In exchange, I will present the issue I had with the timezone for Dubai and the workaround…

For some reason, the default Plone installation doesn’t pick the right time for Asia/Dubai.

So I googled back and forward but couldn’t find the correct answer.

In fact, those tips will work for something like Europe/Berlin (eg setting up TZ variable to Europe/Berlin), but setting up TZ environment variable to Asia/Dubai will give me something like GMT+10? Obviously wrong.

So, the workaround is to set up the TZ environment variable to something more general, like Etc/GMT+4. We don’t care about daylight saving issues, so it should work all year round.

Enough words, let me know show you some code. Let’s suppose that you downloaded version 3.2.2 from http://plone.org/products/plone for Mac OS X and used the Stand Alone installation, then, edit /Applications/Plone/zinstance/buildout.cfg file and locate the following lines under [instance] section:

# You may also control the environment variables for the instance.
environment-vars =
    PYTHON_EGG_CACHE ${buildout:directory}/var/.python-eggs

Now add the TZ environment variable to point to Etc/GMT+4:

# You may also control the environment variables for the instance.
environment-vars =
    PYTHON_EGG_CACHE ${buildout:directory}/var/.python-eggs
    TZ Etc/GMT+4

Save the file, then run from your Terminal:

cd /Applications/Plone/zinstance/
./bin/plonectl stop
./bin/buildout
./bin/plonectl start

Now, back in your favourite browser and launch http://localhost:8080/Plone.

You would see now, that Plone will report the correct time.

Bellow, let me show you a snapshot of the same blog post, edited in Plone:

The fix is simple.

Prior to version 2.3.2, I have had something like this in environments/development.rb file:

ActionController::Base.session_options[:session_domain] = '.w2task.local'

In Rails 2.3.2, I had to change this line into:

config.action_controller.session = {
  :domain => ".w2task.local"
}

Of course, same principle applies to development.rb, where:

config.action_controller.session = {
  :domain => ".w2task.com"
}

I’ve lost some hours in researching this solution, so I hope this will help others in need. too. As usual, I will be more than happy to hear comments from you.

Happy coding!

For a higher resolution version, please check W2task screencast on screencast.com.

Update. I have posted a flash version, too. Enjoy.

If in English, selling peanuts has a meaning of selling worthless things, in Romanian, selling donuts means selling overpriced things or worse – selling lies – oops.

Knowing this, let’s see the ad, in pictures …

Other banks offering you this?

Other banks offering you this?

The sweetest thing. No problem, we’re offering … donuts (ooopss) … 

The sweetest thing

Nice, isn’t it? We are leaving into a cosmopolitan country and we need to take care of the way others are seeing us. One size doesn’t fit all. Be aware marketers!

[RO] Bănci, alune și gogoși – în opinia mea nu fac întotdeauna echipă bună. în Sharjah, Emiratele Arabe Unite, am văzut de curând un astfel de panou publicitar stradal al unei cunoscute bănci locale.

Dacă în engleză, expresia a vinde alune e folosită cu înțelesul de a vinde mărunțișuri, în română, a vinde gogoși echivalează cu a vinde … hai să fim direcți – a vinde minciuni - ups.

Având în minte acestea, să vedem reclama, în imagini…

Alte bănci vă oferă asta? (alune – a se citi mărunțișuri)

Other banks offering you this?

Nici o problemă, noi vă vindem … gogoși (ups) … 

The sweetest thing

Frumos, nu-i așa? Locuiesc într-o țară cosmopolită și tocmai din acest motiv trebuie să avem grijă la aparențe. O mărime nu se potrivește tuturor. Celor din lumea marketing-ului, aveți grijă!

But, after filling in all required info, the new user is thrown up into a screen like this:

I know, it is not friendly at all, that’s why I am waiting for some suggestions. Basically I am thinking to replace this screen with a message to explain that the user should create a business or to collect its id number and give it to a business administrator to be added to an existing business?

What to you think?

Original topic started on support section of w2task.com - http://is.gd/irUs

The event itself had part of great media coverage, and here I’ll have to mention Shuttlegazine, The National, Startup Arabia, Tech-wd.com.

Demos, as usual there were four:

1. restate.ae – an iPhone application used to complement and give mobile access to a well known real estate portal which covers Dubai properties. It has been created by the guys behind SpinBits.
2. StartUpArabia Database – a moderated wiki like database dedicated to Arab technology startups, entrepreneurs and financial organizations that anyone can edit and enrich. Most of all, Moh’d Marwan Meddah put his soul in creating StartUpArabia.com, proving that in a selfish world, it is not necessary to be selfish yourself to win.
3. eMapia – eBay and Google Maps combined, a niche web application providing a way to getting in direct contact the buyer and the seller.
4. w2task – a web based task and time management system. This has been presented by myself – a truly amazing experience. Not everything worked according to the plan. It took me a while to synchronize the pitch of my voice with the levels of the sound system, often sounding either too loud or too low. This, of course, had a domino effect in my presentation spirit, making me quite tensed.

However, although I am taking note of the above imperfections, I would mark the above event as an achievement, especially because of the great feedback which demonstrated that such type of applications can have a great future. As I’ve seen in the National due to recession, when big companies are cutting down on budgets and on projects, it can be a lifetime opportunity for startups to play from the same level with the well established companies.

In development terms, that means I would stabilize the base code of w2task, improve the workflow and make it more appealing for the first time user, when no data is present.

Let me conclude with the greeting posted on Twitter:

Good morning! It is time to start in force a great new week!

What I want to show is that in particular instances we may not like that one user can access and modify other user’s profile. For example if I try to edit my profile, the URL will end in something like users/2/edit and if I would change it to users/1/edit then I am able to modify this user – most often an undesirable fact.

Here is my workaround:

app/controllers/users_controller.rb

  # ...
  def edit
    if params[:id].to_i == self.current_user.id
      @user = User.find(params[:id])
    else
      flash[:error] = "Not allowed!"
      redirect_back_or_default('/')
    end
  end
  # ...

That’s pretty much everything I need to change.

What is your preferred solution? Are you doing these tests into a – perhaps – before_filter?

Wow, getting long with this post. However, for the future, I have a lot to say and I hope it will be of interest for my blog readers, as I will fly along the Rails.

1. Jawaker - online card games
2. Twffaha - women recruitment portal
3. Untiny - expand tiny urls
4. industrials Directory - self explanatory title