Duration.new recieves a string describing a duration of time, and converts it into: seconds, and a standard readable format.
Or, you can pass Duration.new an integer representing seconds, and receive the same standard readable format.

Usage:

Passing a String

duration = Duration.new("2weeks 8 hr 30m")
duration.seconds  # => 1240200
duration.readable  # => "2 weeks, 8 hours and 30 mins"

Passing an Fixnum (of seconds)

duration = Duration.new(1240200)
duration.readable  # => "2 weeks, 8 hours and 30 mins"

Example valid input strings
“2 weeks”, “2wks”, “2w”,
“8h”, “8 hrs”,”8 hours”,
“30m”, “0:30″, “30 minutes”, “30min”,
“2 weeks, 8 hours and 30 minutes”, “2w 8h 30m”, “2w 8:30″,
“4 hours 30 minutes”, “4 hours and 30m”, “4h 30min”, “4:30″, “4.5″, “4.50″, “4h, 30 min”, “4.5 hours”, “4.50h”

http://ahabman.com added functionallity, extended and mashed-up http://stackoverflow.com/questions/657309/how-to-parse-days-hours-minutes-seconds-in-ruby and http://www.postal-code.com/binarycode/2007/04/04/english-friendly-timespan/

run "rm README"
run "rm public/index.html"
run "rm public/favicon.ico"
run "rm public/robots.txt"
run "rm -f public/javascripts/*"

gem 'ruby-openid', :lib => 'openid'
rake("gems:install", :sudo => true)

plugin "kamui_restful_authentication", :git => 'git://github.com/kamui/restful-authentication.git'
plugin 'exception_notifier', :git => 'git://github.com/rails/exception_notification.git'
plugin 'open_id_authentication', :git => 'git://github.com/rails/open_id_authentication.git'
#plugin 'asset_packager', :git => 'http://synthesis.sbecker.net/pages/asset_packager'
plugin 'role_requirement', :git => 'git://github.com/timcharper/role_requirement.git'
#plugin 'acts_as_taggable_redux', :git => 'http://github.com/geemus/acts_as_taggable_redux/tree/master'
#plugin 'restful-authentication', :git => 'git://github.com/technoweenie/restful-authentication.git'

generate("authenticated user sessions --include-activation --include-forgot-password --email-as-login")
generate("roles", "Role User")

#rake('acts_as_taggable:db:create')
rake("open_id_authentication:db:create")
rake('db:migrate')

route "map.root :controller => 'sessions', :action => 'signup' "

run "echo generated from ahabman_template > README"
run "cp config/database.yml config/example_database.yml"

#if yes?("Do you want this thing?")
# ...
#end

#my_var = ask("was up")
#generate :something, my_var

puts "SUCCESS!"

http://svn.ahabman.com/public/many_to_many_view/

From the readme:

Assumming you have an @project var and you want to associate people with it.

<div id="m2m_container">

<%= render :partial => "shared/m2m", :locals => {

:thing => @project,

:association => 'people',

:association_attr => 'first_name' }   %>

</div>

:thing take the current object
:association takes the pluralized association, a string.
:association_attr takes the attribute of the associated object that will be displayed.

I had the perfect place to use them - while running a mass synchronization, and needing to store the timestamp (I couldn’t use the latest last_updated from each record).  It worked perfect in ./script/console but failed entirely through the browser.

and I wanted a ruby hash structured like this:

{
'apple'=> { 'color'=>'red',  'flavor'=>'sweet', 'shape'=>'round'},
'banana'=> {  'color'=>'yellow',  'flavor'=>'sweet', 'shape'=>'long'},
'lemon'=> {   'color'=>'yellow',  'flavor'=>'sour', 'shape'=>'round'}
}

So I wrote this, which does the job:

require "faster_csv"

def csv_to_structured_hash
	arr_of_arrs = FasterCSV.read( 'your.csv' )
	stuff = {}
	header = arr_of_arrs.shift
		arr_of_arrs.each_with_index do |row, i|
		thing = { row[0] => {} }
			header.each_with_index do |col, header_index|
			thing[ row[0] ][ header[header_index] ] = row[ header_index]
			end
		stuff.update( thing )
		end
	return stuff
end

multitrack mandolins, nylon guitars,  and percusion.

module Convert

  def Convert.number_with_precision(number, precision=2)

    "%01.#{precision}f" % number

  rescue

    number

  end

  def Convert.mm_to_in(mm, precision=2)

    number_with_precision(mm * 0.03937, precision)

  end

  def Convert.in_to_mm(inches, precision=2)

    number_with_precision(inches / 0.03937 , precision)

  end

  def Convert.feet_to_meters(f, precision=2)

    number_with_precision( f * 0.3048, precision)

  end

  def Convert.meters_to_inches(m, precision=2)

    number_with_precision( m * 39.37, precision)

  end

  def Convert.meters_to_feet(m, precision=2)

    number_with_precision( m * 3.281, precision)

  end

  def Convert.kg_to_lbs(kg, precision=2)

    number_with_precision( kg * 2.2   , precision)

  end

  def Convert.lbs_to_kg(lbs, precision=2)

    number_with_precision( lbs / 2.2   , precision)

  end

  def Convert.nm_to_inch_pounds(nm, precision=1)

    number_with_precision( nm * 8.850   , precision)

  end

  def Convert.inch_pounds_to_nm(inlb, precision=1)

    number_with_precision( inlb / 8.850   , precision)

  end

end

In the view:

<script>
    $jQuery('#myLink').click(function(){
        window.location.href = 'theDestinationPage/?current_url=' + document.location ;
    })
</script>

In the controller:

def myAction
    .....
    redirect_to params[:current_url]
end

• Rails 2.0 app running on slicehost (ubuntu 8.04) in passenger mod_rails
• The goal was Dynamic PDF generation for a product catalog ( > 100 pages)
• This event had to be triggered from within the rails request / response cycle, but run outside of it
• I needed the simplest, fastest, more reliable way for this to happen

I looked at BackgroundRB, it is the most robust, well documented solution available.  But it was overkill since I didn’t need status feedback and my time was very limited (backgroundRB setup seems somewhat involved).  And, I wasn’t sure how it would interact with Passenger mod_rails - although FooBarWidget mentioned on IRC that it should work as expected.

I looked at Spawn plugin which supports threading and forking ruby processes.   No luck - setting it one way never ran inside mod_rails and setting it the other way tied up the request response cycle.

All the ruby code was in place, except for how to detach this process from the request/response cycle, when severnspoon provided this
Simple, Easy, One-Line Solution:

My_Controller

  def generate_pdf_in_background

    system " RAILS_ENV=#{RAILS_ENV}   ruby  #{RAILS_ROOT}/script/runner   'MyModel.create_pdf_in_background'  & "

  end

end

That ampersand was all I needed.  It runs the command as a background process.  A new ruby process is kicked off, and the 10 minute task runs perfectly.  Something makes the browser hang and wait for a response, but we confirmed that other requests can happen along side this.