Read Me

== Welcome to uCast

uCast is a web-based open-source podcasting tool. All we ask is that you share and share alike. This code is released under the Mozilla Public License.

== Getting started

In these instructions, I will use {RAILS_ROOT} to signify the root of the project. So if you are reading this README at /usr/local/ucast/README, I would say {RAILS_ROOT}/README.

1. Change the database connection settings in {RAILS_ROOT}/config/database.yml
2. At the command line, from within {RAILS_ROOT}, run:
			rake db:migrate VERSION=1
  NOTE: If that step fails, go back and verify step 1.
3. Update the error mailer at {RAILS_ROOT}/app/models/error_mailer.rb
  NOTE: This will send you an email whenever the application throws an error to a user. This will NOT tell you if the application is down, but it will send you an email if the code breaks.
4. Set the permissions so the web server can write on:
 			{RAILS_ROOT}/public/dispatch.*
			{RAILS_ROOT}/log/*.log
5. Web server: Set up Apache (or the web server of your choice) to point at {RAILS_ROOT}/public
(Optional) If you want to test it before configuring the web server run:
			{RAILS_ROOT}/script/server
		then visit http://localhost:3000
		
Enjoy!!

(The remainder of this README is from the Rails README)
== Web servers

Rails uses the built-in web server in Ruby called WEBrick by default, so you don't
have to install or configure anything to play around. 

If you have lighttpd installed, though, it'll be used instead when running script/server.
It's considerably faster than WEBrick and suited for production use, but requires additional
installation and currently only works well on OS X/Unix (Windows users are encouraged
to start with WEBrick). We recommend version 1.4.11 and higher. You can download it from
http://www.lighttpd.net.

If you want something that's halfway between WEBrick and lighttpd, we heartily recommend
Mongrel. It's a Ruby-based web server with a C-component (so it requires compilation) that
also works very well with Windows. See more at http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/.

But of course its also possible to run Rails with the premiere open source web server Apache.
To get decent performance, though, you'll need to install FastCGI. For Apache 1.3, you want
to use mod_fastcgi. For Apache 2.0+, you want to use mod_fcgid.

See http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/FastCGI for more information on FastCGI.

== Example for Apache conf

  <VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName rails
    DocumentRoot /path/application/public/
    ErrorLog /path/application/log/server.log
  
    <Directory /path/application/public/>
      Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
      AllowOverride all
      Allow from all
      Order allow,deny
    </Directory>
  </VirtualHost>

NOTE: Be sure that CGIs can be executed in that directory as well. So ExecCGI
should be on and ".cgi" should respond. All requests from 127.0.0.1 go
through CGI, so no Apache restart is necessary for changes. All other requests
go through FCGI (or mod_ruby), which requires a restart to show changes.


== Debugging Rails

Have "tail -f" commands running on both the server.log, production.log, and
test.log files. Rails will automatically display debugging and runtime
information to these files. Debugging info will also be shown in the browser
on requests from 127.0.0.1.

== Breakpoints

Breakpoint support is available through the script/breakpointer client. This
means that you can break out of execution at any point in the code, investigate
and change the model, AND then resume execution! Example:

  class WeblogController < ActionController::Base
    def index
      @@posts = Post.find_all
      breakpoint "Breaking out from the list"
    end
  end
  
So the controller will accept the action, run the first line, then present you
with a IRB prompt in the breakpointer window. Here you can do things like:

Executing breakpoint "Breaking out from the list" at .../webrick_server.rb:16 in 'breakpoint'

  >> @@posts.inspect
  => "[#<Post:0x14a6be8 @@attributes={\"title\"=>nil, \"body\"=>nil, \"id\"=>\"1\"}>, 
       #<Post:0x14a6620 @@attributes={\"title\"=>\"Rails you know!\", \"body\"=>\"Only ten..\", \"id\"=>\"2\"}>]"
  >> @@posts.first.title = "hello from a breakpoint"
  => "hello from a breakpoint"

...and even better is that you can examine how your runtime objects actually work:

  >> f = @@posts.first 
  => #<Post:0x13630c4 @@attributes={"title"=>nil, "body"=>nil, "id"=>"1"}>
  >> f.
  Display all 152 possibilities? (y or n)

Finally, when you're ready to resume execution, you press CTRL-D


== Console

You can interact with the domain model by starting the console through script/console. 
Here you'll have all parts of the application configured, just like it is when the
application is running. You can inspect domain models, change values, and save to the
database. Starting the script without arguments will launch it in the development environment.
Passing an argument will specify a different environment, like <tt>script/console production</tt>.


== Description of contents

app
  Holds all the code that's specific to this particular application.

app/controllers
  Holds controllers that should be named like weblog_controller.rb for
  automated URL mapping. All controllers should descend from
  ActionController::Base.

app/models
  Holds models that should be named like post.rb.
  Most models will descend from ActiveRecord::Base.
  
app/views
  Holds the template files for the view that should be named like
  weblog/index.rhtml for the WeblogController#index action. All views use eRuby
  syntax. This directory can also be used to keep stylesheets, images, and so on
  that can be symlinked to public.
  
app/helpers
  Holds view helpers that should be named like weblog_helper.rb.

app/apis
  Holds API classes for web services.

config
  Configuration files for the Rails environment, the routing map, the database, and other dependencies.

components
  Self-contained mini-applications that can bundle together controllers, models, and views.

db
  Contains the database schema in schema.rb.  db/migrate contains all
  the sequence of Migrations for your schema.

lib
  Application specific libraries. Basically, any kind of custom code that doesn't
  belong under controllers, models, or helpers. This directory is in the load path.
    
public
  The directory available for the web server. Contains subdirectories for images, stylesheets,
  and javascripts. Also contains the dispatchers and the default HTML files.

script
  Helper scripts for automation and generation.

test
  Unit and functional tests along with fixtures.

vendor
  External libraries that the application depends on. Also includes the plugins subdirectory.
  This directory is in the load path.