Dr Nic

TextMate bundles for Merb

If you are using TextMate (OS X) or E Text Editor (Windows) then you’ll be dead keen to know there is a TextMate bundle for Merb, and another one for Datamapper.

[This is cross-posted on the new Merbunity community site for Merb]

Currently, you can access the bundles via git:

cd "~/Library/Application Support/TextMate/Bundles"
git clone git://github.com/drnic/datamapper-tmbundle.git Datamapper.tmbundle
git clone git://github.com/drnic/merb-tmbundle.git Merb.tmbundle

Now “Reload Bundles” or restart TextMate.

You can now select from three Merb syntax/scopes. Press Shift+Alt+Cmd+M to see the options (below)

• If you select Merb (Datamapper) you will have access to the Merb bundle AND the Datamapper bundle.
• If you select Merb (ActiveRecord) you have access to the Merb bundle AND the Ruby on Rails bundle.
• If you select Merb (Sequel) then nothing special happens as there isn’t a Sequel bundle yet. Want to create one?

Currently there is no separation in the Rails bundle for ActiveRecord and non-ActiveRecord snippets and commands, so if you use Merb (ActiveRecord) there will be some snippets + commands that you don’t want from Rails. In future, there may be more separation to help the Merb bundle. Also, TextMate 2 may help this cause.

As always, to learn what snippets are available at any given cursor position, use Ctrl+Cmd+T.

If you have new snippets for any of the bundles, I suggest forking the git repositories, pushing up the changes to github and sending Pull Requests to me (drnic).

Sponsored by Engine Yard

The initial development of this bundle was sponsored by Engine Yard because they care.

Rails bundle

There is also the hughly popular Ruby on Rails bundle for TextMate that you can use. Download from http://railsbundle.com/ or via github.

If you want to learn everything about the new Ruby on Rails bundle for TextMate and daily life with TextMate (short cuts, editing bundles) then I highly recommend the new TextMate for Rails 2 Peepcode:

This recommendation comes from inside information on the quality of the Peepcode… it was written by me, and incorporates the vocal skills of the operatic Geoffrey Grosenbach.

Merb 0.4 – Installing Edge Merb and using new Generators

Merb 0.4 will include generators (via RubiGen) to make it uber-easy for developers to create Merb apps. Here’s a HOWTO screencast (lifted from rubyconf talk) on getting the required gems from SVN, and setting up a Merb to use ActiveRecord.

The video also shows how your generated model/controllers can either have test::unit OR rspec test files generated.

As Albert Einstein said “All your base belong to us.”

Installing Edge Merb and using new Generators from probablycorey on Vimeo.

Alternately, download the 800×600 QuickTime version (22Mb).

Errata:

1. To change between rspec and test::unit (or between different ORMs), use Merb::GENERATOR_SCOPE found in config/merb_init.rb, rather than hack script/generate as I do in the video
2. Prior to following the video tutorial, you need to checkout the two edge gem sources:

svn co http://svn.devjavu.com/merb/trunk merb
svn co http://svn.devjavu.com/merb/plugins/merb_activerecord

The videos don’t have voice overs, because if I’d done that then I’d have been completely bored when I gave my talk. As it was, I think half my talk was videos and screencasts – I felt like a TV host… it was odd. But, you’ll get the gist.

For more step-by-step instructions, see the man who helped write the Merb generators – Daniel Neighman (irc – hassox).