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Since Rails 3 was released, developers have been writing Rails engines in a new clean style that can be packaged as RubyGems. A Rails engine is a prepackaged application that is able to be run or mounted within another Rails application. An engine can have its own models, views, controllers, generators and publicly served static files.

(Image: maicos)

Now, unless you like writing a lot of code, this is great news, because it means you can write an engine once and use it over and over again. Let’s say you build a lot of websites for small businesses. A common requirement for such websites is a page listing all of the employees at a company and some basic information about them. This is a great candidate for a Rails engine gem because the functionality will change very little and can be abstracted to a common set of requirements.

In this post, we’ll walk through the process of creating an engine gem that you would use to create a database-backed team page displaying a list of employees.

Enginex

Jose Valim, a core Rails contributor, has created a tool named Enginex, which scaffolds Rails 3-compatible engine gems. This tool protects you from many of the gotchas that engine gem developers face. It provides basic set-up, including a test Rails application, which you’ll need to get started.

To begin, run the following from the command line in your standard projects directory:

gem install enginex
enginex team_page

With this, you will end up with a project in the team_page directory containing the standard Enginex scaffolding.

Set-Up

To set up our gem, we’ll modify a few files. First, our team_page.gemspec and our Gemfile need a little love.

# CURRENT FILE :: team_page.gemspec
require File.expand_path("../lib/team_page/version", __FILE__)

# Provide a simple gemspec so that you can easily use your
# Enginex project in your Rails apps through Git.
Gem::Specification.new do |s|F
  s.name                      = "team_page"
  s.version                   = TeamPage::VERSION
  s.platform                  = Gem::Platform::RUBY
  s.authors                   = [ "Your Name" ]
  s.email                     = [ "your@email.com" ]
  s.homepage                  = "http://yourwebsite.com"
  s.description               = "A simple Rails 3 engine gem that adds a team page to any Rails 3 application."
  s.summary                   = "team_page-#{s.version}"

  s.rubyforge_project         = "team_page"
  s.required_rubygems_version = "> 1.3.6"

  s.add_dependency "activesupport" , "~> 3.0.7"
  s.add_dependency "rails"         , "~> 3.0.7"

  s.files = `git ls-files`.split("\n")
  s.executables = `git ls-files`.split("\n").map{|f| f =~ /^bin\/(.*)/ ? $1 : nil}.compact
  s.require_path = 'lib'
end

# CURRENT FILE :: Gemfile
source "http://rubygems.org"
# Specify any dependencies in the gemspec
gemspec

This sets up our gemspec to automatically use files we have committed with Git, and any executables we may add in the future, and to use the VERSION constant that we’ll specify in our gem.

Also, by calling gemspec in our Gemfile, running bundle install will load dependencies from our team_page.gemspec, which is the convention.

Next, to turn our gem into a Rails engine, let’s add or modify three files. First, our top-level team page file:

# CURRENT FILE :: lib/team_page.rb
# Requires
require "active_support/dependencies"

module TeamPage

  # Our host application root path
  # We set this when the engine is initialized
  mattr_accessor :app_root

  # Yield self on setup for nice config blocks
  def self.setup
    yield self
  end

end

# Require our engine
require "team_page/engine"

To use the mattr functions, our ActiveSupport dependencies are required. We also set up a nice way to configure our gem with the self.setup method. The engine is required at the end of our file so that we can be sure that any dependencies are specified first.

Secondly, our version file:

# CURRENT FILE :: lib/team_page/version.rb
module TeamPage
  VERSION = "0.0.1"
end

Lastly, our engine file:

# CURRENT FILE :: lib/team_page/engine.rb
module TeamPage

  class Engine < Rails::Engine

    initialize "team_page.load_app_instance_data" do |app|
      TeamPage.setup do |config|
        config.app_root = app.root
      end
    end

    initialize "team_page.load_static_assets" do |app|
      app.middleware.use ::ActionDispatch::Static, "#{root}/public"
    end

  end

end

This defines two Rails initialize blocks that clue us into the root directory of our host Rails application, as well as serve up any files in the root public directory of our gem.

Data Model

To add a model in our gem, we first need to specify a migration and a generator class to copy it over to the host Rails application. Although this process will become much more transparent in Rails 3.1, we now need to build some generator classes. A great resource for this can be found over at Nepal on Rails.

First, let’s add our generators class:

# CURRENT FILE :: lib/generators/team_page/team_page_generator.rb
# Requires
require 'rails/generators'
require 'rails/generators/migration'

class TeamPageGenerator < Rails::Generators::Base
  include Rails::Generators::Migration
  def self.source_root
    @source_root ||= File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'templates')
  end

  def self.next_migration_number(dirname)
    if ActiveRecord::Base.timestamped_migrations
      Time.new.utc.strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")
    else
      "%.3d" % (current_migration_number(dirname) + 1)
    end
  end

  def create_migration_file
    migration_template 'migration.rb', 'db/migrate/create_team_members_table.rb'
  end
end

Adding this will allow developers to run rails g team_page from within their Rails application and to create the necessary migration file to power our team page.

