Practical Ruby Gems Write better applications faster by taking advantage of open source Ruby programs and libraries

Practical Ruby Gems is a comprehensive guide to utilizing and creating Ruby Gems—ready-made Ruby code modules that can be easily added to Ruby and Rails projects. This book is ideal for Ruby programmers as well as web developers who use Rails and wish to extend the functionality of their projects.

You'll get a prime selection of 34 of the best and most useful Gems, which makes up the core of this book. Each of these also comes complete with actual use cases and code examples that you can use immediately in your own projects.

Using RubyGems.- What Is RubyGems?.- Installing RubyGems.- Using RubyGems in Your Code.- Managing Installed Gem Versions.- Using Particular Gems.- Data Access with the ActiveRecord Gem.- Easy Text Markup with the BlueCloth Gem.- Creating Web Applications with Camping.- Creating Command-Line Utilities with cmdparse.- HTML Templating with erubis.- Parsing Feeds with feedtools.- Creating Graphical User Interfaces with fxruby.- Retrieving Stock Quotes with YahooFinance.- Parsing HTML with hpricot.- Writing HTML as Ruby with Markaby.- Parsing CSV with fastercsv.- Multiple Dispatch with multi.- Serving Web Applications with mongrel.- Transferring Files Securely with net-sftp.- Executing Commands on Remote Servers with net-ssh.- Validating Credit Cards with creditcard.- Writing PDFs with pdf-writer.- Handling Recurring Events with runt.- Building Websites with Rails.- Automating Development Tasks with rake.- Manipulating Images with RMagick.- Speeding Up Web Applications with memcache-client.- Managing Zip Archives with rubyzip.- Speeding Up Function Calls with memoize.- Tagging MP3 Files with id3lib-ruby.- Shortening URLs with shorturl.- Creating Standalone Ruby Applications with rubyscript2exe.- Cleaning Dirty HTML with tidy.- Parsing XML with xml-simple.- Creating Gems.- Creating Our Own Gems.- Distributing Gems.

David Berube is a Ruby developer, trainer, author, and speaker. He's used both Ruby and Ruby on Rails for several years, starting in 2003 when he became a Ruby advocate after he wrote about the language for Dr Dobb's Journal. Prior to this, he worked professionally with PHP, Perl, C++, and Visual Basic. His professional accomplishments include creating the Ruby on Rails engine for CoolRuby.com, a site that tracks the latest Ruby developments, and working with ThoughtBot.com on the Rails engine that powers Sermo America's Top Doctor contest. Additionally, he has worked on several other Ruby projects, including the engine powering CyberKnowHow's BirdFluBreakingNews search engine, and he also created the Slueshi text adventure game system, a multiplayer text game engine written in Ruby. David's journalism has been in print in over 65 countries, in magazines such as Linux Magazine, Dr Dobb's Journal, and PHP International Magazine. He's also taught college courses and spoken publicly on topics such as "MySQL and You" and "Making Money with Open Source Software." He lives in New Hampshire and his hobbies include basketball, yo-yos, and sleep.