Get Into This

With the release of Ruby on Rails 0.11.1, the creators added some cool Ajax capabilities. This allowed you to do server side calls without having to refresh the whole page. The nice part about the Rails implementation is that you don't need to really understand how it works or know javascript too well. It's built into the framework, so just call the Ajax methods like you would any other Rails methods.

Well, with the next release of Rails we should be seeing some other pretty cool javascript/client-side effects. The new effects will range from scaling and shrinking to fading in and out of just about any element on your page. To see these features in action, go to the demo page:

http://mir.aculo.us/demos/effects/demo1.html

One of the reasons I've been a little hesitant about writing my application using Rails has been its lack of i18n support. Most of the Java frameworks have great i18n support, many of the PHP frameworks also support i18n. It might not be a requirement for everyone to make a website support multiple locales, but for me, it definitely is.

So when I read about this new article up on the www.rubyonrails.com website, I was very excited. I think I finally have all the features required for me to develope my web site using the Rails framework. The article shows you how to use Gnu's gettext utility to make your Rails application locale aware. The instructions are very clear and well written. It's definitely not a simple 1-2-3 step procedure, but if you are serious about internationalizing your site using Rails, then its worth the effort.