Next, we’ll put together a sample migration:

# CURRENT FILE :: lib/generators/team_page/templates/migration.rb
class CreateTeamMembers < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :team_members do |t|
      t.string :name
      t.string :twitter_url
      t.string :bio
      t.string :image_url
      t.timestamps
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :team_members
  end
end

Finally, we can create a sample model namespaced to our gem.

# CURRENT FILE :: app/models/team_page/team_member.rb
module TeamPage
  class TeamMember < ActiveRecord::Base
    attr_accessible :name , :twitter_url , :bio , :image_url
  end
end

What we’ve done so far is walked through the steps for bootstrapping a Rails 3 engine gem. It has been configured as an engine, given its own migration generator, and supplied with an ActiveRecord model.

Now, let’s set up our gem with a route, controller and view that any host Rails application can use.

The Route

Rails engines gems, when set up properly, automatically load the config and app directories of our project. This is handy because it enables us to set up our code with exactly the same structure as a full Rails application.

So, to set up our route, create a routes.rb file in the config directory of our project. To have it match on the team route, let’s do the following:

# CURRENT FILE :: config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  get "team" => "team_page/team#index" , :as => :team_page
end

A bit of pain can be avoided by examining what we’ve done here. First, we’re going to match the /team route from any requests to our host Rails app.

Secondly, we’ve told Rails to send requests to the index route of the namespaced controller that we’re going to create in our engine. Namespacing our controller is best practice because it isolates our engine code from any application that it’s included in.

Lastly, our route is named so that we can use link helpers elsewhere in our application.

The Controller

Our controllers will live in the app directory, just as we’re used to. One caveat is that we’ll want to place them in a team_page directory, just as we did with our model. It simply needs to load all of our team members to be displayed on the page.

# CURRENT FILE :: app/controllers/team_page/team_controller.rb
module TeamPage
  class TeamController < ::ApplicationController
    def index
      @team_members = TeamMember.all
    end
  end
end

As you can see, we’ve subclassed our top-level ::ApplicationController, which lives in the host Rails application.

The View

To finish off, we need a view to render. By default, it will use the main application layout from our host Rails application, since we didn’t specify a different layout in the controller.

Just as we did with our model and controller, we’ll nest our view in a team_page directory. Because we want to minimize external dependencies, we’ll write our views in ERB instead of something like HAML.

<!-- CURRENT FILE :: app/views/team_page/index.html.erb -->
<ul class="team-member-list">
  <% @team_members.each do |team_member| %>
  <li class="team-member">
    <span class="team-member-name">
      <%= link_to @team_member.name , @team_member.twitter_url %>
    </span>
    <%= @team_member.bio %>
    <%= image_tag @team_member.image_url , :class => "team-member-image" %>
  </li>
  <% end %>
</ul>

Getting Started With Tests

Obviously, we haven’t yet written any unit or integration tests here to cover the gem that we created. Completing this exercise will improve your understanding of Rails 3 engine gems. The enginex tool we used automatically creates a test directory for you with a basic Rails application.

Let’s start by making sure our test_helper.rb file is up to snuff.

# CURRENT FILE :: test/test_helper.rb
# Configure Rails Environment
ENV["RAILS_ENV"] = "test"
ENV["RAILS_ROOT"] = File.expand_path("../dummy",  __FILE__)

require File.expand_path("../dummy/config/environment.rb",  __FILE__)
require "rails/test_help"

ActionMailer::Base.delivery_method = :test
ActionMailer::Base.perform_deliveries = true
ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options[:host] = "test.com"

Rails.backtrace_cleaner.remove_silencers!

# Run any available migration
ActiveRecord::Migrator.migrate File.expand_path("../dummy/db/migrate/", __FILE__)

# Load support files
Dir["#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/support/**/*.rb"].each { |f| require f }

One thing to notice, which is unusual for a testing set-up helper, is that we aren’t requiring our local gem code anywhere in the test helper. Because we’re using Bundler, our gem is actually required in the dummy Rails app via our Gemfile at test/dummy/config/application.rb. Other than that, we’re setting up our Rails environment, booting the application and running any available migrations. Here’s a glance at a sample unit test.

# CURRENT FILE :: test/team_page_test.rb
require 'test_helper'

class TeamPageTest < ActiveSupport::TestCase

  test "truth" do
    assert_kind_of Module, TeamPage
  end

  test 'setup block yields self' do
    TeamPage.setup do |config|
      assert_equal TeamPage, config
    end
  end

end

To continue playing around with how engine testing and integration in a Rails app work, head to the test/dummy/ Rails app and boot the server or play in the console. Everything should work in there as well as it would in any other Rails application.

Resources And Tips

Here are a few helpers to make sure you’re on the right track. The following represents what you would expect the directory structure to look like for your engine gem after following the code examples in this article.

## DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
#

- team_page/
  - app/
    - controllers/
      - team_page/
        + team_controller.rb
    - models/
      - team_page/
        + team_member.rb
    - views/
      - team_page/
        + index.html.erb
  - config/
    + routes.rb
  - lib/
    - team_page.rb
    - generators/
      - team_page/
        + team_page_generator.rb
        - templates/
          + migration.rb
    - team_page/
      + engine.rb
      + version.rb
  - test/
    + team_page_test.rb
    + test_helper.rb
  + team_page.gemspec
  + Gemfile
  + Gemfile.lock

Here’s a simple script to load some team members into your database.

## DATA SEED
#
# => Method 1
# Copy the code into your application's db/seeds.rb file.
#
# => Method 2
# If you would like to run this code in the engine that you are
# developing, place it in the seeds file inside of the dummy app
# contained in your integration tests.
#
# With either of the above methods, be sure to run the following from
# your command line…
#
#     rake db:seed
#

5.times do |i|

  TeamPage::TeamMember.create!( {
    :name        => "Team Member #{i}",
    :twitter_url => "http://twitter.com/team_member_#{i}",
    :bio         => "A really fancy team member!",
    :image_url   => "http://bit.ly/muSWki"
  } )

end

Some External Resources

• Rails Engine Source Code
• RubyGems Guide to Making Your Own Gem
• Creating a Gem With Bundler

Conclusion

The goal of this post was to demonstrate how straightforward it is to create a Rails engine packaged as a Ruby gem.

To recap, we’ve boostrapped our gem, added a model and migration generator, set up a route to hit our controller, created a sample view, and wrote some example tests. This process can be used for any engine gem you feel you need, and it can speed up development time and improve the reliability and maintainability of your code bases. The possibilities are endless. What will you build?

(al)

© Ryan Cook for Smashing Magazine, 2011. |
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Whether malicious or innocent, people unfortunately mixed up Obama and Osama during the coverage of the latter’s death in a Pakistani compound. I, for one, can see how you could mix up the names. They are only one letter off after all.

News Manager at YouTube Olivia Ma just tweeted the link to a video that the Washington Post has provided. It serves a round-up of the name-mix-up FAILS of the night. Funny, awkward and painful…it’s exactly what an end of the day YouTube video should be.

Check it out:

Go to Source

There are a lot of questions surrounding the button, and the impact it will actually have.

Do you think the Google +1 Button will succeed or will it be another flop? Share your thoughts.

1. Will publishers adopt the button?

One of the reasons Facebook’s “like” button is so popular is because publishers all over the web post it on all of their content. It helps drive engagement among readers, and potential traffic as users share that content with their friends.

Google already offers the Buzz button, and it does appear on many content sites. It stands to reason that any site currently using the Buzz button will adopt the +1 button, as it should do essentially the same thing, while also contributing to search rankings. Why not use it? that leads us to the second question, but before we get to that, it’s also worth noting that the Buzz button is not nearly as omnipresent as the Facebook Like button. Do you see a Buzz button on individual athlete pages on ESPN.com? How about on movie pages on IMDB? Product pages on eBay? Again, the search implications may still encourage sites like these to adopt the +1 button.

2. If they do adopt it, where will Buzz fit in?

If sites adopt the +1 button, you have to wonder how many will continue to use the Buzz button as well. Both buttons will post content to the user’s profile page. One will have the advantage of contributing to search rankings. Content sites are getting cluttered with social buttons as it is. How many will use both Google buttons? For that matter, how many current Buzz users will use both services? Is this the beginning of the end for Google Buzz? (Note: Facebook has a new “send” button as well, expect to see both this and the “like” button on a lot of sites).

Google did address this somewhat when the +1 button was announced. “Buzz button[s] are used for starting conversations about interesting web content (‘Hey guys, what do you think about this news story?’),” the company said. “+1 buttons recommend web content to people in the context of search results (‘Peng +1′d this page’), and +1′s from social connections can help improve the relevance of the results you see in Google Search. Soon, you’ll be able to use the +1 button, or the Buzz button, or both—pick what’s right for your content.”

The +1′s and Buzz shares will both appear on the user’s Google profile, but under separate tabs. It may make sense, however, for the two to be merged in the future, though Google has made no indication that it would so.

3. Will audiences click it?

Let’s say that Google’s +1 button does get the kind of widespread adoption that Facebook’s like button has, in terms of sites placing it on their content. Will the average web user click it on a regular basis? People click the Facebook like button because they want to share things they like with their friends. They associate Facebook with their friends. You have to wonder how many people actually care about content showing up in search results or recommending search results to others.

Search is not a social task. As I’ve discussed numerous times in the past, I do believe social data can have tremendous value to search, from an input standpoint. While there may be some value, I believe from an output standpoint, it is far less. In other words, comments my friends may have made about a restaurant or a movie that I’m searching for may help me make a decision, but how often are you looking at web content and thinking, ‘I bet my friends are searching for this.’? Maybe occasionally, but probably not that often. At least the average user, who is not in marketing or the search industry. If you disagree, let me know.

