Adding a Custom Search API in spree commerce application - ruby-on-rails

Please pardon if the question is a bit too lame, I have no experience with either Ruby or Rails.
I have an existing Spree Commerce application and I am implementing an integration with a third party to provide search result.
The Third party has given us API's and my job is to modify the existing install of spree and use the API to display result.
Please suggest the best way to proceed with this. I am actually unsure where to start.
The possible way which I see is to build a Spree Extension, but I am unsure as to how am I supposed to override the existing search implementation in this extension. I have read about Deface but that doesn't exactly solve my problem.
This extension shouldn't modify the existing UI.
Any kind of help/links pointing to the right direction would be helpful.

Spree was written in a way to make it easy to replace the default search. There are a couple of examples of how to do it already written:
https://github.com/romul/spree-solr-search
https://github.com/jbrien/spree_sunspot_search
We've also got a commercial product (http://spreecommerce.com/hub) that would make the data sync side of the integration easy, triggering updates in the system any time the data you're searching is updated.

Related

AI chatbot with Ruby on Rails

I would like to develop a chatbot directly inside my Rails app (maybe whatsapp/messenger in the future, but let's begin within my app first).
I've checked online but I find a lot of different ressources and I am not sure which tools I should use.
The chatbot is not for marketing purposes only, it should be able to interact with my controllers and give back some content to the user.
For exemple, I want the user to be able to ask "what is my balance?" or "show me my last transaction" or "how many bills do I have to pay this month?"
In the future I would like to use ML to make the bot "smarter" and make suggestions to the user, but that's not a priority.
What tools and what steps would you recommend to follow in order to achieve this?
Any gems you recommend? Any tutorial that could help?
Is it possible to do this inside my rails app and using Ruby?
I am ready to try by myself but the content I find on Google is messy and I want to know the best way to do this so I don't lose hours with software that are not really good..
Thanks for your help
You cannot configure bot inside your rails app but you can create separate rack for creating bot. stealth is good one.
Read doc for configuring it with rails.

A pre-built extendable web application for Rails?

I am wondering if there is a standard pre-built web application for Rails which has all the basic functionalities like user login, user profiles, profile image uploader, comments, search, maybe payments and a set of other usual web application features all bundled and ready to use and extend.
I like how Twitter bootstrap comes with a set of pre-built interface functionalities and styles, which you can start using and modify later. I am looking for something similar that can allow me to quickly set up a working application and go from there.
Does such a framework exist?
There are numerous examples out there.
However, there are two things you should really do:
Read the license to make sure you can use it they way you are thinking of using it.
Ensure you understand the design decisions and choices the original authors made. You will end up in a world of maintenance pain if you just copy cargo-cult style without understanding the tradeoffs others have made with their design decisions.
Any one of the links listed has enough to get you started. They may not have all of the features you listed but together they probably have all of your bases covered. You will have to put in some effort to get all those features working together though.
The RailsApps project is great because they all have tutorials that walk through the basic setup. They are also all built using the Rails Composer tool, which lets you pick and choose certain options for your app.

Using Photobucket api with Ruby on Rails

I am trying to use Photobucket(API) as a image uploading option in my website.
Is there any available gem to do this? or should i use things like REST to achieve this?
Please suggest.
Thanks,
Balan
The only thing I really found was this https://bitbucket.org/photobucket/api-ruby/src/7b69e473fb9fd5b4d37e2ad7f266500e45ef524b/example.rb?at=default. They are using the oauth rubygem to talk to photobucket, still a lot of manual process involved. It is also still using REST.
I would say the easiest way it going ahead and using REST following http://pic.photobucket.com/dev_help/WebHelpPublic/PhotobucketPublicHelp.htm and http://pic.photobucket.com/dev_help/WebHelpPublic/Content/FAQ/FAQOverview.htm to get you started.
I haven't done a REST client in ruby but this gem looks pretty good https://github.com/rest-client/rest-client.
I would recommend, assuming you have the time, making a photobucket ruby gem and wrapping the REST calls in useful class abstractions. It is great for the community, forces you to follow good practices(to a certain extent) and will provide great experience to put on a resume/talk about in an interview.

Adding Spree to an Existing Rails App

I have a rails app that I've built that I would like to add an estore too. My plan was to do it using spree. A few considerations:
I already have a user model, and am using devise for authentication
I want to be able to include related products on various point of the
site (for example, if the user is in the 'cooking' section of the
site, show 'cooking' related products.
I am hosting it on heroku, and I'd like for the store to be at:
http://store.myurl.com
Does anyone have a good jumping off point? I've never worked with spree before, and it seems that most of the documentation is oriented towards people starting an app from scratch with spree. My google searching hasn't yielded too much that is useful.
Can anyone give me tips or point me in the right direction?
Thanks,
I think you may get stuck trying to stick two apps together, particularly if you have two authentication systems running.
I might consider getting Spree up and running first then adding the functionality from your existing app in bit by bit ensuring you 'extend' Spree so upgrades don't break your customisations.
And if you think your custom code may be useful to others you could make it into a Spree plugin.

Rails support gem/engine

I need to add a customer support function to an existing Rails 3 app. I want to enable the users to submit a support ticket and answer back and fourth until the issue is resolved. I am currently using Zendesk.
Does anyone have any knowledge of something I can use? Or should I just develop it myself?
Regards,
Jacob
So you essentially want to be able to create a system to manage issues? Checkout Redmine. It has the ability to manage issues. However, I'm pretty sure that the way it looks isn't the way you want yours to look.
You can lift the generic code from Redmine and apply it to your app. I doubt you'll find a gem that does all the magic for you the way you want it to look and act, so you'll need to do programming.
I haven't tried this. I saw it listed on Open Source Help Desk List where both Redmine and Big Help are mentioned. I am also looking for a help desk gem and stumbled upon your question here.
Big Help: A help desk portal built with Ruby on Rails

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