1631469361
Find Which Desktop Environment You Are Using
What is Desktop Environment?
A desktop environment is a bundle of components that offers common GUI elements to users. Such components can be icons, toolbars, wallpapers, and various desktop widgets as well. If you are able to access the Linux system through a GUI alike other operating systems like Windows or Mac OS, then all it’s possible due to desktop environment.
In the world of Linux, there’s a number of DE available, and it’s the only entity that determines how your Linux system will appear. Most of the desktop environment have their own set of applications and tools through which a user is granted with a uniform to access their operating system. The utilities include file explorer, desktop search, menu of applications, and many more. Here comes the list of various desktop environments:
- Gnome: This desktop environment is considered as the most modern and polished option, however it eats a plenty of system resources.
- Xfce: Offers a vintage look but is very lightweight option.
- KDE: Offers a highly customization desktop environment with moderate resource consumption.
- LXDE: This desktop environment focus completely on the usage of few resources.
- Budgie: Includes modern look and needs moderate system resources.
Means, if you are using a Linux distribution, then obviously you are using one of the desktop environment on your system. But in case you don’t known which one is active on your machine, then here you will learn how to find the desktop environment you are using on your machine.
How to check which desktop environment you are using?
In order to determine the information regarding active desktop environment on your Linux machine, you can use echo command to display information about XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP through terminal, and it’s very easy. Just run the following command in terminal:
echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
the output will be like this:
In case of above used snippet on our machine, it shown GNOME as an active DE on Ubuntu. Although, this command helped to determine the desktop environment, still it offers no more information.
But, in many cases, the users may also require to know more details of installed desktop environment on their machine such as the version information. Actually, various version of a DE offers newly added features, and in order to avail such options, it’s essential to upgrade the desktop environment to later versions. And to do so, it’s necessary to determine the version details of active DE. Let’s discuss the same in further section.
How to find desktop environment version?
In order to find out the desktop environment version details in Linux computers, it’s not actually simple like finding the DE details itself. Actually, there’s no standard command available which can help to get those details on a system.
However, a user can use a third party utility which can help them gathering deep information of Linux machine including DE version as well. One such a helpful tool is Screenfetch offered by Github community. It’s a command line tool that displays the Linux distribution logo in terminal in ASCII format along with more other information too like OS version, Kernel version, Uptime information, and many more. Fortunately, it also includes the details about active DE version.
So, you will have to install this third party tool (Screenfetch) on your machine if you want to find out those details. On a Ubuntu based machine, you need to enable Universe repository and run the following command to install the package:
sudo apt install screenfetch
For other Linux distributions, users can install this tool through their system’s package manager. After the app is installed, open the terminal on your machine, and type ‘screenfetch’, and it should display various system related information on screen like one here depicted.
As per the details mentioned in the output, it displays that the current version of Gnome DE on system is 3.36.1 along with more other details too.
What is GEEK
Buddha Community
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Pdf2gerb: Perl Script Converts PDF Files to Gerber format
pdf2gerb
Perl script converts PDF files to Gerber format
Pdf2Gerb generates Gerber 274X photoplotting and Excellon drill files from PDFs of a PCB. Up to three PDFs are used: the top copper layer, the bottom copper layer (for 2-sided PCBs), and an optional silk screen layer. The PDFs can be created directly from any PDF drawing software, or a PDF print driver can be used to capture the Print output if the drawing software does not directly support output to PDF.
The general workflow is as follows:
- Design the PCB using your favorite CAD or drawing software.
- Print the top and bottom copper and top silk screen layers to a PDF file.
- Run Pdf2Gerb on the PDFs to create Gerber and Excellon files.
- Use a Gerber viewer to double-check the output against the original PCB design.
- Make adjustments as needed.
- Submit the files to a PCB manufacturer.
Please note that Pdf2Gerb does NOT perform DRC (Design Rule Checks), as these will vary according to individual PCB manufacturer conventions and capabilities. Also note that Pdf2Gerb is not perfect, so the output files must always be checked before submitting them. As of version 1.6, Pdf2Gerb supports most PCB elements, such as round and square pads, round holes, traces, SMD pads, ground planes, no-fill areas, and panelization. However, because it interprets the graphical output of a Print function, there are limitations in what it can recognize (or there may be bugs).
See docs/Pdf2Gerb.pdf for install/setup, config, usage, and other info.
pdf2gerb_cfg.pm
#Pdf2Gerb config settings:
#Put this file in same folder/directory as pdf2gerb.pl itself (global settings),
#or copy to another folder/directory with PDFs if you want PCB-specific settings.
#There is only one user of this file, so we don't need a custom package or namespace.
#NOTE: all constants defined in here will be added to main namespace.
#package pdf2gerb_cfg;
use strict; #trap undef vars (easier debug)
use warnings; #other useful info (easier debug)
##############################################################################################
#configurable settings:
#change values here instead of in main pfg2gerb.pl file
use constant WANT_COLORS => ($^O !~ m/Win/); #ANSI colors no worky on Windows? this must be set < first DebugPrint() call
#just a little warning; set realistic expectations:
#DebugPrint("${\(CYAN)}Pdf2Gerb.pl ${\(VERSION)}, $^O O/S\n${\(YELLOW)}${\(BOLD)}${\(ITALIC)}This is EXPERIMENTAL software. \nGerber files MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. Please CHECK them before fabrication!${\(RESET)}", 0); #if WANT_DEBUG
use constant METRIC => FALSE; #set to TRUE for metric units (only affect final numbers in output files, not internal arithmetic)
use constant APERTURE_LIMIT => 0; #34; #max #apertures to use; generate warnings if too many apertures are used (0 to not check)
use constant DRILL_FMT => '2.4'; #'2.3'; #'2.4' is the default for PCB fab; change to '2.3' for CNC
use constant WANT_DEBUG => 0; #10; #level of debug wanted; higher == more, lower == less, 0 == none
use constant GERBER_DEBUG => 0; #level of debug to include in Gerber file; DON'T USE FOR FABRICATION
use constant WANT_STREAMS => FALSE; #TRUE; #save decompressed streams to files (for debug)
use constant WANT_ALLINPUT => FALSE; #TRUE; #save entire input stream (for debug ONLY)
#DebugPrint(sprintf("${\(CYAN)}DEBUG: stdout %d, gerber %d, want streams? %d, all input? %d, O/S: $^O, Perl: $]${\(RESET)}\n", WANT_DEBUG, GERBER_DEBUG, WANT_STREAMS, WANT_ALLINPUT), 1);
#DebugPrint(sprintf("max int = %d, min int = %d\n", MAXINT, MININT), 1);
#define standard trace and pad sizes to reduce scaling or PDF rendering errors:
#This avoids weird aperture settings and replaces them with more standardized values.
#(I'm not sure how photoplotters handle strange sizes).
#Fewer choices here gives more accurate mapping in the final Gerber files.
#units are in inches
use constant TOOL_SIZES => #add more as desired
(
#round or square pads (> 0) and drills (< 0):
.010, -.001, #tiny pads for SMD; dummy drill size (too small for practical use, but needed so StandardTool will use this entry)
.031, -.014, #used for vias
.041, -.020, #smallest non-filled plated hole
.051, -.025,
.056, -.029, #useful for IC pins
.070, -.033,
.075, -.040, #heavier leads
# .090, -.043, #NOTE: 600 dpi is not high enough resolution to reliably distinguish between .043" and .046", so choose 1 of the 2 here
.100, -.046,
.115, -.052,
.130, -.061,
.140, -.067,
.150, -.079,
.175, -.088,
.190, -.093,
.200, -.100,
.220, -.110,
.160, -.125, #useful for mounting holes
#some additional pad sizes without holes (repeat a previous hole size if you just want the pad size):
.090, -.040, #want a .090 pad option, but use dummy hole size
.065, -.040, #.065 x .065 rect pad
.035, -.040, #.035 x .065 rect pad
#traces:
.001, #too thin for real traces; use only for board outlines
.006, #minimum real trace width; mainly used for text
.008, #mainly used for mid-sized text, not traces
.010, #minimum recommended trace width for low-current signals
.012,
.015, #moderate low-voltage current
.020, #heavier trace for power, ground (even if a lighter one is adequate)
.025,
.030, #heavy-current traces; be careful with these ones!
.040,
.050,
.060,
.080,
.100,
.120,
);
#Areas larger than the values below will be filled with parallel lines:
#This cuts down on the number of aperture sizes used.
#Set to 0 to always use an aperture or drill, regardless of size.
use constant { MAX_APERTURE => max((TOOL_SIZES)) + .004, MAX_DRILL => -min((TOOL_SIZES)) + .004 }; #max aperture and drill sizes (plus a little tolerance)
#DebugPrint(sprintf("using %d standard tool sizes: %s, max aper %.3f, max drill %.3f\n", scalar((TOOL_SIZES)), join(", ", (TOOL_SIZES)), MAX_APERTURE, MAX_DRILL), 1);
#NOTE: Compare the PDF to the original CAD file to check the accuracy of the PDF rendering and parsing!
#for example, the CAD software I used generated the following circles for holes:
#CAD hole size: parsed PDF diameter: error:
# .014 .016 +.002
# .020 .02267 +.00267
# .025 .026 +.001
# .029 .03167 +.00267
# .033 .036 +.003
# .040 .04267 +.00267
#This was usually ~ .002" - .003" too big compared to the hole as displayed in the CAD software.
