Rails 0.8.5: Better fixtures, shared generators, sendmail for AM, lots of fixes!

Despite the best intentions with release 0.8.0, I still managed to drag  
this release on for so long that a total of 76 changes made its way in.  
But it's all good. This release features yet another incredibly strong  
showing from the community with some 22 contributors seeing their code  
in the release. Special notice must go to Jeremy Kemper aka bitsweat  
that has contributed a third of the changes in this release! And super  
high quality patches too. Thanks, man.

On top of countless fixes and minor tweaks, we have a much improved new  
approach to instantiating fixtures (with instant availability as  
instance variables) and along the same lines a new way to reference  
helpers. This heralds the way for more good things to come where  
dependencies, whether it's test cases on fixtures or controllers on  
helpers, becomes part of the Rails domain language.

That's a preview for how Rails will function after Needle has been  
integrated, which will hopefully happen from release 0.9 thanks to the  
incredible work of Jamis Buck and many good thoughts on the subject by  
Dave Thomas and Jim Weirich. Rails will blaze the trail of transparent  
depency injection with dynamic constants. Exciting stuff!

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

Or even easier, just do "gem install rails" (or "gem update" if you're  
already running on Gem Rails) -- you'll automatically install all the  
newest versions of the required dependencies.

Upgrading from 0.8.0 (refering to gems version):

1) Create a new empty Rails project using "rails  
/some/path/empty_project"
2) Copy over the new generators from script/ (hopefully for the last  
time)
3) Copy over test/test_helper.rb (needed for the new fixture style)

Commercial announcement: If you're looking for a place to host your  
Rails project or just to play around with it online, we now have an  
official hosting partner in TextDrive. I'm on board to ensure that the  
Rails experience is top notch and in return 50% of the gross profits  
are going to help further Rails. Read more on:  
http://www.rubyonrails.org/show/TextDriveHosting


Rails 0.8.5: Shared generators, new_crud, breakpoints, fixes
================================================================

* Made dev-util available to all tests, so you can insert breakpoints  
in any test case to get an IRB prompt at that point [bitsweat]:

     def test_complex_stuff
       @david.projects << @new_project
       breakpoint "Let's have a closer look at @david"
     end

   You need to install dev-utils yourself for this to work ("gem install  
dev-util").

* Added shared generator behavior so future upgrades should be possible  
without manually copying over files [bitsweat]

* Added the new helper style to both controller and helper templates  
[bitsweat]

* Added new_crud generator for creating a model and controller at the  
same time with explicit scaffolding [bitsweat]

* Added configuration of Test::Unit::TestCase.fixture_path to  
test_helper to concide with the new AR fixtures style

* Fixed that new_model was generating singular table/fixture names

* Upgraded to Action Mailer 0.4.0

* Upgraded to Action Pack 0.9.5

* Upgraded to Active Record 1.1.0


Action Mailer 0.4.0: Sendmail, better testing, more configurations
==================================================================

* Consolidated the server configuration options into  
Base#server_settings= and expanded that with controls for  
authentication and more [Marten] NOTE: This is an API change that could  
potentially break your application if you used the old application  
form. Please do change!

* Added Base#deliveries as an accessor for an array of emails sent out  
through that ActionMailer class when using the :test delivery option.  
[bitsweat]

* Added Base#perform_deliveries= which can be set to false to turn off  
the actual delivery of the email through smtp or sendmail. This is  
especially useful for functional testing that shouldn't send off real  
emails, but still trigger delivery_* methods.

* Added option to specify delivery method with Base#delivery_method=.  
Default is :smtp and :sendmail is currently the only other option.  
Sendmail is assumed to be present at "/usr/sbin/sendmail" if that  
option is used. [Kent Sibilev]

* Dropped "include TMail" as it added to much baggage into the default  
namespace (like Version) [Chad Fowler]



Active Record 1.0.0: Better fixtures, rich habtm associations,  
equality, fixes
======================================================================== 
======

* Added automatic fixture setup and instance variable availability.  
Fixtures can also be automatically instantiated in instance variables  
relating to their names using the following style:

     class FixturesTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
       fixtures :developers # you can add more with comma separation

       def test_developers
         assert_equal 3, @developers.size # the container for all the  
fixtures is automatically set
         assert_kind_of Developer, @david # works like  
@developers["david"].find
         assert_equal "David Heinemeier Hansson", @david.name
       end
     end

