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News

5-August-2006 - Services 0.2 Released

We have released an update to the Services super-framework for Ruby on Rails. We corrected many of the bugs in the previous release, and we also cleaned up DataService substantially. There is still a little bit of work to do with data groups, but we met most of our goals for this release, including permissions and comments. This release should be very usable for most people, and the main features (user authentication and blogging) are working completely. We're packaging this one differently, and this time it comes with instructions.

In case you don't know, Services is a "super-framework" for Ruby on Rails. We're creating a unified framework on top of Ruby on Rails that provides specific functions, like user authentication, generic data access (i.e. storing arbitrary line item data), and blogging. We're looking to provide services for just about anything you might want to do in a web application (when not covered by Rails).

And now, without further waiting, we've got the update! We have updated the database, so please run the migrations if you're running Services 0.1.

Download Services 0.2

22-July-2006 - Bug Tracker Online

We have put a bug tracker online here. Feel free to create an account and file reports on any bugs you find. Also, if you have any suggestions for things that need to be improved, or features we need, please file a feature request using the bug reporting interface. If you experience issues with the bug tracker, please contact us at email (at) macrodeck.com.

20-July-2006 - Services 0.1 Released

We are pleased to announce that we have publically released the sourcecode to our Services framework for Ruby on Rails. It's available under a modified GNU General Public License (GPL). We encourage you to look around at the sourcecode, and maybe even start developing your own services. There are a few unresolved issues, such as DataService sucking, and UserService being incomplete, which we will resolve in Services 0.2. A bug tracker will be put online soon for people to file bugs.

MacroDeck Services

MacroDeck Services is a Rails plugin that provides a simple and clean API for complex functions such as user editing, blog editing, and data access. Services can be viewed as a "super framework", in that it's a framework on top of a framework. We aim to provide functions on top of Rails for specific purposes rather than generic purposes (though DataService is rather generic). These APIs will be available via remote procedure calls in the future, so MacroDeck Widgets (components and sets of components, such as buttons, data entry fields, text formatting boxes, and so on), which run in the browser, can perform actions inside our Rails application simply. RPC mechanisms would also allow a programmer to integrate his/her application with MacroDeck services. Services may wrap Rails functions, but they shouldn't reinvent the wheel by rewriting Rails functions, unless they're functions that should be available to Widgets.