Agile ROR Reached Ch. 11, book skips two pieces I need, what book/tutorial to look at

I just got to chapter 11, and I'm informed that we'll be skipping the step where we would fufill the order by pulling up the customer orders that were entered into the database. Perhaps I'm jumping too far ahead (I want to right an app that's pretty close to the book depot for my father's business, and I only need to learn a few more things. Then I can slow down and learn ruby and rails better) but I would like to be able to view this data from the admin section. I would also like to have a few different ways to search and sort the list of books (it will be something different in my app) the customer sees. This two things don't seem too much father advanced than where I'm at, and would enable me to have some fun and build an app that I could implement. And I would also like to have customer logins (the prices wouldn't display until you signed up for an account).

So any book chapters or tutorials to find such information? I did a quick skim through Agile ROR and didn't see anything. Where should I look? Or are these too advanced and I should slow down and just finish Agile ROR before starting this stuff?

jamesdylangoldstein wrote:

I just got to chapter 11, and I'm informed that we'll be skipping the step where we would fufill the order by pulling up the customer orders that were entered into the database. Perhaps I'm jumping too far ahead (I want to right an app that's pretty close to the book depot for my father's business, and I only need to learn a few more things.

The most important thing to do now is observe the business and ask what the single most important tiny feature is that you can add. For example, if the business has guys pulling inventory, assembling them, and shipping them, then after you have orders in a database, the next feature would be the simplest kind of "picking ticket", essentially telling these guys each morning the list of orders to fulfill. Write a simple page to do that (with unit tests), and immediately try to get them to use it. If they can't, learn what the next tiny feature is, and repeat until it is online.

You can't get there in big steps. If we pointed you to this or that template for picking tickets, it might come with features you don't need, and might not come with features that you do need.

Ok, how about an overview of "picking ticket"? I'm guessing I want to display this in a similar way (as far as the code) as the way I display my inventory?

Ok, thought about it for a few seconds: something like this?

(I have to create the necessary stuff in the css)

<div id="orders-list"> <h1>Orders (Leads in my app) List</h1> <table cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"> <% for order in @orders %> <tr valign="top" class="<%= cycle('list-line-odd', 'list-line-even') %>"> <td width="60%"> <span class="list-name"><%= h(order.name) %></span> </td> <td class="list-actions"> <%= link_to 'Show', :action => 'show', :id => order %><br/> <%= link_to 'Edit', :action => 'edit', :id => order %><br/> <%= link_to 'Destroy', { :action => 'destroy', :id => order }, :confirm => "Are you sure?", :method => :post %> </td> </tr> <% end %> </table> </div> <%= if @order_pages.current.previous link_to("Previous page", { :page => @order_pages.current.previous }) end %> <%= if @order_pages.current.next link_to("Next page", { :page => @order_pages.current.next }) end %> <br />

and then a new .rhtml page show_customers showing all the data for that customer

How's that sound? (4th day programming)

JD

jamesdylangoldstein wrote:

Ok, how about an overview of "picking ticket"? I'm guessing I want to display this in a similar way (as far as the code) as the way I display my inventory?

This is what the "Agile" in your book's title means. You go to the /workers/, the ones who must pick, and ask /them/ what information they need in the ticket. Then you trivially print it out into a web page. They hit the page, read the items, and pull them. Maybe they arrange them by pallets, with SKU numbers, or maybe not. You ask /them/ what they need. Don't ask me, or the Daves, or anyone else. I have done picking tickets before, but I doubt your crew is filling orders for iced imported seafood, so I refuse to describe my tickets!

Ok, so I did what you suggested, two problems. And I feel like these are within my grasp (i.e. not 3 books and 4 weeks away).

1) I access a list of customers. Sort it by name. Click on the name and the information for that customer comes up. The customer information is stored in orders table and the specific things he purchased are stored in the line_items table. Well I used the contraints that are suggested in the Agile book and I'm going nowhere fast. This works fine for the customer info:

<% for column in Order.content_columns %> <p>   <b><%= column.human_name %>:</b> <%=h @order.send(column.name) %> </p> <% end %>

but changing it slightly to display the line_items affiliated with that customer doesn't seem to work. So I get Title: (Blank)

2) My destroy button won't work due to the linked relationship between the two tables.

Thanks, JD