* Added HasAndBelongsToManyAssociation#push_with_attributes(object,  
join_attributes) that can create associations in the join table with  
additional attributes. This is really useful when you have information  
that's only relevant to the join itself, such as a "added_on" column  
for an association between post and category. The added attributes will  
automatically be injected into objects retrieved through the  
association similar to the piggy-back approach:

     post.categories.push_with_attributes(category, :added_on =>  
Date.today)
     post.categories.first.added_on # => Date.today

   NOTE: The categories table doesn't have a added_on column, it's the  
categories_post join table that does!

* Added Base#hash and Base#eql? which means that all of the equality  
using features of array and other containers now works:

     [ Person.find(1), Person.find(2), Person.find(3) ] &
       [ Person.find(1), Person.find(4) ] # => [ Person.find(1) ]

* Fixed that :exclusively_dependent and :dependent can't be activated  
at the same time on has_many associations [bitsweat]

* Fixed that database passwords couldn't be all numeric [bitsweat]

* Fixed that calling id would create the instance variable for  
new_records preventing them from being saved correctly [bitsweat]

* Added sanitization feature to HasManyAssociation#find_all so it works  
just like Base.find_all [Sam Stephenson/bitsweat]

* Added that you can pass overlapping ids to find without getting  
duplicated records back [bitsweat]

* Added that Base.benchmark returns the result of the block [bitsweat]

* Fixed problem with unit tests on Windows with SQLite [paterno]

* Fixed that quotes would break regular non-yaml fixtures [Dmitry  
Sabanin/daft]

* Fixed fixtures on windows with line endings cause problems under unix  
/ mac [Tobias Luetke]

* Added HasAndBelongsToManyAssociation#find(id) that'll search inside  
the collection and find the object or record with that id

* Added :conditions option to has_and_belongs_to_many that works just  
like the one on all the other associations

* Added AssociationCollection#clear to remove all associations from  
has_many and has_and_belongs_to_many associations without destroying  
the records [geech]

* Added type-checking and remove in 1-instead-of-N sql statements to  
AssociationCollection#delete [geech]

* Added a return of self to AssociationCollection#<< so appending can  
be chained, like project << Milestone.create << Milestone.create  
[geech]

* Added :uniq as an option to has_and_belongs_to_many which will  
automatically ensure that AssociateCollection#uniq is called before  
pulling records out of the association. This is especially useful for  
three-way (and above) has_and_belongs_to_many associations.

* Added AssociateCollection#uniq which is especially useful for  
has_and_belongs_to_many associations that can include duplicates,
   which is common on associations that also use metadata. Usage:  
post.categories.uniq

* Fixed respond_to? to use a subclass specific hash instead of an  
Active Record-wide one

* Fixed has_and_belongs_to_many to treat associations between classes  
in modules properly [Florian Weber]

* Added a NoMethod exception to be raised when query and writer methods  
are called for attributes that doesn't exist [geech]

* Added a more robust version of Fixtures that throws meaningful errors  
when on formatting issues [geech]

* Added Base#transaction as a compliment to Base.transaction for  
prettier use in instance methods [geech]

* Improved the speed of respond_to? by placing the dynamic methods  
lookup table in a hash [geech]

* Added that any additional fields added to the join table in a  
has_and_belongs_to_many association will be placed as attributes when  
pulling records out through has_and_belongs_to_many associations. This  
is helpful when have information about the association itself that you  
want available on retrival.

* Added better loading exception catching and RubyGems retries to the  
database adapters [alexeyv]

* Fixed bug with per-model transactions [daniel]

* Fixed Base#transaction so that it returns the result of the last  
expression in the transaction block [alexeyv]

* Added Fixture#find to find the record corresponding to the fixture  
id. The record class name is guessed by using Inflector#classify (also  
new) on the fixture directory name.