#To compensate for PDF rendering errors (either during CAD Print function or PDF parsing logic), adjust the values below as needed.
#units are pixels; for example, a value of 2.4 at 600 dpi = .0004 inch, 2 at 600 dpi = .0033"
use constant
{
HOLE_ADJUST => -0.004 * 600, #-2.6, #holes seemed to be slightly oversized (by .002" - .004"), so shrink them a little
RNDPAD_ADJUST => -0.003 * 600, #-2, #-2.4, #round pads seemed to be slightly oversized, so shrink them a little
SQRPAD_ADJUST => +0.001 * 600, #+.5, #square pads are sometimes too small by .00067, so bump them up a little
RECTPAD_ADJUST => 0, #(pixels) rectangular pads seem to be okay? (not tested much)
TRACE_ADJUST => 0, #(pixels) traces seemed to be okay?
REDUCE_TOLERANCE => .001, #(inches) allow this much variation when reducing circles and rects
};
#Also, my CAD's Print function or the PDF print driver I used was a little off for circles, so define some additional adjustment values here:
#Values are added to X/Y coordinates; units are pixels; for example, a value of 1 at 600 dpi would be ~= .002 inch
use constant
{
CIRCLE_ADJUST_MINX => 0,
CIRCLE_ADJUST_MINY => -0.001 * 600, #-1, #circles were a little too high, so nudge them a little lower
CIRCLE_ADJUST_MAXX => +0.001 * 600, #+1, #circles were a little too far to the left, so nudge them a little to the right
CIRCLE_ADJUST_MAXY => 0,
SUBST_CIRCLE_CLIPRECT => FALSE, #generate circle and substitute for clip rects (to compensate for the way some CAD software draws circles)
WANT_CLIPRECT => TRUE, #FALSE, #AI doesn't need clip rect at all? should be on normally?
RECT_COMPLETION => FALSE, #TRUE, #fill in 4th side of rect when 3 sides found
};
#allow .012 clearance around pads for solder mask:
#This value effectively adjusts pad sizes in the TOOL_SIZES list above (only for solder mask layers).
use constant SOLDER_MARGIN => +.012; #units are inches
#line join/cap styles:
use constant
{
CAP_NONE => 0, #butt (none); line is exact length
CAP_ROUND => 1, #round cap/join; line overhangs by a semi-circle at either end
CAP_SQUARE => 2, #square cap/join; line overhangs by a half square on either end
CAP_OVERRIDE => FALSE, #cap style overrides drawing logic
};
#number of elements in each shape type:
use constant
{
RECT_SHAPELEN => 6, #x0, y0, x1, y1, count, "rect" (start, end corners)
LINE_SHAPELEN => 6, #x0, y0, x1, y1, count, "line" (line seg)
CURVE_SHAPELEN => 10, #xstart, ystart, x0, y0, x1, y1, xend, yend, count, "curve" (bezier 2 points)
CIRCLE_SHAPELEN => 5, #x, y, 5, count, "circle" (center + radius)
};
#const my %SHAPELEN =
#Readonly my %SHAPELEN =>
our %SHAPELEN =
(
rect => RECT_SHAPELEN,
line => LINE_SHAPELEN,
curve => CURVE_SHAPELEN,
circle => CIRCLE_SHAPELEN,
);
#panelization:
#This will repeat the entire body the number of times indicated along the X or Y axes (files grow accordingly).
#Display elements that overhang PCB boundary can be squashed or left as-is (typically text or other silk screen markings).
#Set "overhangs" TRUE to allow overhangs, FALSE to truncate them.
#xpad and ypad allow margins to be added around outer edge of panelized PCB.
use constant PANELIZE => {'x' => 1, 'y' => 1, 'xpad' => 0, 'ypad' => 0, 'overhangs' => TRUE}; #number of times to repeat in X and Y directions
# Set this to 1 if you need TurboCAD support.
#$turboCAD = FALSE; #is this still needed as an option?
#CIRCAD pad generation uses an appropriate aperture, then moves it (stroke) "a little" - we use this to find pads and distinguish them from PCB holes.
use constant PAD_STROKE => 0.3; #0.0005 * 600; #units are pixels
#convert very short traces to pads or holes:
use constant TRACE_MINLEN => .001; #units are inches
#use constant ALWAYS_XY => TRUE; #FALSE; #force XY even if X or Y doesn't change; NOTE: needs to be TRUE for all pads to show in FlatCAM and ViewPlot
use constant REMOVE_POLARITY => FALSE; #TRUE; #set to remove subtractive (negative) polarity; NOTE: must be FALSE for ground planes
#PDF uses "points", each point = 1/72 inch
#combined with a PDF scale factor of .12, this gives 600 dpi resolution (1/72 * .12 = 600 dpi)
use constant INCHES_PER_POINT => 1/72; #0.0138888889; #multiply point-size by this to get inches
# The precision used when computing a bezier curve. Higher numbers are more precise but slower (and generate larger files).
#$bezierPrecision = 100;
use constant BEZIER_PRECISION => 36; #100; #use const; reduced for faster rendering (mainly used for silk screen and thermal pads)
# Ground planes and silk screen or larger copper rectangles or circles are filled line-by-line using this resolution.
use constant FILL_WIDTH => .01; #fill at most 0.01 inch at a time
# The max number of characters to read into memory
use constant MAX_BYTES => 10 * M; #bumped up to 10 MB, use const
use constant DUP_DRILL1 => TRUE; #FALSE; #kludge: ViewPlot doesn't load drill files that are too small so duplicate first tool
my $runtime = time(); #Time::HiRes::gettimeofday(); #measure my execution time
print STDERR "Loaded config settings from '${\(__FILE__)}'.\n";
1; #last value must be truthful to indicate successful load
#############################################################################################
#junk/experiment:
#use Package::Constants;
#use Exporter qw(import); #https://perldoc.perl.org/Exporter.html
#my $caller = "pdf2gerb::";
#sub cfg
#{
# my $proto = shift;
# my $class = ref($proto) || $proto;
# my $settings =
# {
# $WANT_DEBUG => 990, #10; #level of debug wanted; higher == more, lower == less, 0 == none
# };
# bless($settings, $class);
# return $settings;
#}
#use constant HELLO => "hi there2"; #"main::HELLO" => "hi there";
#use constant GOODBYE => 14; #"main::GOODBYE" => 12;
#print STDERR "read cfg file\n";
#our @EXPORT_OK = Package::Constants->list(__PACKAGE__); #https://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=1072691; NOTE: "_OK" skips short/common names
#print STDERR scalar(@EXPORT_OK) . " consts exported:\n";
#foreach(@EXPORT_OK) { print STDERR "$_\n"; }
#my $val = main::thing("xyz");
#print STDERR "caller gave me $val\n";
#foreach my $arg (@ARGV) { print STDERR "arg $arg\n"; }Download Details:
Author: swannman
Source Code: https://github.com/swannman/pdf2gerb
License: GPL-3.0 license
1669099573
What Is Face Recognition? Facial Recognition with Python and OpenCV
In this article, we will know what is face recognition and how is different from face detection. We will go briefly over the theory of face recognition and then jump on to the coding section. At the end of this article, you will be able to make a face recognition program for recognizing faces in images as well as on a live webcam feed.
What is Face Detection?
In computer vision, one essential problem we are trying to figure out is to automatically detect objects in an image without human intervention. Face detection can be thought of as such a problem where we detect human faces in an image. There may be slight differences in the faces of humans but overall, it is safe to say that there are certain features that are associated with all the human faces. There are various face detection algorithms but Viola-Jones Algorithm is one of the oldest methods that is also used today and we will use the same later in the article. You can go through the Viola-Jones Algorithm after completing this article as I’ll link it at the end of this article.
Face detection is usually the first step towards many face-related technologies, such as face recognition or verification. However, face detection can have very useful applications. The most successful application of face detection would probably be photo taking. When you take a photo of your friends, the face detection algorithm built into your digital camera detects where the faces are and adjusts the focus accordingly.
For a tutorial on Real-Time Face detection
What is Face Recognition?
Now that we are successful in making such algorithms that can detect faces, can we also recognise whose faces are they?
Face recognition is a method of identifying or verifying the identity of an individual using their face. There are various algorithms that can do face recognition but their accuracy might vary. Here I am going to describe how we do face recognition using deep learning.
So now let us understand how we recognise faces using deep learning. We make use of face embedding in which each face is converted into a vector and this technique is called deep metric learning. Let me further divide this process into three simple steps for easy understanding:
Face Detection: The very first task we perform is detecting faces in the image or video stream. Now that we know the exact location/coordinates of face, we extract this face for further processing ahead.
Feature Extraction: Now that we have cropped the face out of the image, we extract features from it. Here we are going to use face embeddings to extract the features out of the face. A neural network takes an image of the person’s face as input and outputs a vector which represents the most important features of a face. In machine learning, this vector is called embedding and thus we call this vector as face embedding. Now how does this help in recognizing faces of different persons?
While training the neural network, the network learns to output similar vectors for faces that look similar. For example, if I have multiple images of faces within different timespan, of course, some of the features of my face might change but not up to much extent. So in this case the vectors associated with the faces are similar or in short, they are very close in the vector space. Take a look at the below diagram for a rough idea:
Now after training the network, the network learns to output vectors that are closer to each other(similar) for faces of the same person(looking similar). The above vectors now transform into:
We are not going to train such a network here as it takes a significant amount of data and computation power to train such networks. We will use a pre-trained network trained by Davis King on a dataset of ~3 million images. The network outputs a vector of 128 numbers which represent the most important features of a face.
