0.9.3: We Love PostgreSQL Too
===========================================

While MySQL might have had an early start on the love, PostgreSQL is 
catching up fast. This release includes a bunch of fixes for the 
popular open source database along with a few new features 
(exclusively_dependent option for has_many) and other important bug 
fixes (AR records with associations can now be saved in PStore 
sessions). Read more the new methods in CHANGELOG 
(http://ar.rubyonrails.org/files/CHANGELOG.html)

* Fixed bug with using a different primary key name together with 
has_and_belongs_to_many [Investigation by Scott]

* Added :exclusively_dependent option to the has_many association 
macro. The doc reads:

     If set to true all the associated object are deleted in one SQL 
statement without having their
     before_destroy callback run. This should only be used on 
associations that depend solely on
     this class and don't need to do any clean-up in before_destroy. The 
upside is that it's much
     faster, especially if there's a counter_cache involved.

* Added :port key to connection options, so the PostgreSQL and MySQL 
adapters can connect to a database server
   running on another port than the default.

* Converted the new natural singleton methods that prevented AR objects 
from being saved by PStore
   (and hence be placed in a Rails session) to a module. [Florian Weber]

* Fixed the use of floats (was broken since 0.9.0+)

* Fixed PostgreSQL adapter so default values are displayed properly 
when used in conjunction with
   Action Pack scaffolding.

* Fixed booleans support for PostgreSQL (use real true/falsen boolean 
fields instead of 0/1 on tinyints) [radsaq]




Action Pack 0.7.9: Extremely pretty URLs
========================================

A bunch of new features for providing even better support for pretty 
URLs. It's now possible to centralize and reuse much of the URL setups. 
This release also makes it possible to use your own layout in 
conjunction with scaffolding. So now you can make it fast _and_ look 
good. See it all in CHANGELOG 
(http://ap.rubyonrails.org/files/CHANGELOG.html)

* The "form" method now present boolean fields from PostgreSQL as 
drop-down menu. [Scott]

* Scaffolding now automatically attempts to require the class that's 
being scaffolded.

* Scaffolding will use the current active layout, instead of its own, 
if one has been specified. Example:

     class WeblogController < ActionController::Base
       layout "layouts/weblog"
       scaffold :post
     end

   [Suggested by Scott]

* Changed url_for (and all the that drives, like redirect_to, link_to, 
link_for) so you can pass it a symbol instead of a hash. This symbol is 
a method reference which is then called to calculate the url. Example:

     class WeblogController < ActionController::Base
       def update
         # do some update
         redirect_to :dashboard_url
       end

       protected
         def dashboard_url
           if @project.active?
             url_for :controller => "project", :action => "dashboard"
           else
             url_for :controller => "account", :action => "dashboard"
           end
         end
     end

* Added default_url_options to specialize behavior for all url_for (and 
friends) calls:

     Overwrite to implement a number of default options that all 
url_for-based methods will use.
     The default options should come in form of a hash, just like the 
one you would use for
     url_for directly. Example:

       def default_url_options(options)
         { :controller_prefix => @project.active? ? "projects/" : 
"accounts/" }
       end

     As you can infer from the example, this is mostly useful for 
situations where you want to
     centralize dynamic dissions about the urls as they stem from the 
business domain. Please note
     that any individual url_for call can always override the defaults 
set by this method.


* Changed url_for so that an "id" passed in the :params is not treated 
special. You need to use the dedicated :id to get the special auto 
path-params treatment. Considering the url 
http://localhost:81/friends/list

     url_for(:action => "show", :params => { "id" => 5 })
       ...used to give http://localhost:81/friends/show/5
       ......now gives http://localhost:81/friends/show?id=5

     If you want the automated id behavior, do:

     url_for(:action => "show", :id => 5 )
       ....which gives http://localhost:81/friends/show/5


* Fixed problem with anchor being inserted before path parameters with 
url_for (and friends)

--
David Heinemeier Hansson,
http://www.rubyonrails.org/  -- Web-application framework for Ruby
http://www.instiki.org/      -- A No-Step-Three Wiki in Ruby
http://www.basecamphq.com/   -- Web-based Project Management
http://www.loudthinking.com/ -- Broadcasting Brain
http://www.nextangle.com/    -- Development & Consulting Services