Daysleeper

Cookies and autologin in rails using login engine

Everyone seems to have and idea on what the heck are persistent cookies...but what happens when they stop working?

What happens when you need a more secure approach than encrypting username and password for autologin.I spend the night, finding answers to these small problems.

My Hope in the city

Somebody had a misconception and he said - “Hope is good”, well i completely disagree “Hope is actually great” . it gives you reason to smile , even when you are in great peril. So guys, i was very much “hopeful” before i came to Chennai. Now don’t jump the gun, and start guessing what was my “hope”..i would say “All in Good Time”. You know i am here , as an American will put it - “New Dude on the Block”, fresh out of college. First time “Actually” living in a Metro( not just passing by in a boring sleeper class). You know, i graduated from a college in Trichy. Not that college was bad or something..it was actually good but many of us had a notion that cows outnumbered girls in the campus. Though, whether many girls can be called girls was debatable, but yes for the shake of statistics we will keep it like that. So in a nutshell, for most of us, it was like Himalyas. Though hardly there were any Menkas , but those few Suparnkhas were cause of many Mahabhartas. Now as i hardly fit for a WWF figher, so i mostly abstained from this wild goose chase. But when i got this offer letter from Cognizant, well my heart was filled with joy and “Hope”. I think you have guessed it, nah not that hope of a first job,first salary blah blah. But actually hope that, i am going to live in a metro, where there will be many girls and “hopefully”… alas hopefully….

So here i am, back to square one.. with all my hope. I keep my doors open, like the old tradition of keeping house doors open so Lakshmi may come. I have done all that was in my capacity, but alas, my hope still eludes me. Was very attentive and enthusiastic during induction program and listened to all the questions that had a female voice attached ,but alas God has strange way of playing tricks on me.Soon i found out that, all the good chicks were busy messaging their boyfriends, only those few without a boyfriend and obviously without …. were actually listening and asking questions. And those still few left were being chased like celebrities.

Someone gave me this idea that many mod girls go to pub. So i went to one, soon i found that, i was out casted for my incompetency of being without a girlfriend and was thrown “up”(Bikes ans Barrels). I thought of telling that fella on the door(do we have a term for him?), that let me in boy.. if you wont let me try, how will i succeed! Need i tell more? I spend rest of the evening washing my wounds with as much Vodka as i can get. Guys,We had a college T-Shirt that proclaimed 99% of girls are beautiful and rest all are in my college. Well you can say that for my company now. Chennai as a whole doesn’t fair better either. Boy..i came, i saw and i feel dejected( not rejected yet). Then i saw these naughty posters floating around - “Babes day out”. i rubbed my eyes twice and pinched myself. “Babes?”. Nah.. they mean babies..or a wait minute, do they have some secret vault that is going to open. i thought an invitation will come to attend the event. Since, i live very close to the ECR road, i was very anxious. Created a filter setting in the outlook so that it doesn’t get lost in the regular trash that i receive. But nothing came. Then “the day” came and went as every other day. I was thinking all day - those few lucky ones ,who got invitation,must be enjoying there at ECR road. Then last week i saw several pictures of the event, again in the regular trash that i receive, including the honorable magazine that you are reading. I zoomed and zoomed the PDF and kept searching for pretty faces but no avail. If there was any hope left, it was if not dashed but certainly appreciably sized down by this fiasco of “Babes day out”. So yeah guys, hope is great. You see.. i still have “hope”( there is another pervert/obvious reason of saying this). Now that i am used to the charm of Metro and would like my dusty Patna or cow infested REC Trichy back, i can’t have it. Yet i have hope, that someday.. somewhere..

Using file_column plugin to handle multiple files

Handling multiple files with file_column plugin can be quite nifty and the most of the time its lack of documentation that makes thing challenging.

So here goes my code, without much talk:

<form action='updater' method='post' enctype="multipart/form-data">
<table>
<tr>
<td> Tag :</td><br>
<td><input type="text" name="picture[tag]" /></td>
</tr>
<% for i in 1..5 %>
<tr>
<td> File :</td>
<td>
<input id="<%= "picture_#{i}_filename_temp" %>" name="<%= "picture[#{i}][filename_temp]" %>" type="hidden" />
<input id="<%= "picture_#{i}_filename" %>" name="<%= "picture[#{i}][filename]" %>" size="30" type="file" />
</td>
</tr>
<% end %>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td><%= submit_tag "Upload" %></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

and here goes my controller code:

def updater
  user_id = session[:user].id
  Picture.current_user_id(user_id)
  tag = params[:picture][:tag]
  logger.info("And tag is #{tag}")
  params[:picture].each do |file_id,attr|
  logger.info("Somehow we reached inside the    loop and file is is #{file_id}")
  begin
    file_id = file_id.to_i
    if file_id>=1 and file_id <=5
      logger.info("File ID is #{file_id}")
      picture = Picture.new(attr)
      picture[:tag] = tag unless tag.nil?
      picture[:user_id] = user_id
    end
    if picture.save
     logger.info("Picture saved")
    end
  end
  rescue
   logger.info("#{$!}")
  end
  end
  redirect_to :action => 'list'
end

And here goes my model code:

class Picture < ActiveRecord::Base
  file_column :filename, :magick => {
    :versions =>
    {
      :small => {:crop => "1:1", :size =>  "155×155!" },
      :thumb => {:crop => "1:1", :size => "50×50!" },
      :medium => { :size => "640×480" }
    }
}
  validates_presence_of(:filename, :message => "Please enter a filename")
  def self.current_user_id(temp_user_id)
    @current_user = temp_user_id.to_s
  end
end

Note that, i am not using file_column_field tag helper…because somehow it doesn’t like file arrays…so i rather stuck to my own devices.I am not in mood of much typing now..so if you have doubt…feel free to mail me.

First blood

Lets begin the life INXS.