Now that we know how this network works, let us see how we use this network on our own data. We pass all the images in our data to this pre-trained network to get the respective embeddings and save these embeddings in a file for the next step.
Comparing faces: Now that we have face embeddings for every face in our data saved in a file, the next step is to recognise a new t image that is not in our data. So the first step is to compute the face embedding for the image using the same network we used above and then compare this embedding with the rest of the embeddings we have. We recognise the face if the generated embedding is closer or similar to any other embedding as shown below:
So we passed two images, one of the images is of Vladimir Putin and other of George W. Bush. In our example above, we did not save the embeddings for Putin but we saved the embeddings of Bush. Thus when we compared the two new embeddings with the existing ones, the vector for Bush is closer to the other face embeddings of Bush whereas the face embeddings of Putin are not closer to any other embedding and thus the program cannot recognise him.
What is OpenCV
In the field of Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision is one of the most interesting and Challenging tasks. Computer Vision acts like a bridge between Computer Software and visualizations around us. It allows computer software to understand and learn about the visualizations in the surroundings. For Example: Based on the color, shape and size determining the fruit. This task can be very easy for the human brain however in the Computer Vision pipeline, first we gather the data, then we perform the data processing activities and then we train and teach the model to understand how to distinguish between the fruits based on size, shape and color of fruit.
Currently, various packages are present to perform machine learning, deep learning and computer vision tasks. By far, computer vision is the best module for such complex activities. OpenCV is an open-source library. It is supported by various programming languages such as R, Python. It runs on most of the platforms such as Windows, Linux and MacOS.
To know more about how face recognition works on opencv, check out the free course on face recognition in opencv.
Advantages of OpenCV:
- OpenCV is an open-source library and is free of cost.
- As compared to other libraries, it is fast since it is written in C/C++.
- It works better on System with lesser RAM
- To supports most of the Operating Systems such as Windows, Linux and MacOS.
Installation:
Here we will be focusing on installing OpenCV for python only. We can install OpenCV using pip or conda(for anaconda environment).
- Using pip:
Using pip, the installation process of openCV can be done by using the following command in the command prompt.
pip install opencv-python
- Anaconda:
If you are using anaconda environment, either you can execute the above code in anaconda prompt or you can execute the following code in anaconda prompt.
conda install -c conda-forge opencv
Face Recognition using Python
In this section, we shall implement face recognition using OpenCV and Python. First, let us see the libraries we will need and how to install them:
- OpenCV
- dlib
- Face_recognition
OpenCV is an image and video processing library and is used for image and video analysis, like facial detection, license plate reading, photo editing, advanced robotic vision, optical character recognition, and a whole lot more.
The dlib library, maintained by Davis King, contains our implementation of “deep metric learning” which is used to construct our face embeddings used for the actual recognition process.
The face_recognition library, created by Adam Geitgey, wraps around dlib’s facial recognition functionality, and this library is super easy to work with and we will be using this in our code. Remember to install dlib library first before you install face_recognition.
To install OpenCV, type in command prompt
pip install opencv-python |
I have tried various ways to install dlib on Windows but the easiest of all of them is via Anaconda. First, install Anaconda (here is a guide to install it) and then use this command in your command prompt:
conda install -c conda-forge dlib |
Next to install face_recognition, type in command prompt
pip install face_recognition |
Now that we have all the dependencies installed, let us start coding. We will have to create three files, one will take our dataset and extract face embedding for each face using dlib. Next, we will save these embedding in a file.
In the next file we will compare the faces with the existing the recognise faces in images and next we will do the same but recognise faces in live webcam feed
Extracting features from Face
First, you need to get a dataset or even create one of you own. Just make sure to arrange all images in folders with each folder containing images of just one person.
Next, save the dataset in a folder the same as you are going to make the file. Now here is the code:
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|
Now that we have stored the embedding in a file named “face_enc”, we can use them to recognise faces in images or live video stream.
Face Recognition in Live webcam Feed
Here is the script to recognise faces on a live webcam feed:
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|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLnGdkZxRkg
Although in the example above we have used haar cascade to detect faces, you can also use face_recognition.face_locations to detect a face as we did in the previous script
Face Recognition in Images
The script for detecting and recognising faces in images is almost similar to what you saw above. Try it yourself and if you can’t take a look at the code below:
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|
Output:
Input
Output
This brings us to the end of this article where we learned about face recognition.
You can also upskill with Great Learning’s PGP Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Course. The course offers mentorship from industry leaders, and you will also have the opportunity to work on real-time industry-relevant projects.
Original article source at: https://www.mygreatlearning.com
1659283860
Activeinteraction: Manage Application Specific Business Logic Of Ruby
ActiveInteraction manages application-specific business logic. It's an implementation of service objects designed to blend seamlessly into Rails.
ActiveInteraction gives you a place to put your business logic. It also helps you write safer code by validating that your inputs conform to your expectations. If ActiveModel deals with your nouns, then ActiveInteraction handles your verbs.
Installation
Add it to your Gemfile:
gem 'active_interaction', '~> 5.1'
Or install it manually:
$ gem install active_interaction --version '~> 5.1'
This project uses Semantic Versioning. Check out GitHub releases for a detailed list of changes.
Basic usage
To define an interaction, create a subclass of ActiveInteraction::Base. Then you need to do two things:
Define your inputs. Use class filter methods to define what you expect your inputs to look like. For instance, if you need a boolean flag for pepperoni, use boolean :pepperoni. Check out the filters section for all the available options.
Define your business logic. Do this by implementing the #execute method. Each input you defined will be available as the type you specified. If any of the inputs are invalid, #execute won't be run. Filters are responsible for checking your inputs. Check out the validations section if you need more than that.
That covers the basics. Let's put it all together into a simple example that squares a number.
require 'active_interaction'
class Square < ActiveInteraction::Base
float :x
def execute
x**2
end
end
Call .run on your interaction to execute it. You must pass a single hash to .run. It will return an instance of your interaction. By convention, we call this an outcome. You can use the #valid? method to ask the outcome if it's valid. If it's invalid, take a look at its errors with #errors. In either case, the value returned from #execute will be stored in #result.
outcome = Square.run(x: 'two point one')
outcome.valid?
# => nil
outcome.errors.messages
# => {:x=>["is not a valid float"]}
outcome = Square.run(x: 2.1)
outcome.valid?
# => true
outcome.result
# => 4.41
You can also use .run! to execute interactions. It's like .run but more dangerous. It doesn't return an outcome. If the outcome would be invalid, it will instead raise an error. But if the outcome would be valid, it simply returns the result.
Square.run!(x: 'two point one')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: X is not a valid float
Square.run!(x: 2.1)
# => 4.41
Validations
ActiveInteraction checks your inputs. Often you'll want more than that. For instance, you may want an input to be a string with at least one non-whitespace character. Instead of writing your own validation for that, you can use validations from ActiveModel.
These validations aren't provided by ActiveInteraction. They're from ActiveModel. You can also use any custom validations you wrote yourself in your interactions.
class SayHello < ActiveInteraction::Base
string :name
validates :name,
presence: true
def execute
"Hello, #{name}!"
end
end
When you run this interaction, two things will happen. First ActiveInteraction will check your inputs. Then ActiveModel will validate them. If both of those are happy, it will be executed.
SayHello.run!(name: nil)
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Name is required
SayHello.run!(name: '')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Name can't be blank
SayHello.run!(name: 'Taylor')
# => "Hello, Taylor!"
Filters
You can define filters inside an interaction using the appropriate class method. Each method has the same signature:
Some symbolic names. These are the attributes to create.
An optional hash of options. Each filter supports at least these two options:
default is the fallback value to use if nil is given. To make a filter optional, set default: nil.
desc is a human-readable description of the input. This can be useful for generating documentation. For more information about this, read the descriptions section.
An optional block of sub-filters. Only array and hash filters support this. Other filters will ignore blocks when given to them.
Let's take a look at an example filter. It defines three inputs: x, y, and z. Those inputs are optional and they all share the same description ("an example filter").
array :x, :y, :z,
default: nil,
desc: 'an example filter' do
# Some filters support sub-filters here.
end
In general, filters accept values of the type they correspond to, plus a few alternatives that can be reasonably coerced. Typically the coercions come from Rails, so "1" can be interpreted as the boolean value true, the string "1", or the number 1.