     Before: Document.find(@documents["first"]["id"])
     After : @documents["first"].find

* Fixed that the table name part of column names ("TABLE.COLUMN")  
wasn't removed properly [Andreas Schwarz]

* Fixed a bug with Base#size when a finder_sql was used that didn't  
capitalize SELECT and FROM [geech]

* Fixed quoting problems on SQLite by adding quote_string to the  
AbstractAdapter that can be overwritten by the concrete adapters for a  
call to the dbm. [Andreas Schwarz]

* Removed RubyGems backup strategy for requiring SQLite-adapter -- if  
people want to use gems, they're already doing it with AR.



Action Pack 0.9.5: New helper style, fix for unchecked checkboxes, fixes
========================================================================

* Added a new way to include helpers that doesn't require the include  
hack and can go without the explicit require. [bitsweat]

   Before:

     module WeblogHelper
       def self.append_features(controller) #:nodoc:
         controller.ancestors.include?(ActionController::Base) ?  
controller.add_template_helper(self) : super
       end
     end

     require 'weblog_helper'
     class WeblogController < ActionController::Base
       include WeblogHelper
     end

   After:

     module WeblogHelper
     end

     class WeblogController < ActionController::Base
       helper :weblog
     end

* Added helper_method to designate that a given private or protected  
method you should available as a helper in the view. [bitsweat]

* Added a hidden field to checkboxes generated with  
FormHelper#check_box that will make sure that the unchecked value  
(usually 0) is sent even if the checkbox is not checked. This relieves  
the controller from doing custom checking if the the checkbox wasn't  
checked. BEWARE: This might conflict with your run-on-the-mill  
work-around code. [Tobias Luetke]

* Fixed assert_rendered_file so it actually verifies if that was the  
rendered file [htonl]

* Added the option for sharing partial spacer templates just like  
partials themselves [radsaq]

* Fixed that Russia was named twice in country_select [alexey]

* Fixed request_origin to use remote_ip instead of remote_addr  
[bitsweat]

* Fixed link_to breakage when nil was passed for html_options [alexey]

* Fixed redirect_to on a virtual server setup with apache with a port  
other than the default where it would forget the port number  
[seanohalpin]

* Fixed that auto-loading webrick on Windows would cause file uploads  
to fail [bitsweat]

* Fixed issues with sending files on WEBrick by setting the proper  
binmode [bitsweat]

* Added send_data as an alternative to send_file when the stream is not  
read off the filesystem but from a database or generated live  
[bitsweat]

* Added a default content-type of "text/xml" to .rxml renders [Ryan  
Platte]

* Fixed that when /controller/index was requested by the browser,  
url_for would generates wrong URLs [Ryan Platte]

* Fixed a bug that would share cookies between users when using FastCGI  
and mod_ruby [The Robot Co-op]

* Added an optional third hash parameter to the process method in  
functional tests that takes the session data to be used [alexey]

* Added UrlHelper#mail_to to make it easier to create mailto: style  
ahrefs

* Added better error messages for layouts declared with the .rhtml  
extension (which they shouldn't) [geech]

* Added another case to DateHelper#distance_in_minutes to return "less  
than a minute" instead of "0 minutes" and "1 minute" instead of "1  
minutes"

* Fixed error_message_on to just use the first if more than one error  
had been added [marcel]

* Fixed that URL rewriting with /controller/ was working but  
/controller was not and that you couldn't use :id on index [geech]

* Fixed a bug with link_to where the :confirm option wouldn't be picked  
up if the link was a straight url instead of an option hash

* Changed scaffolding of forms to use <label> tags instead of <b> to  
please W3C [evl]

* Added DateHelper#distance_of_time_in_words_to_now(from_time) that  
works like distance_of_time_in_words, but where <tt>to_time</tt> is  
fixed to <tt>Time.now</tt>.

* Added assert_flash_equal(expected, key, message),  
assert_session_equal(expected, key, message),  
assert_assigned_equal(expected, key, message) to test the contents of  
flash, session, and template assigns.

* Improved the failure report on assert_success when the action  
triggered a redirection [alexey].

* Added "markdown" to accompany "textilize" as a TextHelper method for  
converting text to HTML using the Markdown syntax. BlueCloth must be  
installed in order for this method to become available.

* Made sure that an active session exists before we attempt to delete  
it [Samuel]

* Changed link_to with Javascript confirmation to use onclick instead  
of onClick for XHTML validity [Scott Barron]