4. Will searchers click it?

This same audience is using Google to search for things. Again, more often than not, they’re probably not looking to make recommendations while they’re searching. Site-owners and marketers will certainly click the button for their own sites in the search results, but how often is the average user going to search for some piece of information and recommend it as a search result before they even click on the result? If it’s a good result, they’re probably not going to know as much until they click through to it and find the information they’re looking for. At that point, what reason do they have to click back to the SERP. To say, ‘Ooh, I have to recommend this to other people who are searching for this topic!’? Maybe a few, but most will probably just carry on with their day.

It’s different with Google’s domain blocking feature (which is also a contributor to search rankings now, and could almost be seen as the “- 1″ button). When you don’t like the result you’ve clicked on, you return to the search results. When you do like it, you carry out the task and move on.

5. Will other search engines use the data?

There is also the question as to whether or not other search engines will gain value from the button. I don’t see why not (if the button is indeed successful). Bing is obviously not shy about using other data from Google users. This would simply be yet another indication of when people feel positive about content. When the subject came up at at SMX Sydney, Bing Director Stefan Weitz said, “Maybe,” according to a report from SMX leader Danny Sullivan, though Sullivan himself is hesitant to think that Bing actually would use the data. Based on a recent conversation WebProNews had with Blekko CEO Rich Skrenta (video up soon), that search engine doesn’t seem opposed to it.

What the +1 Button’s Success Depends On

Google’s implementation of other social features and their integration with one another will be key in whether or not the +1 button becomes the next Facebook “like” button. Google has to get social right for this to work.

Facebook’s “like” button works because of Facebook’s social nature. Google’s nature is largely search. Google has also been careful to position the button as heavily search-oriented. Probably the biggest question of them all is: Do people care about interacting with search like they care about interacting with their friends?

What do you think? Tell us in the comments or join the conversation on our Facebook Page:

WebProNewsDo you use Google’s +1 button so far? Will you use it if you see it on content sites? 1 day ago · 8 likes · 12 comments

Go to Source

There are a lot of questions surrounding the button, and the impact it will actually have.

Do you think the Google +1 Button will succeed or will it be another flop? Share your thoughts.

1. Will publishers adopt the button?

One of the reasons Facebook’s “like” button is so popular is because publishers all over the web post it on all of their content. It helps drive engagement among readers, and potential traffic as users share that content with their friends.

Google already offers the Buzz button, and it does appear on many content sites. It stands to reason that any site currently using the Buzz button will adopt the +1 button, as it should do essentially the same thing, while also contributing to search rankings. Why not use it? that leads us to the second question, but before we get to that, it’s also worth noting that the Buzz button is not nearly as omnipresent as the Facebook Like button. Do you see a Buzz button on individual athlete pages on ESPN.com? How about on movie pages on IMDB? Product pages on eBay? Again, the search implications may still encourage sites like these to adopt the +1 button.

2. If they do adopt it, where will Buzz fit in?

If sites adopt the +1 button, you have to wonder how many will continue to use the Buzz button as well. Both buttons will post content to the user’s profile page. One will have the advantage of contributing to search rankings. Content sites are getting cluttered with social buttons as it is. How many will use both Google buttons? For that matter, how many current Buzz users will use both services? Is this the beginning of the end for Google Buzz? (Note: Facebook has a new “send” button as well, expect to see both this and the “like” button on a lot of sites).

Google did address this somewhat when the +1 button was announced. “Buzz button[s] are used for starting conversations about interesting web content (‘Hey guys, what do you think about this news story?’),” the company said. “+1 buttons recommend web content to people in the context of search results (‘Peng +1′d this page’), and +1′s from social connections can help improve the relevance of the results you see in Google Search. Soon, you’ll be able to use the +1 button, or the Buzz button, or both—pick what’s right for your content.”

The +1′s and Buzz shares will both appear on the user’s Google profile, but under separate tabs. It may make sense, however, for the two to be merged in the future, though Google has made no indication that it would so.

3. Will audiences click it?

Let’s say that Google’s +1 button does get the kind of widespread adoption that Facebook’s like button has, in terms of sites placing it on their content. Will the average web user click it on a regular basis? People click the Facebook like button because they want to share things they like with their friends. They associate Facebook with their friends. You have to wonder how many people actually care about content showing up in search results or recommending search results to others.

Search is not a social task. As I’ve discussed numerous times in the past, I do believe social data can have tremendous value to search, from an input standpoint. While there may be some value, I believe from an output standpoint, it is far less. In other words, comments my friends may have made about a restaurant or a movie that I’m searching for may help me make a decision, but how often are you looking at web content and thinking, ‘I bet my friends are searching for this.’? Maybe occasionally, but probably not that often. At least the average user, who is not in marketing or the search industry. If you disagree, let me know.

4. Will searchers click it?

This same audience is using Google to search for things. Again, more often than not, they’re probably not looking to make recommendations while they’re searching. Site-owners and marketers will certainly click the button for their own sites in the search results, but how often is the average user going to search for some piece of information and recommend it as a search result before they even click on the result? If it’s a good result, they’re probably not going to know as much until they click through to it and find the information they’re looking for. At that point, what reason do they have to click back to the SERP. To say, ‘Ooh, I have to recommend this to other people who are searching for this topic!’? Maybe a few, but most will probably just carry on with their day.