Basic Filters
Array
In addition to accepting arrays, array inputs will convert ActiveRecord::Relations into arrays.
class ArrayInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
array :toppings
def execute
toppings.size
end
end
ArrayInteraction.run!(toppings: 'everything')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Toppings is not a valid array
ArrayInteraction.run!(toppings: [:cheese, 'pepperoni'])
# => 2
Use a block to constrain the types of elements an array can contain. Note that you can only have one filter inside an array block, and it must not have a name.
array :birthdays do
date
end
For interface, object, and record filters, the name of the array filter will be singularized and used to determine the type of value passed. In the example below, the objects passed would need to be of type Cow.
array :cows do
object
end
You can override this by passing the necessary information to the inner filter.
array :managers do
object class: People
end
Errors that occur will be indexed based on the Rails configuration setting index_nested_attribute_errors. You can also manually override this setting with the :index_errors option. In this state is is possible to get multiple errors from a single filter.
class ArrayInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
array :favorite_numbers, index_errors: true do
integer
end
def execute
favorite_numbers
end
end
ArrayInteraction.run(favorite_numbers: [8, 'bazillion']).errors.details
=> {:"favorite_numbers[1]"=>[{:error=>:invalid_type, :type=>"array"}]}
With :index_errors set to false the error would have been:
{:favorite_numbers=>[{:error=>:invalid_type, :type=>"array"}]}
Boolean
Boolean filters convert the strings "1", "true", and "on" (case-insensitive) into true. They also convert "0", "false", and "off" into false. Blank strings will be treated as nil.
class BooleanInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
boolean :kool_aid
def execute
'Oh yeah!' if kool_aid
end
end
BooleanInteraction.run!(kool_aid: 1)
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Kool aid is not a valid boolean
BooleanInteraction.run!(kool_aid: true)
# => "Oh yeah!"
File
File filters also accept TempFiles and anything that responds to #rewind. That means that you can pass the params from uploading files via forms in Rails.
class FileInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
file :readme
def execute
readme.size
end
end
FileInteraction.run!(readme: 'README.md')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Readme is not a valid file
FileInteraction.run!(readme: File.open('README.md'))
# => 21563
Hash
Hash filters accept hashes. The expected value types are given by passing a block and nesting other filters. You can have any number of filters inside a hash, including other hashes.
class HashInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
hash :preferences do
boolean :newsletter
boolean :sweepstakes
end
def execute
puts 'Thanks for joining the newsletter!' if preferences[:newsletter]
puts 'Good luck in the sweepstakes!' if preferences[:sweepstakes]
end
end
HashInteraction.run!(preferences: 'yes, no')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Preferences is not a valid hash
HashInteraction.run!(preferences: { newsletter: true, 'sweepstakes' => false })
# Thanks for joining the newsletter!
# => nil
Setting default hash values can be tricky. The default value has to be either nil or {}. Use nil to make the hash optional. Use {} if you want to set some defaults for values inside the hash.
hash :optional,
default: nil
# => {:optional=>nil}
hash :with_defaults,
default: {} do
boolean :likes_cookies,
default: true
end
# => {:with_defaults=>{:likes_cookies=>true}}
By default, hashes remove any keys that aren't given as nested filters. To allow all hash keys, set strip: false. In general we don't recommend doing this, but it's sometimes necessary.
hash :stuff,
strip: false
String
String filters define inputs that only accept strings.
class StringInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
string :name
def execute
"Hello, #{name}!"
end
end
StringInteraction.run!(name: 0xDEADBEEF)
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Name is not a valid string
StringInteraction.run!(name: 'Taylor')
# => "Hello, Taylor!"
String filter strips leading and trailing whitespace by default. To disable it, set the strip option to false.
string :comment,
strip: false
Symbol
Symbol filters define inputs that accept symbols. Strings will be converted into symbols.
class SymbolInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
symbol :method
def execute
method.to_proc
end
end
SymbolInteraction.run!(method: -> {})
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Method is not a valid symbol
SymbolInteraction.run!(method: :object_id)
# => #<Proc:0x007fdc9ba94118>
Dates and times
Filters that work with dates and times behave similarly. By default, they all convert strings into their expected data types using .parse. Blank strings will be treated as nil. If you give the format option, they will instead convert strings using .strptime. Note that formats won't work with DateTime and Time filters if a time zone is set.
Date
class DateInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
date :birthday
def execute
birthday + (18 * 365)
end
end
DateInteraction.run!(birthday: 'yesterday')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Birthday is not a valid date
DateInteraction.run!(birthday: Date.new(1989, 9, 1))
# => #<Date: 2007-08-28 ((2454341j,0s,0n),+0s,2299161j)>
date :birthday,
format: '%Y-%m-%d'
DateTime
class DateTimeInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
date_time :now
def execute
now.iso8601
end
end
DateTimeInteraction.run!(now: 'now')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Now is not a valid date time
DateTimeInteraction.run!(now: DateTime.now)
# => "2015-03-11T11:04:40-05:00"
date_time :start,
format: '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S'
Time
In addition to converting strings with .parse (or .strptime), time filters convert numbers with .at.
class TimeInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
time :epoch
def execute
Time.now - epoch
end
end
TimeInteraction.run!(epoch: 'a long, long time ago')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Epoch is not a valid time
TimeInteraction.run!(epoch: Time.new(1970))
# => 1426068362.5136619
time :start,
format: '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S'
Numbers
All numeric filters accept numeric input. They will also convert strings using the appropriate method from Kernel (like .Float). Blank strings will be treated as nil.
Decimal
class DecimalInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
decimal :price
def execute
price * 1.0825
end
end
DecimalInteraction.run!(price: 'one ninety-nine')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Price is not a valid decimal
DecimalInteraction.run!(price: BigDecimal(1.99, 2))
# => #<BigDecimal:7fe792a42028,'0.2165E1',18(45)>
To specify the number of significant digits, use the digits option.
decimal :dollars,
digits: 2
Float
class FloatInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
float :x
def execute
x**2
end
end
FloatInteraction.run!(x: 'two point one')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: X is not a valid float
FloatInteraction.run!(x: 2.1)
# => 4.41
Integer
class IntegerInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
integer :limit
def execute
limit.downto(0).to_a
end
end
IntegerInteraction.run!(limit: 'ten')
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Limit is not a valid integer
IntegerInteraction.run!(limit: 10)
# => [10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0]
When a String is passed into an integer input, the value will be coerced. A default base of 10 is used though it may be overridden with the base option. If a base of 0 is provided, the coercion will respect radix indicators present in the string.
class IntegerInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
integer :limit1
integer :limit2, base: 8
integer :limit3, base: 0
def execute
[limit1, limit2, limit3]
end
end
IntegerInteraction.run!(limit1: 71, limit2: 71, limit3: 71)
# => [71, 71, 71]
IntegerInteraction.run!(limit1: "071", limit2: "071", limit3: "0x71")
# => [71, 57, 113]
IntegerInteraction.run!(limit1: "08", limit2: "08", limit3: "08")
ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Limit2 is not a valid integer, Limit3 is not a valid integer
Advanced Filters
Interface
Interface filters allow you to specify an interface that the passed value must meet in order to pass. The name of the interface is used to look for a constant inside the ancestor listing for the passed value. This allows for a variety of checks depending on what's passed. Class instances are checked for an included module or an inherited ancestor class. Classes are checked for an extended module or an inherited ancestor class. Modules are checked for an extended module.
class InterfaceInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
interface :exception
def execute
exception
end
end
InterfaceInteraction.run!(exception: Exception)
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Exception is not a valid interface
InterfaceInteraction.run!(exception: NameError) # a subclass of Exception
# => NameError
You can use :from to specify a class or module. This would be the equivalent of what's above.
class InterfaceInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
interface :error,
from: Exception
def execute
error
end
end
You can also create an anonymous interface on the fly by passing the methods option.
class InterfaceInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
interface :serializer,
methods: %i[dump load]
def execute
input = '{ "is_json" : true }'
object = serializer.load(input)
output = serializer.dump(object)
output
end
end
require 'json'
InterfaceInteraction.run!(serializer: Object.new)
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Serializer is not a valid interface
InterfaceInteraction.run!(serializer: JSON)
# => "{\"is_json\":true}"
Object
Object filters allow you to require an instance of a particular class or one of its subclasses.
class Cow
def moo
'Moo!'
end
end
class ObjectInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
object :cow
def execute
cow.moo
end
end
ObjectInteraction.run!(cow: Object.new)
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Cow is not a valid object
ObjectInteraction.run!(cow: Cow.new)
# => "Moo!"
The class name is automatically determined by the filter name. If your filter name is different than your class name, use the class option. It can be either the class, a string, or a symbol.
object :dolly1,
class: Sheep
object :dolly2,
class: 'Sheep'
object :dolly3,
class: :Sheep
If you have value objects or you would like to build one object from another, you can use the converter option. It is only called if the value provided is not an instance of the class or one of its subclasses. The converter option accepts a symbol that specifies a class method on the object class or a proc. Both will be passed the value and any errors thrown inside the converter will cause the value to be considered invalid. Any returned value that is not the correct class will also be treated as invalid. Any default that is not an instance of the class or subclass and is not nil will also be converted.
class ObjectInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
object :ip_address,
class: IPAddr,
converter: :new
def execute
ip_address
end
end
ObjectInteraction.run!(ip_address: '192.168.1.1')
# #<IPAddr: IPv4:192.168.1.1/255.255.255.255>
ObjectInteraction.run!(ip_address: 1)
# ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError: Ip address is not a valid object
Record
Record filters allow you to require an instance of a particular class (or one of its subclasses) or a value that can be used to locate an instance of the object. If the value does not match, it will call find on the class of the record. This is particularly useful when working with ActiveRecord objects. Like an object filter, the class is derived from the name passed but can be specified with the class option. Any default that is not an instance of the class or subclass and is not nil will also be found. Blank strings passed in will be treated as nil.
class RecordInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
record :encoding
def execute
encoding
end
end
> RecordInteraction.run!(encoding: Encoding::US_ASCII)
=> #<Encoding:US-ASCII>
> RecordInteraction.run!(encoding: 'ascii')
=> #<Encoding:US-ASCII>
A different method can be specified by providing a symbol to the finder option.
