I finally compeleted my very first project! Initially, I was scared to build a working program from scratch by myself. I felt as if I was dropped onto an island left with just a knife and an empty backpack. I had zero idea of how to start or where to start with expectations of me building a shelter, and to hunt for my own survival. I was lost, but luckily I had the support of some good friends willing to take their time to assist me through the process. Slowly, I began to understand more about the CLI (Command Line Interface) and how to start working on a functioning application.
I drafted a plan of what I was going to build, thought about its concept, and how it was to interact with users. My app for this project was an app that lists events taking place in Las Vegas. Users input what event they would like to see from a list of the top ten events that is produced and it outputs more detailed information from the selected event such as available date, time, location, and pricing information.
Here is how I built my CLI ruby gem.
Using Bundler to Set Up My Ruby Gem:
I repeatedly watched Avi’s video and ran through his guide to set up my folders and files using Bundler. Bundler provides a consistent environment for Ruby projects by tracking and installing the exact gems and versions that are needed. It was pretty easy way to create a new gem just typing in:
bundle gem LasVegas_event
It creates a gem with a README, .gemspec, Rakefile and all the directory structures.
Setting Up My Environment:
The hardest part was ensuring that all requirements were met and that code could be executed and produce the right information. In order to do that, I had to add all the require, require_relative files/installed gems in my environment file.
require 'open-uri'
require 'nokogiri'
require 'pry'
require 'colorize'
require_relative 'LasVegas_event/cli'
require_relative 'LasVegas_event/scraper'
require_relative 'LasVegas_event/event'
require_relative "LasVegas_event/version"
Creating My Ruby CLI Gem:
Once all the files were set up, all that was left for me to focus on was the part I enjoy the most and that’s coding. I created all the files for each purpose.
cli.rb
:Handling CLI display logic and user input
class LasVegasEvent::CLI
def call
welcome
fetch_events
list_events
details
end
def welcome
puts "===================================================================================="
puts "Welcome to Las Vegas Event Calendar where you can find the best events in Las Vegas!".green
puts "===================================================================================="
end
def fetch_events
LasVegasEvent::Scraper.scrape_events_list
end
def list_events
puts "---------------------"
puts "|Special events list|".yellow
puts "---------------------"
LasVegasEvent::Event.all.each.with_index(1) do |event, i|
puts "#{i}. #{event.name}".light_blue
end
end
def event_website(event)
puts "** Do you want to check out the event website? Type 'y' or 'n' **".green
input = gets.strip.downcase
if input == "y"
LasVegasEvent::Scraper.get_event_page(event) unless event.event_webpage
puts "#{event.event_webpage}".cyan
puts "** Type 'list' to see all the list or select number again. Type 'exit' if you wish to exit. **".green
elsif input == "n"
puts "** Type 'list' to see all the list or select number again. Type 'exit' if you wish to exit. **".green
else
puts "Sorry, try again.".red
end
end
def details
puts "** Which event do you want to know more about? Type the number of event. **".green
input = nil
while input != "exit"
input = gets.strip.downcase
if input.to_i > 0 && input.to_i <= 10
event = LasVegasEvent::Event.all[input.to_i-1]
puts "*******************************************************************************************"
puts " #{event.name}".light_blue
puts "#{event.date_time} - #{event.location}".cyan
puts "#{event.events_description}\n".yellow
puts "#{event.url}\n".cyan
event_website(event)
elsif input == "list"
list_events
elsif input == "exit"
goodbye
else
puts "The event can not be found.".red
puts "---------------------------"
puts "** Type 'list' to see all the list or select number again. Type 'exit' if you wish to exit. **".green
end
end
end
def goodbye
puts "==========================================="
puts " Thank you for visiting us. See you again!".green
puts "==========================================="
end
event.rb
:Objects - organize data and initialize all the instances
class LasVegasEvent::Event
attr_accessor :name, :location, :date_time, :url, :events_description, :event_webpage
@@all =[]
def initialize(name, date_time, location, url, events_description=nil, event_webpage=nil)
@name = name
@date_time = date_time
@location = location
@url = url
@events_description = events_description
@event_webpage = event_webpage
save
end
def save
@@all << self
end
def self.all
@@all
end
end
scraper.rb
:Scraping all the data from the website
class LasVegasEvent::Scraper
def self.scrape_events_list
doc = Nokogiri::HTML(open("https://events.lasvegascalendars.com/"))
doc.css("div.timely-events-container").css("a.timely-event")[0..9].each do |timely|
name = timely.css("span.timely-title-text").text
date_time = timely.css("span.timely-start-time").text.gsub(/\s+/, " ")
location = timely.css("span.timely-venue").text.gsub(/\s+/, " ")
url = timely.attr("href")
events_description = timely.css("div.timely-description.timely-has-venue").text.gsub(/\s+/, " ")
LasVegasEvent::Event.new(name, date_time, location, url, events_description)
end
end
def self.get_event_page(event)
# binding.pry
event_page = Nokogiri::HTML(open(event.url))
event_webpage = event_page.css("div a.timely-event-details-link").attr("href").value
# binding.pry
event.event_webpage = event_webpage
end
end
LasVegas_Event Ruby CLI Gem!
The final step was to ensure that my run file was set up correctly for the program to execute.
bin/run
:Creating a new instance of CLI class and calling the method
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'bundler/setup'
require 'environment'
LasVegasEvent::CLI.new.call
To run my application, I type the command:
bin/run
Conclusion
It took a while to complete because I was juggling with completing the project and moving to my new home. It felt great to complete it though and that’s why I enjoy challenges. The feeling of accomplishing something so difficult especially for someone like me who has zero coding background and a language barrier. I expect this journey to be one of struggle, but filled with rewards of accomplishment.