It’s different with Google’s domain blocking feature (which is also a contributor to search rankings now, and could almost be seen as the “- 1″ button). When you don’t like the result you’ve clicked on, you return to the search results. When you do like it, you carry out the task and move on.

5. Will other search engines use the data?

There is also the question as to whether or not other search engines will gain value from the button. I don’t see why not (if the button is indeed successful). Bing is obviously not shy about using other data from Google users. This would simply be yet another indication of when people feel positive about content. When the subject came up at at SMX Sydney, Bing Director Stefan Weitz said, “Maybe,” according to a report from SMX leader Danny Sullivan, though Sullivan himself is hesitant to think that Bing actually would use the data. Based on a recent conversation WebProNews had with Blekko CEO Rich Skrenta (video up soon), that search engine doesn’t seem opposed to it.

What the +1 Button’s Success Depends On

Google’s implementation of other social features and their integration with one another will be key in whether or not the +1 button becomes the next Facebook “like” button. Google has to get social right for this to work.

Facebook’s “like” button works because of Facebook’s social nature. Google’s nature is largely search. Google has also been careful to position the button as heavily search-oriented. Probably the biggest question of them all is: Do people care about interacting with search like they care about interacting with their friends?

What do you think? Tell us in the comments or join the conversation on our Facebook Page:

WebProNewsDo you use Google’s +1 button so far? Will you use it if you see it on content sites? 1 day ago · 8 likes · 12 comments

Go to Source

There are a lot of questions surrounding the button, and the impact it will actually have.

Do you think the Google +1 Button will succeed or will it be another flop? Share your thoughts.

1. Will publishers adopt the button?

One of the reasons Facebook’s “like” button is so popular is because publishers all over the web post it on all of their content. It helps drive engagement among readers, and potential traffic as users share that content with their friends.

Google already offers the Buzz button, and it does appear on many content sites. It stands to reason that any site currently using the Buzz button will adopt the +1 button, as it should do essentially the same thing, while also contributing to search rankings. Why not use it? that leads us to the second question, but before we get to that, it’s also worth noting that the Buzz button is not nearly as omnipresent as the Facebook Like button. Do you see a Buzz button on individual athlete pages on ESPN.com? How about on movie pages on IMDB? Product pages on eBay? Again, the search implications may still encourage sites like these to adopt the +1 button.

2. If they do adopt it, where will Buzz fit in?

If sites adopt the +1 button, you have to wonder how many will continue to use the Buzz button as well. Both buttons will post content to the user’s profile page. One will have the advantage of contributing to search rankings. Content sites are getting cluttered with social buttons as it is. How many will use both Google buttons? For that matter, how many current Buzz users will use both services? Is this the beginning of the end for Google Buzz? (Note: Facebook has a new “send” button as well, expect to see both this and the “like” button on a lot of sites).

Google did address this somewhat when the +1 button was announced. “Buzz button[s] are used for starting conversations about interesting web content (‘Hey guys, what do you think about this news story?’),” the company said. “+1 buttons recommend web content to people in the context of search results (‘Peng +1′d this page’), and +1′s from social connections can help improve the relevance of the results you see in Google Search. Soon, you’ll be able to use the +1 button, or the Buzz button, or both—pick what’s right for your content.”

The +1′s and Buzz shares will both appear on the user’s Google profile, but under separate tabs. It may make sense, however, for the two to be merged in the future, though Google has made no indication that it would so.

3. Will audiences click it?

Let’s say that Google’s +1 button does get the kind of widespread adoption that Facebook’s like button has, in terms of sites placing it on their content. Will the average web user click it on a regular basis? People click the Facebook like button because they want to share things they like with their friends. They associate Facebook with their friends. You have to wonder how many people actually care about content showing up in search results or recommending search results to others.

Search is not a social task. As I’ve discussed numerous times in the past, I do believe social data can have tremendous value to search, from an input standpoint. While there may be some value, I believe from an output standpoint, it is far less. In other words, comments my friends may have made about a restaurant or a movie that I’m searching for may help me make a decision, but how often are you looking at web content and thinking, ‘I bet my friends are searching for this.’? Maybe occasionally, but probably not that often. At least the average user, who is not in marketing or the search industry. If you disagree, let me know.

4. Will searchers click it?

This same audience is using Google to search for things. Again, more often than not, they’re probably not looking to make recommendations while they’re searching. Site-owners and marketers will certainly click the button for their own sites in the search results, but how often is the average user going to search for some piece of information and recommend it as a search result before they even click on the result? If it’s a good result, they’re probably not going to know as much until they click through to it and find the information they’re looking for. At that point, what reason do they have to click back to the SERP. To say, ‘Ooh, I have to recommend this to other people who are searching for this topic!’? Maybe a few, but most will probably just carry on with their day.

It’s different with Google’s domain blocking feature (which is also a contributor to search rankings now, and could almost be seen as the “- 1″ button). When you don’t like the result you’ve clicked on, you return to the search results. When you do like it, you carry out the task and move on.