Rails
ActiveInteraction plays nicely with Rails. You can use interactions to handle your business logic instead of models or controllers. To see how it all works, let's take a look at a complete example of a controller with the typical resourceful actions.
Setup
We recommend putting your interactions in app/interactions. It's also very helpful to group them by model. That way you can look in app/interactions/accounts for all the ways you can interact with accounts.
- app/
- controllers/
- accounts_controller.rb
- interactions/
- accounts/
- create_account.rb
- destroy_account.rb
- find_account.rb
- list_accounts.rb
- update_account.rb
- models/
- account.rb
- views/
- account/
- edit.html.erb
- index.html.erb
- new.html.erb
- show.html.erb
Controller
Index
# GET /accounts
def index
@accounts = ListAccounts.run!
end
Since we're not passing any inputs to ListAccounts, it makes sense to use .run! instead of .run. If it failed, that would mean we probably messed up writing the interaction.
class ListAccounts < ActiveInteraction::Base
def execute
Account.not_deleted.order(last_name: :asc, first_name: :asc)
end
end
Show
Up next is the show action. For this one we'll define a helper method to handle raising the correct errors. We have to do this because calling .run! would raise an ActiveInteraction::InvalidInteractionError instead of an ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound. That means Rails would render a 500 instead of a 404.
# GET /accounts/:id
def show
@account = find_account!
end
private
def find_account!
outcome = FindAccount.run(params)
if outcome.valid?
outcome.result
else
fail ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, outcome.errors.full_messages.to_sentence
end
end
This probably looks a little different than you're used to. Rails commonly handles this with a before_filter that sets the @account instance variable. Why is all this interaction code better? Two reasons: One, you can reuse the FindAccount interaction in other places, like your API controller or a Resque task. And two, if you want to change how accounts are found, you only have to change one place.
Inside the interaction, we could use #find instead of #find_by_id. That way we wouldn't need the #find_account! helper method in the controller because the error would bubble all the way up. However, you should try to avoid raising errors from interactions. If you do, you'll have to deal with raised exceptions as well as the validity of the outcome.
class FindAccount < ActiveInteraction::Base
integer :id
def execute
account = Account.not_deleted.find_by_id(id)
if account
account
else
errors.add(:id, 'does not exist')
end
end
end
Note that it's perfectly fine to add errors during execution. Not all errors have to come from checking or validation.
New
The new action will be a little different than the ones we've looked at so far. Instead of calling .run or .run!, it's going to initialize a new interaction. This is possible because interactions behave like ActiveModels.
# GET /accounts/new
def new
@account = CreateAccount.new
end
Since interactions behave like ActiveModels, we can use ActiveModel validations with them. We'll use validations here to make sure that the first and last names are not blank. The validations section goes into more detail about this.
class CreateAccount < ActiveInteraction::Base
string :first_name, :last_name
validates :first_name, :last_name,
presence: true
def to_model
Account.new
end
def execute
account = Account.new(inputs)
unless account.save
errors.merge!(account.errors)
end
account
end
end
We used a couple of advanced features here. The #to_model method helps determine the correct form to use in the view. Check out the section on forms for more about that. Inside #execute, we merge errors. This is a convenient way to move errors from one object to another. Read more about it in the errors section.
Create
The create action has a lot in common with the new action. Both of them use the CreateAccount interaction. And if creating the account fails, this action falls back to rendering the new action.
# POST /accounts
def create
outcome = CreateAccount.run(params.fetch(:account, {}))
if outcome.valid?
redirect_to(outcome.result)
else
@account = outcome
render(:new)
end
end
Note that we have to pass a hash to .run. Passing nil is an error.
Since we're using an interaction, we don't need strong parameters. The interaction will ignore any inputs that weren't defined by filters. So you can forget about params.require and params.permit because interactions handle that for you.
Destroy
The destroy action will reuse the #find_account! helper method we wrote earlier.
# DELETE /accounts/:id
def destroy
DestroyAccount.run!(account: find_account!)
redirect_to(accounts_url)
end
In this simple example, the destroy interaction doesn't do much. It's not clear that you gain anything by putting it in an interaction. But in the future, when you need to do more than account.destroy, you'll only have to update one spot.
class DestroyAccount < ActiveInteraction::Base
object :account
def execute
account.destroy
end
end
Edit
Just like the destroy action, editing uses the #find_account! helper. Then it creates a new interaction instance to use as a form object.
# GET /accounts/:id/edit
def edit
account = find_account!
@account = UpdateAccount.new(
account: account,
first_name: account.first_name,
last_name: account.last_name)
end
The interaction that updates accounts is more complicated than the others. It requires an account to update, but the other inputs are optional. If they're missing, it'll ignore those attributes. If they're present, it'll update them.
class UpdateAccount < ActiveInteraction::Base
object :account
string :first_name, :last_name,
default: nil
validates :first_name,
presence: true,
unless: -> { first_name.nil? }
validates :last_name,
presence: true,
unless: -> { last_name.nil? }
def execute
account.first_name = first_name if first_name.present?
account.last_name = last_name if last_name.present?
unless account.save
errors.merge!(account.errors)
end
account
end
end
Update
Hopefully you've gotten the hang of this by now. We'll use #find_account! to get the account. Then we'll build up the inputs for UpdateAccount. Then we'll run the interaction and either redirect to the updated account or back to the edit page.
# PUT /accounts/:id
def update
inputs = { account: find_account! }.reverse_merge(params[:account])
outcome = UpdateAccount.run(inputs)
if outcome.valid?
redirect_to(outcome.result)
else
@account = outcome
render(:edit)
end
end
Advanced usage
Callbacks
ActiveSupport::Callbacks provides a powerful framework for defining callbacks. ActiveInteraction uses that framework to allow hooking into various parts of an interaction's lifecycle.
class Increment < ActiveInteraction::Base
set_callback :filter, :before, -> { puts 'before filter' }
integer :x
set_callback :validate, :after, -> { puts 'after validate' }
validates :x,
numericality: { greater_than_or_equal_to: 0 }
set_callback :execute, :around, lambda { |_interaction, block|
puts '>>>'
block.call
puts '<<<'
}
def execute
puts 'executing'
x + 1
end
end
Increment.run!(x: 1)
# before filter
# after validate
# >>>
# executing
# <<<
# => 2
In order, the available callbacks are filter, validate, and execute. You can set before, after, or around on any of them.
Composition
You can run interactions from within other interactions with #compose. If the interaction is successful, it'll return the result (just like if you had called it with .run!). If something went wrong, execution will halt immediately and the errors will be moved onto the caller.
class Add < ActiveInteraction::Base
integer :x, :y
def execute
x + y
end
end
class AddThree < ActiveInteraction::Base
integer :x
def execute
compose(Add, x: x, y: 3)
end
end
AddThree.run!(x: 5)
# => 8
To bring in filters from another interaction, use .import_filters. Combined with inputs, delegating to another interaction is a piece of cake.
class AddAndDouble < ActiveInteraction::Base
import_filters Add
def execute
compose(Add, inputs) * 2
end
end
Note that errors in composed interactions have a few tricky cases. See the errors section for more information about them.
Defaults
The default value for an input can take on many different forms. Setting the default to nil makes the input optional. Setting it to some value makes that the default value for that input. Setting it to a lambda will lazily set the default value for that input. That means the value will be computed when the interaction is run, as opposed to when it is defined.
Lambda defaults are evaluated in the context of the interaction, so you can use the values of other inputs in them.
# This input is optional.
time :a, default: nil
# This input defaults to `Time.at(123)`.
time :b, default: Time.at(123)
# This input lazily defaults to `Time.now`.
time :c, default: -> { Time.now }
# This input defaults to the value of `c` plus 10 seconds.
time :d, default: -> { c + 10 }
Descriptions
Use the desc option to provide human-readable descriptions of filters. You should prefer these to comments because they can be used to generate documentation. The interaction class has a .filters method that returns a hash of filters. Each filter has a #desc method that returns the description.
class Descriptive < ActiveInteraction::Base
string :first_name,
desc: 'your first name'
string :last_name,
desc: 'your last name'
end
Descriptive.filters.each do |name, filter|
puts "#{name}: #{filter.desc}"
end
# first_name: your first name
# last_name: your last name
Errors
ActiveInteraction provides detailed errors for easier introspection and testing of errors. Detailed errors improve on regular errors by adding a symbol that represents the type of error that has occurred. Let's look at an example where an item is purchased using a credit card.
class BuyItem < ActiveInteraction::Base
object :credit_card, :item
hash :options do
boolean :gift_wrapped
end
def execute
order = credit_card.purchase(item)
notify(credit_card.account)
order
end
private def notify(account)
# ...
end
end
Having missing or invalid inputs causes the interaction to fail and return errors.
outcome = BuyItem.run(item: 'Thing', options: { gift_wrapped: 'yes' })
outcome.errors.messages
# => {:credit_card=>["is required"], :item=>["is not a valid object"], :"options.gift_wrapped"=>["is not a valid boolean"]}
Determining the type of error based on the string is difficult if not impossible. Calling #details instead of #messages on errors gives you the same list of errors with a testable label representing the error.
outcome.errors.details
# => {:credit_card=>[{:error=>:missing}], :item=>[{:error=>:invalid_type, :type=>"object"}], :"options.gift_wrapped"=>[{:error=>:invalid_type, :type=>"boolean"}]}
Detailed errors can also be manually added during the execute call by passing a symbol to #add instead of a string.
def execute
errors.add(:monster, :no_passage)
end
ActiveInteraction also supports merging errors. This is useful if you want to delegate validation to some other object. For example, if you have an interaction that updates a record, you might want that record to validate itself. By using the #merge! helper on errors, you can do exactly that.
class UpdateThing < ActiveInteraction::Base
object :thing
def execute
unless thing.save
errors.merge!(thing.errors)
end
thing
end
end
When a composed interaction fails, its errors are merged onto the caller. This generally produces good error messages, but there are a few cases to look out for.
class Inner < ActiveInteraction::Base
boolean :x, :y
end
class Outer < ActiveInteraction::Base
string :x
boolean :z, default: nil
def execute
compose(Inner, x: x, y: z)
end
end
outcome = Outer.run(x: 'yes')
outcome.errors.details
# => { :x => [{ :error => :invalid_type, :type => "boolean" }],
# :base => [{ :error => "Y is required" }] }
outcome.errors.full_messages.join(' and ')
# => "X is not a valid boolean and Y is required"
Since both interactions have an input called x, the inner error for that input is moved to the x error on the outer interaction. This results in a misleading error that claims the input x is not a valid boolean even though it's a string on the outer interaction.
