Monday 8 July 2013

CouchDB Sinatra REST bare-metal call test application

Some months ago I was involved in configuring an API to use with CouchDB. In the process of this, I created a test application using Sinatra to utilize the various CouchDB REST calls. This is that application.

Later I created a MUCH more sophisticated set of sub-apps in Padrino to utilize the lessons learned. For some time now I have been asked to release it into the wild to aid other developers, but have been too busy. Now I have time. Hence this post.

It is not great. It is not well written. It is not documented. It has no tests. But it works.

It was written in one day to get the process of using rest-client to operate against a test CouchDB database. That is all.

I make no apologies for the code.

It works. That is all.

To use it:

1) Install CouchDB someplace.

I have it on an external server as exampled in the config/couchdb.yml file.

2) Clone the repo from https://github.com/ZenGirl/CouchDBSinatraRestAPI

Goes without saying...

3) Change the config/couchdb.yml file

Change to suit.

4) Fire it up

bundle install
rackup -s thin -o 0.0.0.0 -p 9292 -E development config.ru

Then open a browser to http://0.0.0.0:9292/index.html and start playing.

Honestly!

I would love to here from cloners who would like enhancements as I'm always ready to learn. If you see a problem, or want to have me change something, tell me.

Sunday 7 July 2013

Well, it's official. I've been unemployed for 6 months and broke.

I left Guvera officially mid last year due to fairly dramatic family needs. Then Guvera asked me back on contract which I could do while handling those family issues. I finished up that contract just before christmas to work on some other exciting projects.

I have tons of work on several major startups since then. Mainly Rails, Padrino and Java with some PHP and Systems Admin work. While those startups may still create income, none of them have produced dollar 1 so far.

So I have no option but to hit the job market and try to find work to pay the bills. So if you're looking for a highly experienced technologist, toolmaker, solution architect, problem solver, trouble shooter, firefighter and innovator, then go no further. Have a look at my LinkedIn profile to see if you could use my skill sets. In particular see my colleagues recommendations.

Here's a quick run down of who I am and what I can do:

I have over thirty years experience in computing and have worked for large multi-nationals such as Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Western Mining Corporation and many, many startups. I have written Unix Systems Administration manuals and have taught systems administration and programming to both groups and individuals.

I love technology!
Since the late 70’s I have been involved in the open source community and contributed heavily to many early projects. My code exists in many implementations of linux and I have even been cited on a man page (albeit for a game). Ben and I own far too much tech... We even have a first gen MakerBot and have used it to fix quite a few things around the house!

TDD is a part of everything I write and has been for many years. Unfortunately I have found that many companies consider TDD to be a waste of programming resource, which I consider short sighted.

Release early, release often. I have always advocated this and used (and built) many deployment tools such as Capistrano et al to get code live quickly.

I have used MySQL, MongoDB and recently CouchDB to handle large amounts of data. A recent project involved 100’s of millions of documents handling companies historical data.

I am no stranger to working from home and can be incredibly productive. For the last 6 months of last year I contracted to a major music distribution company and worked from home with occasional in-house and Skype meetings.

So if I fit your needs, get in touch!