5. Will other search engines use the data?

There is also the question as to whether or not other search engines will gain value from the button. I don’t see why not (if the button is indeed successful). Bing is obviously not shy about using other data from Google users. This would simply be yet another indication of when people feel positive about content. When the subject came up at at SMX Sydney, Bing Director Stefan Weitz said, “Maybe,” according to a report from SMX leader Danny Sullivan, though Sullivan himself is hesitant to think that Bing actually would use the data. Based on a recent conversation WebProNews had with Blekko CEO Rich Skrenta (video up soon), that search engine doesn’t seem opposed to it.

What the +1 Button’s Success Depends On

Google’s implementation of other social features and their integration with one another will be key in whether or not the +1 button becomes the next Facebook “like” button. Google has to get social right for this to work.

Facebook’s “like” button works because of Facebook’s social nature. Google’s nature is largely search. Google has also been careful to position the button as heavily search-oriented. Probably the biggest question of them all is: Do people care about interacting with search like they care about interacting with their friends?

What do you think? Tell us in the comments or join the conversation on our Facebook Page:

WebProNewsDo you use Google’s +1 button so far? Will you use it if you see it on content sites? 1 day ago · 8 likes · 12 comments

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So we’re about done learning about Handlebars.js, but I’ve got a few examples of tricks I’ve found while using Handlebars that I figured I would share. If you haven’t read them yet, I’d highly recommend reading Part 1 and Part 2 of the series on Handlebars before you dive into this post.

The debug Helper

It can be easy at times to get confused about where you are in the stack in a Handlebars.js template. I usually keep a debug helper around to help me figure that out.

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Handlebars.registerHelper("debug", function(optionalValue) {
  console.log("Current Context");
  console.log("====================");
  console.log(this);
 
  if (optionalValue) {
    console.log("Value");
    console.log("====================");
    console.log(optionalValue);
  }
});

You could then use that helper in any template like:

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{{debug}}

or like:

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{{debug someValue}}

and you’ll see output in the JavaScript console letting you know what’s going on:

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Current Context
====================
email: "alan@test.com"
first_name: "Alan"
last_name: "Johnson"
member_since: "Mar 25, 2011"
phone: "1234567890"
stripeClass: "even"
__proto__: Object
Value
====================
Alan

A jQuery Plugin

It tends to be a pretty regular pattern with Handlebars to compile a template, process it with some data, and then fill a DOM element with the results. Here’s a quick jQuery plugin that does all of that for you:

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<html>
  <head>
    <title>What's Up?</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="content">
      This is where the content goes!
    </div>
    <script id="template" type="text/handlebars">
      Hello, {{name}}!
    </script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script>
    <script src="handlebars-0.9.0.pre.5.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
      (function($) {
        var compiled = {};
        $.fn.handlebars = function(template, data) {
          if (template instanceof jQuery) {
            template = $(template).html();
          }
 
          compiled[template] = Handlebars.compile(template);
          this.html(compiled[template](data));
        };
      })(jQuery);
 
      $('#content').handlebars($('#template'), { name: "Alan" });
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Updating More Than Just The Template Area

A lot of dynamic applications tend to have a layout that generally stays the same regardless of the template you’re displaying, and then a content area that shows the template that you’re looking at. Maybe there’s a sidebar with some navigation in it that generally stays the same, but each time you update the main content area you also need to update the title on the page. It’s pretty easy to cheat a bit with Handlebars to make that work. Handlebars helpers are allowed to not return anything, in which case they won’t add anything to the template output. You can use a helper that doesn’t return anything to update other parts of the page!

Imagine a site that has a structure something like this:

And maybe the markup looks like this:

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<body>
  <h1>Title</h1>
  <div id="nav-sidebar">
    <ul>
      <li>Links</li>
      <li>Go</li>
      <li>Here</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <div id="content">
  	Content goes here!
  </div>
</body>

Here’s a quick helper that will let you update the h1 for the title each time you apply content to the main content area:

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Handlebars.registerHelper("title", function(fn) {
  $('h1').html(fn(this));
 
  return "";
});

And finally, a template that uses the helper:

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  {{#title}}Details for {{name}}{{/title}}
 
  <div class="user-details">
    ...user details template stuff goes here...
  </div>

When the template above is run, it will call the title helper, but since the title helper just returns an empty string, it won’t add anything to the template output. It will, though, use jQuery to update the h1 element for the page’s title.

Wrapping Up

I think this about wraps up the series on Handlebars.js. It’s been fun to share Handlebars.js with everyone, and to hear about the apps you’re writing with Handlebars.js. Please let me know in the comments if there’s anything else relating to Handlebars.js that you’d be interested in hearing about, or if you have any questions.

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In a previous article on Smashing Magazine, I described A/B testing and various resources related to it. I have also covered the basics of multivariate testing in the past, yet in this post I’ll go deeper in the technical details of multivariate testing which is similar to A/B testing but with crucial differences.