Since only the inner interaction has an input called y, the inner error for that input is moved to the base error on the outer interaction. This results in a confusing error that claims the input y is required even though it's not present on the outer interaction.
Forms
The outcome returned by .run can be used in forms as though it were an ActiveModel object. You can also create a form object by calling .new on the interaction.
Given an application with an Account model we'll create a new Account using the CreateAccount interaction.
# GET /accounts/new
def new
@account = CreateAccount.new
end
# POST /accounts
def create
outcome = CreateAccount.run(params.fetch(:account, {}))
if outcome.valid?
redirect_to(outcome.result)
else
@account = outcome
render(:new)
end
end
The form used to create a new Account has slightly more information on the form_for call than you might expect.
<%= form_for @account, as: :account, url: accounts_path do |f| %>
<%= f.text_field :first_name %>
<%= f.text_field :last_name %>
<%= f.submit 'Create' %>
<% end %>
This is necessary because we want the form to act like it is creating a new Account. Defining to_model on the CreateAccount interaction tells the form to treat our interaction like an Account.
class CreateAccount < ActiveInteraction::Base
# ...
def to_model
Account.new
end
end
Now our form_for call knows how to generate the correct URL and param name (i.e. params[:account]).
# app/views/accounts/new.html.erb
<%= form_for @account do |f| %>
<%# ... %>
<% end %>
If you have an interaction that updates an Account, you can define to_model to return the object you're updating.
class UpdateAccount < ActiveInteraction::Base
# ...
object :account
def to_model
account
end
end
ActiveInteraction also supports formtastic and simple_form. The filters used to define the inputs on your interaction will relay type information to these gems. As a result, form fields will automatically use the appropriate input type.
Shared input options
It can be convenient to apply the same options to a bunch of inputs. One common use case is making many inputs optional. Instead of setting default: nil on each one of them, you can use with_options to reduce duplication.
with_options default: nil do
date :birthday
string :name
boolean :wants_cake
end
Optional inputs
Optional inputs can be defined by using the :default option as described in the filters section. Within the interaction, provided and default values are merged to create inputs. There are times where it is useful to know whether a value was passed to run or the result of a filter default. In particular, it is useful when nil is an acceptable value. For example, you may optionally track your users' birthdays. You can use the inputs.given? predicate to see if an input was even passed to run. With inputs.given? you can also check the input of a hash or array filter by passing a series of keys or indexes to check.
class UpdateUser < ActiveInteraction::Base
object :user
date :birthday,
default: nil
def execute
user.birthday = birthday if inputs.given?(:birthday)
errors.merge!(user.errors) unless user.save
user
end
end
Now you have a few options. If you don't want to update their birthday, leave it out of the hash. If you want to remove their birthday, set birthday: nil. And if you want to update it, pass in the new value as usual.
user = User.find(...)
# Don't update their birthday.
UpdateUser.run!(user: user)
# Remove their birthday.
UpdateUser.run!(user: user, birthday: nil)
# Update their birthday.
UpdateUser.run!(user: user, birthday: Date.new(2000, 1, 2))
Translations
ActiveInteraction is i18n aware out of the box! All you have to do is add translations to your project. In Rails, these typically go into config/locales. For example, let's say that for some reason you want to print everything out backwards. Simply add translations for ActiveInteraction to your hsilgne locale.
# config/locales/hsilgne.yml
hsilgne:
active_interaction:
types:
array: yarra
boolean: naeloob
date: etad
date_time: emit etad
decimal: lamiced
file: elif
float: taolf
hash: hsah
integer: regetni
interface: ecafretni
object: tcejbo
string: gnirts
symbol: lobmys
time: emit
errors:
messages:
invalid: dilavni si
invalid_type: '%{type} dilav a ton si'
missing: deriuqer si
Then set your locale and run interactions like normal.
class I18nInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
string :name
end
I18nInteraction.run(name: false).errors.messages[:name]
# => ["is not a valid string"]
I18n.locale = :hsilgne
I18nInteraction.run(name: false).errors.messages[:name]
# => ["gnirts dilav a ton si"]
Everything else works like an activerecord entry. For example, to rename an attribute you can use attributes.
Here we'll rename the num attribute on an interaction named product:
en:
active_interaction:
attributes:
product:
num: 'Number'
Credits
ActiveInteraction is brought to you by Aaron Lasseigne. Along with Aaron, Taylor Fausak helped create and maintain ActiveInteraction but has since moved on.
If you want to contribute to ActiveInteraction, please read our contribution guidelines. A complete list of contributors is available on GitHub.
ActiveInteraction is licensed under the MIT License.
Author: AaronLasseigne
Source code: https://github.com/AaronLasseigne/active_interaction
License: MIT license
1659511140
Roadie: Making HTML Emails Comfortable for The Ruby Rockstars
Roadie
| :warning: | This gem is now in [passive maintenance mode][passive]. [(more)][passive] |
Making HTML emails comfortable for the Ruby rockstars
Roadie tries to make sending HTML emails a little less painful by inlining stylesheets and rewriting relative URLs for you inside your emails.
How does it work?
Email clients have bad support for stylesheets, and some of them blocks stylesheets from downloading. The easiest way to handle this is to work with inline styles (style="..."), but that is error prone and hard to work with as you cannot use classes and/or reuse styling over your HTML.
This gem makes this easier by automatically inlining stylesheets into the document. You give Roadie your CSS, or let it find it by itself from the <link> and <style> tags in the markup, and it will go through all of the selectors assigning the styles to the matching elements. Careful attention has been put into selectors being applied in the correct order, so it should behave just like in the browser.
"Dynamic" selectors (:hover, :visited, :focus, etc.), or selectors not understood by Nokogiri will be inlined into a single <style> element for those email clients that support it. This changes specificity a great deal for these rules, so it might not work 100% out of the box. (See more about this below)
Roadie also rewrites all relative URLs in the email to an absolute counterpart, making images you insert and those referenced in your stylesheets work. No more headaches about how to write the stylesheets while still having them work with emails from your acceptance environments. You can disable this on specific elements using a data-roadie-ignore marker.
Features
- Writes CSS styles inline.
- Respects
!importantstyles. - Does not overwrite styles already present in the
styleattribute of tags. - Supports the same CSS selectors as Nokogiri; use CSS3 selectors in your emails!
- Keeps
:hover,@media { ... }and friends around in a separate<style>element.
- Respects
- Makes image urls absolute.
- Hostname and port configurable on a per-environment basis.
- Can be disabled on individual elements.
- Makes link
hrefs andimgsrcs absolute. - Automatically adds proper HTML skeleton when missing; you don't have to create a layout for emails.
- Also supports HTML fragments / partial documents, where layout is not added.
- Allows you to inject stylesheets in a number of ways, at runtime.
- Removes
data-roadie-ignoremarkers before finishing the HTML.
Install & Usage
Add this gem to your Gemfile as recommended by Rubygems and run bundle install.
gem 'roadie', '~> 4.0'
Your document instance can be configured with several options:
url_options- Dictates how absolute URLs should be built.keep_uninlinable_css- Set to false to skip CSS that cannot be inlined.merge_media_queries- Set to false to not group media queries. Some users might prefer to not group rules within media queries because it will result in rules getting reordered. e.g.
@media(max-width: 600px) { .col-6 { display: block; } }
@media(max-width: 400px) { .col-12 { display: inline-block; } }
@media(max-width: 600px) { .col-12 { display: block; } }- will become
@media(max-width: 600px) { .col-6 { display: block; } .col-12 { display: block; } }
@media(max-width: 400px) { .col-12 { display: inline-block; } }asset_providers- A list of asset providers that are invoked when CSS files are referenced. See below.external_asset_providers- A list of asset providers that are invoked when absolute CSS URLs are referenced. See below.before_transformation- A callback run before transformation starts.after_transformation- A callback run after transformation is completed.
Making URLs absolute
In order to make URLs absolute you need to first configure the URL options of the document.
html = '... <a href="/about-us">Read more!</a> ...'
document = Roadie::Document.new html
document.url_options = {host: "myapp.com", protocol: "https"}
document.transform
# => "... <a href=\"https://myapp.com/about-us\">Read more!</a> ..."
The following URLs will be rewritten for you:
a[href](HTML)img[src](HTML)url()(CSS)
You can disable individual elements by adding an data-roadie-ignore marker on them. CSS will still be inlined on those elements, but URLs will not be rewritten.
