SubMate's blog!

posted by Clément

Hey! 

I’ve been working at SubMate for a month and a half (ouch! time flies!) and proud to announce my first *significant* release. Amongst the numerous small tasks and updates on the web site and the API (private for the moment), here is a big change coming.

Well… you don’t see anything different? Happy to hear it! Indeed, most of the work isn’t visible. I dealt with authentication, security and data integrity.
This current release is still far from being technically perfect, but it’s a much better foundation to work on. As a background, I suggested the use of an agile methodology (eXtreme Programming), with TDD (Test Driven Development) and BDD (Behavior Driven Development).I’ve been encouraged early on to work this way, and it was great news! So, we are now almost ready to adopt continuous integration which will allow you to discover cool new features very frequently. 
Here are some technical details:

Your information is stored in a safer manner, all authentication needs are delegated to the Authlogic gem.Indeed, I recommend that library which provides a clear structure for authentication purpose. I tried the Devise gem which seems to be very nice, but for now I’m not very familiar with the deeper abstraction it provides.
100% of the data resources are now restful. This architecture allows a simpler global application design, a simpler code (using conventions). That will allow us to improve speed development and release a rock-solid API.

Data flow and feeds are now super flexible, allowing us to provide you very soon with amazing interactivity and information you are waiting for.

A little word about the platform we use (Heroku): I never saw such a great service. With Heroku, deployment is just one tiny step in the workflow. No disappointment except two downtimes (couple of hours for each) in two months.We may soon use background workers in order to treat long-running tasks (like sending e-mails, storing pics, fetching external API data, …) without blocking your experience on the website.

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So much to come: stay tuned! It’s time for me to go back working on it!