And we're back! This week we're going to cover some more scripting. Make sure you refer to this post if you're lost, since this week we're going a little bit deeper. If you haven't read any of these, make sure to check out some previous posts to catch up.

In a previous post, I explained the fundamentals of database design. This guide will cover the second half of that topic: how to make the database work with Rails. Before reading this you should have a good understanding of what a database is and how to organize one.

Rails is a framework that sits on top of the programming language Ruby. The framework speeds up web development by filling in code that you'd otherwise write from scratch on every new project. A component of this is ActiveRecord, a subset of Rails that acts as the bridge between your database and your Ruby code.

There are many ways to cache data in a Rails application. (The official Rails Guide explains the different approaches well.) Heroku allows you to easily take advantage of Rails caching by connecting your application to Memcached servers through the Dalli client gem.

This drop in solution is simple, but there's one glaring problem. Memcache does not support expiring cache keys with regex. This means if you need to delete keys beginning with "user-1" but not keys beginning with "user-2", you're out of luck. Or so it seems...

In the Fall of 2011, we had a client come to us because they wanted a way to produce iOS applications with minimal developer effort. They had an existing firm delivering apps, but they weren't pleased with the quality of the work or the ongoing cost to produce new apps.

Since starting my apprenticeship with Quick Left just over three months ago, I've been asked frequently how I got started with Ruby on Rails. Being the efficiently lazy guy that I am, I thought I'd publicly share some of the resources I've been recommending during those conversations.

rbenv is showing up more and more around the Quick Left HQ. It is an incredibly simple utility for managing Ruby versions in development and production. It's super simple to get started with our quick guide.

Last night was our monthly Hackfest at the Quick Left offices. This month we did a little something different (and had quite a few extra guests), which turned out to be a smashing success.

Experimenting with Clojure has been a fun process. Just to show how simple it is, let's walk through the process of booting your first little web app. This is 100% OS X specific...

If you're a professional developer and don't know about SOLID, consider
your education incomplete. SOLID is a mneumonic acronym describing 5
prinicples that are particularly handy when designing complex object
oriented systems.

Last Wednesday was our monthly hackfest, with a theme focusing on API mashups. Despite a healthy turnout, only 6 projects were turned in when the 9 pm deadline hit, 5 of which were from Quick Left employees.