<a href="|UNSUBSCRIBE_URL|" data-roadie-ignore>Unsubscribe</a>
Referenced stylesheets
By default, style and link elements in the email document's head are processed along with the stylesheets and removed from the head.
You can set a special data-roadie-ignore attribute on style and link tags that you want to ignore (the attribute will be removed, however). This is the place to put things like :hover selectors that you want to have for email clients allowing them.
Style and link elements with media="print" are also ignored.
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/assets/emails/rock.css"> <!-- Will be inlined with normal providers -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.metal.org/metal.css"> <!-- Will be inlined with external providers, *IF* specified; otherwise ignored. -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/assets/jazz.css" media="print"> <!-- Will NOT be inlined; print style -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/ambient.css" data-roadie-ignore> <!-- Will NOT be inlined; ignored -->
<style></style> <!-- Will be inlined -->
<style data-roadie-ignore></style> <!-- Will NOT be inlined; ignored -->
</head>
Roadie will use the given asset providers to look for the actual CSS that is referenced. If you don't change the default, it will use the Roadie::FilesystemProvider which looks for stylesheets on the filesystem, relative to the current working directory.
Example:
# /home/user/foo/stylesheets/primary.css
body { color: green; }
# /home/user/foo/script.rb
html = <<-HTML
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/stylesheets/primary.css">
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
HTML
Dir.pwd # => "/home/user/foo"
document = Roadie::Document.new html
document.transform # =>
# <!DOCTYPE html>
# <html>
# <head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head>
# <body style="color:green;"></body>
# </html>
If a referenced stylesheet cannot be found, the #transform method will raise an Roadie::CssNotFound error. If you instead want to ignore missing stylesheets, you can use the NullProvider.
Configuring providers
You can write your own providers if you need very specific behavior for your app, or you can use the built-in providers. Providers come in two groups: normal and external. Normal providers handle paths without host information (/style/foo.css) while external providers handle URLs with host information (//example.com/foo.css, localhost:3001/bar.css, and so on).
The default configuration is to not have any external providers configured, which will cause those referenced stylesheets to be ignored. Adding one or more providers for external assets causes all of them to be searched and inlined, so if you only want this to happen to specific stylesheets you need to add ignore markers to every other styleshheet (see above).
Included providers:
FilesystemProvider– Looks for files on the filesystem, relative to the given directory unless otherwise specified.ProviderList– Wraps a list of other providers and searches them in order. Theasset_providerssetting is an instance of this. It behaves a lot like an array, so you can push, pop, shift and unshift to it.NullProvider– Does not actually provide anything, it always finds empty stylesheets. Use this in tests or if you want to ignore stylesheets that cannot be found by your other providers (or if you want to force the other providers to never run).NetHttpProvider– Downloads stylesheets usingNet::HTTP. Can be given a whitelist of hosts to download from.CachedProvider– Wraps another provider (orProviderList) and caches responses inside the provided cache store.PathRewriterProvider– Rewrites the passed path and then passes it on to another provider (orProviderList).
If you want to search several locations on the filesystem, you can declare that:
document.asset_providers = [
Roadie::FilesystemProvider.new(App.root.join("resources", "stylesheets")),
Roadie::FilesystemProvider.new(App.root.join("system", "uploads", "stylesheets")),
]
NullProvider
If you want to ignore stylesheets that cannot be found instead of crashing, push the NullProvider to the end:
# Don't crash on missing assets
document.asset_providers << Roadie::NullProvider.new
# Don't download assets in tests
document.external_asset_providers.unshift Roadie::NullProvider.new
Note: This will cause the referenced stylesheet to be removed from the source code, so email client will never see it either.
NetHttpProvider
The NetHttpProvider will download the URLs that is is given using Ruby's standard Net::HTTP library.
You can give it a whitelist of hosts that downloads are allowed from:
document.external_asset_providers << Roadie::NetHttpProvider.new(
whitelist: ["myapp.com", "assets.myapp.com", "cdn.cdnnetwork.co.jp"],
)
document.external_asset_providers << Roadie::NetHttpProvider.new # Allows every host
CachedProvider
You might want to cache providers from working several times. If you are sending several emails quickly from the same process, this might also save a lot of time on parsing the stylesheets if you use in-memory storage such as a hash.
You can wrap any other kind of providers with it, even a ProviderList:
document.external_asset_providers = Roadie::CachedProvider.new(document.external_asset_providers, my_cache)
If you don't pass a cache backend, it will use a normal Hash. The cache store must follow this protocol:
my_cache["key"] = some_stylesheet_instance # => #<Roadie::Stylesheet instance>
my_cache["key"] # => #<Roadie::Stylesheet instance>
my_cache["missing"] # => nil
Warning: The default Hash store will never be cleared, so make sure you don't allow the number of unique asset paths to grow too large in a single run. This is especially important if you run Roadie in a daemon that accepts arbritary documents, and/or if you use hash digests in your filenames. Making a new instance of CachedProvider will use a new Hash instance.
You can implement your own custom cache store by implementing the [] and []= methods.
class MyRoadieMemcacheStore
def initialize(memcache)
@memcache = memcache
end
def [](path)
css = memcache.read("assets/#{path}/css")
if css
name = memcache.read("assets/#{path}/name") || "cached #{path}"
Roadie::Stylesheet.new(name, css)
end
end
def []=(path, stylesheet)
memcache.write("assets/#{path}/css", stylesheet.to_s)
memcache.write("assets/#{path}/name", stylesheet.name)
stylesheet # You need to return the set Stylesheet
end
end
document.external_asset_providers = Roadie::CachedProvider.new(
document.external_asset_providers,
MyRoadieMemcacheStore.new(MemcacheClient.instance)
)
If you are using Rspec, you can test your implementation by using the shared examples for the "roadie cache store" role:
require "roadie/rspec"
describe MyRoadieMemcacheStore do
let(:memcache_client) { MemcacheClient.instance }
subject { MyRoadieMemcacheStore.new(memcache_client) }
it_behaves_like "roadie cache store" do
before { memcache_client.clear }
end
end
PathRewriterProvider
With this provider, you can rewrite the paths that are searched in order to more easily support another provider. Examples could include rewriting absolute URLs into something that can be found on the filesystem, or to access internal hosts instead of external ones.
filesystem = Roadie::FilesystemProvider.new("assets")
document.asset_providers << Roadie::PathRewriterProvider.new(filesystem) do |path|
path.sub('stylesheets', 'css').downcase
end
document.external_asset_providers = Roadie::PathRewriterProvider.new(filesystem) do |url|
if url =~ /myapp\.com/
URI.parse(url).path.sub(%r{^/assets}, '')
else
url
end
end
You can also wrap a list, for example to implement external_asset_providers by composing the normal asset_providers:
document.external_asset_providers =
Roadie::PathRewriterProvider.new(document.asset_providers) do |url|
URI.parse(url).path
end
Writing your own provider
Writing your own provider is also easy. You need to provide:
#find_stylesheet(name), returning either aRoadie::Stylesheetornil.#find_stylesheet!(name), returning either aRoadie::Stylesheetor raisingRoadie::CssNotFound.
class UserAssetsProvider
def initialize(user_collection)
@user_collection = user_collection
end
def find_stylesheet(name)
if name =~ %r{^/users/(\d+)\.css$}
user = @user_collection.find_user($1)
Roadie::Stylesheet.new("user #{user.id} stylesheet", user.stylesheet)
end
end
def find_stylesheet!(name)
find_stylesheet(name) or
raise Roadie::CssNotFound.new(
css_name: name, message: "does not match a user stylesheet", provider: self
)
end
# Instead of implementing #find_stylesheet!, you could also:
# include Roadie::AssetProvider
# That will give you a default implementation without any error message. If
# you have multiple error cases, it's recommended that you implement
# #find_stylesheet! without #find_stylesheet and raise with an explanatory
# error message.
end
# Try to look for a user stylesheet first, then fall back to normal filesystem lookup.
document.asset_providers = [
UserAssetsProvider.new(app),
Roadie::FilesystemProvider.new('./stylesheets'),
]
You can test for compliance by using the built-in RSpec examples:
require 'spec_helper'
require 'roadie/rspec'
describe MyOwnProvider do
# Will use the default `subject` (MyOwnProvider.new)
it_behaves_like "roadie asset provider", valid_name: "found.css", invalid_name: "does_not_exist.css"
# Extra setup just for these tests:
it_behaves_like "roadie asset provider", valid_name: "found.css", invalid_name: "does_not_exist.css" do
subject { MyOwnProvider.new(...) }
before { stub_dependencies }
end
end
Keeping CSS that is impossible to inline
Some CSS is impossible to inline properly. :hover and ::after comes to mind. Roadie tries its best to keep these around by injecting them inside a new <style> element in the <head> (or at the beginning of the partial if transforming a partial document).
The problem here is that Roadie cannot possible adjust the specificity for you, so they will not apply the same way as they did before the styles were inlined.
Another caveat is that a lot of email clients does not support this (which is the entire point of inlining in the first place), so don't put anything important in here. Always handle the case of these selectors not being part of the email.