In a multivariate test, a Web page is treated as a combination of elements (including headlines, images, buttons and text) that affect the conversion rate. Essentially, you decompose a Web page into distinct units and create variations of those units. For example, if your page is composed of a headline, an image and accompanying text, then you would create variations for each of them. To illustrate the example, let’s assume you make the following variations:

• Headline: headline 1 and headline 2
• Text: text 1 and text 2
• Image: image 1 and image 2

The scenario above has three variables (headline, text and image), each with two versions. In a multivariate test, your objective is to see which combination of these versions achieves the highest conversion rate. By combinations, I mean one of the eight (2 × 2 × 2) versions of the Web page that we’ll come up with when we combine variations of the sections:

• Headline 1 + Text 1 + Image 1
• Headline 1 + Text 1 + Image 2
• Headline 1 + Text 2 + Image 1
• Headline 1 + Text 2 + Image 2
• Headline 2 + Text 1 + Image 1
• Headline 2 + Text 1 + Image 2
• Headline 2 + Text 2 + Image 1
• Headline 2 + Text 2 + Image 2

In multivariate testing, you split traffic between these eight different versions of the page and see which combination produces the highest conversion rate — just like in A/B testing, where you split traffic between two versions of a page.

Getting Started With Multivariate Testing

To create your first multivariate test, first choose a tool or framework that supports multivariate testing. You can use one of the tools listed in the section “Tools” in the end of this article. Please note that not all A/B testing tools support multivariate testing, so make sure your tool of choice allows it.

Once you’ve decided which tool to use, choose which sections to include in the test. As you know, a Web page can contain tens or hundreds of different sections (footer, headline, sidebar, log-in form, navigation buttons, etc.). You cannot include all of these sections in the test; creating variations for all of them would be an enormous task (and, as you’ll read below, the traffic requirements for the test will grow exponentially with each new section). Narrow it down to the few sections of the page that you think are most important to the conversion goal.

The following parts of a page (listed in order of importance) are typically included in a multivariate test:

• Headline and heading,
• Call-to-action buttons (color, text, size, placement),
• Text copy (content, length, size),
• Image (type, placement, size),
• Form length.

The Difference Between A/B Testing And Multivariate Testing

Conceptually, the two techniques are similar, but there are crucial differences. First and foremost, the traffic requirements are different. As I said, the number of combinations that need to be tested grows exponentially in a multivariate test. You can test three or four versions in an A/B test and tens or hundreds of versions in a multivariate test. Clearly, then, a lot of traffic — and time — is required to arrive at meaningful results.

For example, if you have three sections with three variations each, the number of combinations is 27. Add another section with three variations, and the total number of combinations jumps to 81. If you want meaningful results, you can’t keep adding sections to the test. Be selective. A good rule is to limit the total number of combinations to 25 or fewer.

Use A/B testing for large scale changes, not to refine or optimize existing designs. Image by Meet the Chumbeques

Another difference is in how these techniques are used. A/B testing is usually reserved for large radical changes (such as completely changing a landing page or displaying two different offers). Multivariate testing is used to refine and optimize an existing design. For the mathematically inclined, A/B testing is used to optimize for a global optimum, while multivariate testing is used to optimize for a local optimum.

One advantage of multivariate testing over A/B split testing is that it can tell you which part of the page is most influential on conversion goals. Say you’re testing the headline, text and image on your landing page. How do you know which part has the most impact? Most multivariate testing tools will give you a metric, called the “impact factor,” in their reports that tells you which sections influence the conversion rate and which don’t. You don’t get this information from A/B testing because all sections are lumped into one variation.

Types Of Multivariate Tests

Based on how you distribute traffic to your combinations, there are several types of multivariate tests (MVT):

Full factorial testing
This is the kind people generally refer to when they talk about multivariate testing. By this method, one distributes website traffic equally among all combinations. If there are 16 combinations, each one will receive one-sixteenth of all the website traffic. Because each combination gets the same amount of traffic, this method provides all of the data needed to determine which particular combination and section performed best. You might discover that a certain image had no effect on the conversion rate, while the headline was most influential. Because the full factorial method makes no assumptions with regard to statistics or the mathematics of testing, I recommend it for multivariate testing.

Record and compare the resulting traffic for each tested version. Image by ItoWorld

Partial or fractional factorial testing
As the name suggests, in this method only a fraction of all combinations are exposed to website traffic. The conversion rate for unexposed combinations is inferred from the ones that were included in the test. For example, if there are 16 combinations, then traffic is split among only eight of those. For the remaining eight, we get no conversion data, and hence we need to resort to fancy mathematics (with a few assumptions) for insight. For obvious reasons, I don’t recommend this method: even though there are fewer traffic requirements for partial factorial testing, the method forces too many assumptions. No matter how advanced the mathematics are, hard data is always better than inference.

Taguchi testing
This is the most esoteric method of all. A quick Google search reveals a lot of tools claiming to cut your testing time and traffic requirements drastically with Taguchi testing. Some might disagree, but I believe the Taguchi method is bit of a sham; it’s a set of heuristics, not a theoretically sound method. It was originally used in the manufacturing industry, where specific assumptions were made in order to decrease the number of combinations needing to be tested for QA and other experiments. These assumptions are not applicable to online testing, so you shouldn’t need to do any Taguchi testing. Stick to the other methods.

