Test Driven Ajax (on Rails)

YAML !omap

Why did we use an !omap in the source YAML? This Wiki will eventually support any kind of YAML. Short-term, we only need pages that present lists of test cases, and !omaps are the only ordered maps in YAML. So, short-term, this project will only use !omap nodes containing !omap and !str nodes. Future iterations can easily add other types. This Short Cut focuses on Ajax, not elaborate HTML, and if we can convert two YAML types then the rest will be easy.

This new code passes those tests:

class YarWiki
  def initialize(page_name = 'FrontPage')
    @page_name = page_name.to_s
  end

  attr_reader :page_name

  def wiki_path
    wp = File.expand_path(File.join(RAILS_ROOT, 'wiki'))
    Dir.mkdir(wp) rescue nil
    return wp
  end

  def yaml_path
    File.join(wiki_path, page_name + '.yaml')
  end

  def save_page(contents)
    File.open(yaml_path, 'w'){|f|  f.write(contents)  }
  end

  def format_yaml(x)
    return unless File.exist?(yaml_path)
    seq = YAML::parse_file(yaml_path)

    x.ul do
      seq.children.each do |kid|
        x.li do
          hash = kid.value
          x.strong( hash.keys.first.value )
          x.text! ': ' + hash.values.first.value
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

YAML::Syck expresses an !omap as a Seq object containing a list of Map objects, so the method format_yaml works in two phases. We grab the Seq and iterate through its children; each one is a Map with only one key and one value. We print the key in strong markup, and we print the value after a colon.

Both the key and the value are Scalar objects, and we get their raw data from their .value members. Our preliminary ...