Specificity problems
Inlined styles will have much higher specificity than styles in a <style>. Here's an example:
<style>p:hover { color: blue; }</style>
<p style="color: green;">Hello world</p>
When hovering over this <p>, the color will not change as the color: green rule takes precedence. You can get it to work by adding !important to the :hover rule.
It would be foolish to try to automatically inject !important on every rule automatically, so this is a manual process.
Turning it off
If you'd rather skip this and have the styles not possible to inline disappear, you can turn off this feature by setting the keep_uninlinable_css option to false.
document.keep_uninlinable_css = false
Callbacks
Callbacks allow you to do custom work on documents before they are transformed. The Nokogiri document tree is passed to the callable along with the Roadie::Document instance:
class TrackNewsletterLinks
def call(dom, document)
dom.css("a").each { |link| fix_link(link) }
end
def fix_link(link)
divider = (link['href'] =~ /?/ ? '&' : '?')
link['href'] = link['href'] + divider + 'source=newsletter'
end
end
document.before_transformation = ->(dom, document) {
logger.debug "Inlining document with title #{dom.at_css('head > title').try(:text)}"
}
document.after_transformation = TrackNewsletterLinks.new
XHTML vs HTML
You can configure the underlying HTML/XML engine to output XHTML or HTML (which is the default). One usecase for this is that { tokens usually gets escaped to {, which would be a problem if you then pass the resulting HTML on to some other templating engine that uses those tokens (like Handlebars or Mustache).
document.mode = :xhtml
This will also affect the emitted <!DOCTYPE> if transforming a full document. Partial documents does not have a <!DOCTYPE>.
Build Status
Tested with Github CI using:
- MRI 2.6
- MRI 2.7
- MRI 3.0
- MRI 3.1
Let me know if you want any other runtime supported officially.
Versioning
This project follows Semantic Versioning and has been since version 1.0.0.
FAQ
Why is my markup changed in subtle ways?
Roadie uses Nokogiri to parse and regenerate the HTML of your email, which means that some unintentional changes might show up.
One example would be that Nokogiri might remove your s in some cases.
Another example is Nokogiri's lack of HTML5 support, so certain new element might have spaces removed. I recommend you don't use HTML5 in emails anyway because of bad email client support (that includes web mail!).
I'm getting segmentation faults (or other C-like problems)! What should I do?
Roadie uses Nokogiri to parse the HTML of your email, so any C-like problems like segfaults are likely in that end. The best way to fix this is to first upgrade libxml2 on your system and then reinstall Nokogiri. Instructions on how to do this on most platforms, see Nokogiri's official install guide.
What happened to my @keyframes?
The CSS Parser used in Roadie does not handle keyframes. I don't think any email clients do either, but if you want to keep on trying you can add them manually to a <style> element (or a separate referenced stylesheet) and tell Roadie not to touch them.
My @media queries are reordered, how can I fix this?
Different @media query blocks with the same conditions are merged by default, which will change the order in some cases. You can disable this by setting merge_media_queries to false. (See Install & Usage section above).
How do I get rid of the <body> elements that are added?
It sounds like you want to transform a partial document. Maybe you are building partials or template fragments to later place in other documents. Use Document#transform_partial instead of Document#transform in order to treat the HTML as a partial document.
Can I skip URL rewriting on a specific element?
If you add the data-roadie-ignore attribute on an element, URL rewriting will not be performed on that element. This could be really useful for you if you intend to send the email through some other rendering pipeline that replaces some placeholders/variables.
<a href="/about-us">About us</a>
<a href="|UNSUBSCRIBE_URL|" data-roadie-ignore>Unsubscribe</a>
Note that this will not skip CSS inlining on the element; it will still get the correct styles applied.
What should I do about "Invalid URL" errors?
If the URL is invalid on purpose, see Can I skip URL rewriting on a specific element? above. Otherwise, you can try to parse it yourself using Ruby's URI class and see if you can figure it out.
require "uri"
URI.parse("https://example.com/best image.jpg") # raises
URI.parse("https://example.com/best%20image.jpg") # Works!
Documentation
Running specs
bundle install
rake
Security
Roadie is set up with the assumption that all CSS and HTML passing through it is under your control. It is not recommended to run arbritary HTML with the default settings.
Care has been given to try to secure all file system accesses, but it is never guaranteed that someone cannot access something they should not be able to access.
In order to secure Roadie against file system access, only use your own asset providers that you yourself can secure against your particular environment.
If you have found any security vulnerability, please email me at magnus.bergmark+security@gmail.com to disclose it. For very sensitive issues, please use my public GPG key. You can also encrypt your message with my public key and open an issue if you do not want to email me directly. Thank you.
History and contributors
This gem was previously tied to Rails. It is now framework-agnostic and supports any type of HTML documents. If you want to use it with Rails, check out roadie-rails.
Major contributors to Roadie:
- Arttu Tervo (arttu) - Original Asset pipeline support
- Ryunosuke SATO (tricknotes) - Initial Rails 4 support
- Leung Ho Kuen (PikachuEXE) - A lot of bug reporting and triaging.
You can see all contributors on GitHub.
License
(The MIT License)
Copyright (c) 2009-2022 Magnus Bergmark, Jim Neath / Purify, and contributors.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the ‘Software’), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Author: Mange
Source code: https://github.com/Mange/roadie
License: MIT license
1620729846
Why Use WordPress? What Can You Do With WordPress?
Can you use WordPress for anything other than blogging? To your surprise, yes. WordPress is more than just a blogging tool, and it has helped thousands of websites and web applications to thrive. The use of WordPress powers around 40% of online projects, and today in our blog, we would visit some amazing uses of WordPress other than blogging.
What Is The Use Of WordPress?
WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world. It is the first choice of businesses that want to set a feature-rich and dynamic Content Management System. So, if you ask what WordPress is used for, the answer is – everything. It is a super-flexible, feature-rich and secure platform that offers everything to build unique websites and applications. Let’s start knowing them:
1. Multiple Websites Under A Single Installation
WordPress Multisite allows you to develop multiple sites from a single WordPress installation. You can download WordPress and start building websites you want to launch under a single server. Literally speaking, you can handle hundreds of sites from one single dashboard, which now needs applause.
It is a highly efficient platform that allows you to easily run several websites under the same login credentials. One of the best things about WordPress is the themes it has to offer. You can simply download them and plugin for various sites and save space on sites without losing their speed.
2. WordPress Social Network
WordPress can be used for high-end projects such as Social Media Network. If you don’t have the money and patience to hire a coder and invest months in building a feature-rich social media site, go for WordPress. It is one of the most amazing uses of WordPress. Its stunning CMS is unbeatable. And you can build sites as good as Facebook or Reddit etc. It can just make the process a lot easier.
To set up a social media network, you would have to download a WordPress Plugin called BuddyPress. It would allow you to connect a community page with ease and would provide all the necessary features of a community or social media. It has direct messaging, activity stream, user groups, extended profiles, and so much more. You just have to download and configure it.
If BuddyPress doesn’t meet all your needs, don’t give up on your dreams. You can try out WP Symposium or PeepSo. There are also several themes you can use to build a social network.
3. Create A Forum For Your Brand’s Community
Communities are very important for your business. They help you stay in constant connection with your users and consumers. And allow you to turn them into a loyal customer base. Meanwhile, there are many good technologies that can be used for building a community page – the good old WordPress is still the best.
It is the best community development technology. If you want to build your online community, you need to consider all the amazing features you get with WordPress. Plugins such as BB Press is an open-source, template-driven PHP/ MySQL forum software. It is very simple and doesn’t hamper the experience of the website.
Other tools such as wpFoRo and Asgaros Forum are equally good for creating a community blog. They are lightweight tools that are easy to manage and integrate with your WordPress site easily. However, there is only one tiny problem; you need to have some technical knowledge to build a WordPress Community blog page.
4. Shortcodes
Since we gave you a problem in the previous section, we would also give you a perfect solution for it. You might not know to code, but you have shortcodes. Shortcodes help you execute functions without having to code. It is an easy way to build an amazing website, add new features, customize plugins easily. They are short lines of code, and rather than memorizing multiple lines; you can have zero technical knowledge and start building a feature-rich website or application.
There are also plugins like Shortcoder, Shortcodes Ultimate, and the Basics available on WordPress that can be used, and you would not even have to remember the shortcodes.
5. Build Online Stores
If you still think about why to use WordPress, use it to build an online store. You can start selling your goods online and start selling. It is an affordable technology that helps you build a feature-rich eCommerce store with WordPress.
WooCommerce is an extension of WordPress and is one of the most used eCommerce solutions. WooCommerce holds a 28% share of the global market and is one of the best ways to set up an online store. It allows you to build user-friendly and professional online stores and has thousands of free and paid extensions. Moreover as an open-source platform, and you don’t have to pay for the license.
Apart from WooCommerce, there are Easy Digital Downloads, iThemes Exchange, Shopify eCommerce plugin, and so much more available.
6. Security Features
WordPress takes security very seriously. It offers tons of external solutions that help you in safeguarding your WordPress site. While there is no way to ensure 100% security, it provides regular updates with security patches and provides several plugins to help with backups, two-factor authorization, and more.
By choosing hosting providers like WP Engine, you can improve the security of the website. It helps in threat detection, manage patching and updates, and internal security audits for the customers, and so much more.
#use of wordpress #use wordpress for business website #use wordpress for website #what is use of wordpress #why use wordpress #why use wordpress to build a website