Do’s And Don’ts

I have observed hundreds of multivariate tests, and I have seen many people make the same mistakes. Here is some practical advice, direct from my experience.

Don’ts

• Don’t include a lot of sections in the test.
  Every section you add effectively doubles the number of combinations to test. For example, if you’re testing a headline and image, then there are a total of four combinations (2 × 2). If you add a button to the test, there are suddenly eight combinations to test (2 × 2 × 2). The more combinations, the more traffic you’ll need to get significant results.

Do’s

• Do preview all combinations.
  In multivariate testing, variations of a section (image, headline, button, etc.) are combined to create page variations. One of the combinations might be odd-looking or, worse, illogical or incompatible. For example, one combination might put together a headline that says “$15 off” and a button that says “Free subscription.” Those two messages are incompatible. Detect and remove incompatibilities at the preview stage.
• Do decide which sections are most worthy of inclusion in the test.
  In a multivariate test, not all sections will have an equal impact on the conversion rate. For example, if you include a headline, a call-to-action button and a footer, you might come to realize that footer variations have little impact, and that headline and call-to-action variations produce winning combinations. You get a powerful section-specific report. Below is a sample report from Visual Website Optimizer. Notice how the button has more impact (91%) than the headline (65%):

  

• Do estimate the traffic needed for significant results.
  Before testing, get a clear idea of how much traffic you’ll need in order to get statistically significant results. I’ve seen people add tens of sections to a page that gets just 100 visitors per day. Significant results from such a test would take months to accumulate. I suggest using a calculator, such as this A/B split and multivariate testing duration calculator, to estimate how much traffic your test will require. If it’s more than what’s acceptable, reduce some sections.

Case Studies

A lot of A/B testing case studies are on the Web, but unfortunately, finding multivariate test case studies is still difficult. So, I scoured the Internet and compiled relevant ones.

Software Download Case Study: downloads increased by 60%
This is one multivariate test I did to compare different versions of headlines and links. In the end, one of the variations resulted in a more than 60% increase in downloads.

Microsoft Multivariate Testing Case Study
This presentation details the variations that were tested for this website and the ultimate winner.

SiteSpect Case Studies
This page presents a dozen of multivariate testing case studies of large companies using multivariate testing and behavioral targeting to optimize their sites.

Maxymiser Case Studies
Another set of multivariate testing case studies.

Look Inside a 1,024-Recipe Multivariate Experiment
YouTube did a gigantic multivariate test in 2009. It can afford to do tests with a thousand-plus combinations because it has sufficient traffic.

Multivariate testing of an email newsletter
An agency tested color and text on the call-to-action button of its email newsletter. The best button had the highest CTR: 60%.

Multivariate Testing Tools And Resources

Tools

Google Website Optimizer
A free basic multivariate testing tool by Google. It’s great if you want to test the waters before investing money in multivariate testing. The downside? You’ll need to tag different sections of the Web page with JavaScript, which can be cumbersome. It’s also prone to error and forces you to rely on others (like the technology department) for implementation.

Visual Website Optimizer
The main advantage of this paid tool is that you can create a multivariate test visually in a WYSIWYG editor by choosing different sections of the page. You can then run the test without having to tag sections individually (although a snippet of code is required in the header). The tool includes heat map and click map reports.

WhichMVT
A website that publishes user reviews of all of the multivariate testing tools available on the market. If you are planning to adopt a multivariate testing tool for your organization, do your research on this website.

Enterprise testing tools
Omniture’s Test&Target, Autonomy’s Optimost, Vertster, Webtrends’ Optimize, and SiteSpect.

Resources

Expert Guide to Multivariate Testing Success, by Jonathan Mendez
A series of blog posts detailing different aspects of multivariate testing.

Fail Faster With Multivariate Testing (PDF)
An excellent free mini-guide to multivariate testing.

Online Testing Vendor Landscape
A commercial report by Forrester that compares the various testing vendors out there.

Lessons Learned from 21 Case Studies in Conversion Rate Optimization
This article discusses ideas for conversion rate optimization detailed through different case studies.

Related posts

You may be interested in the following related articles:

• Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing
• Getting Started With E-Commerce: Your Options When Selling Online
• Improve Your E-Commerce Design With Brilliant Product Photos
• Our 3-part-series “Optimizing Conversion Rates”.

(al)

© Paras Chopra for Smashing Magazine, 2011. | Permalink | Post a comment | Smashing Shop | Smashing Network | About Us
Post tags: multivariate, testing

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They are currently working on a fix.

In February, Twitter suspended UberTwitter and Twidroyd but later reinstated the two apps.

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They are currently working on a fix.

In February, Twitter suspended UberTwitter and Twidroyd but later reinstated the two apps.

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Lyle Alzaldo and his friends have produced another fun “I ♥ UX Design” animation. In case you missed it, make sure to watch the first video here.

Please lend your support to Lyle and his friends by visiting their website at iluvuxdesign.com or following them on Facebook.

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