How To Build a Social Network with Ruby on Rails
UPDATE: Now you can skip a lot of these steps and just use CommunityEngine, our instant social networking plugin for Ruby on Rails.
High-Level Process
- Hire a good designer.
- Iterate on the look and feel until it’s 80% complete.
- Code it.
- Deploy it once it’s 80% complete (80% of the features are 100% complete, not 100% of the features 80% complete).
- Go back to step 1.
Plugins and other code-related items
- acts_as_commentable for comments on your user profiles and blog posts
- acts_as_attachment for uploading profile pictures
- acts_as_taggable for tagging users and blog posts
- tiny_mce so users who don’t get wikis can have formatted text
- learn how to do a self-referential friendship so your users can have friends
- ez_where
- resource_feeder for simple rss feeds
- resource_hacks
- restful_authentication to maintain the rigor of developing restfully
- white_list
- ffmpeg/mencoder for converting media
- obviously, from some of the plugins mentioned above, you should use edge-rails and embrace the CRUD-constrained approach
Deployment
- Get a dedicated box (we like Slingshot Hosting) - yes, a dedicated box is more expensive, but it’s worth it.
- Integrate tests into your deployment scripts. It’s nice to know your app won’t deploy unless your tests pass.
- Launch ASAP (and let WWIBAN guide your next features).
- Deploy something new everyday (or close to it) for the first couple weeks — don’t worry, it’s not a bad thing. It’ll get you used to your deployment scripts.
fast-forward a month…
Now that your site is launched*
- Read every Kathy Sierra article.
- Follow Mashable and Techcrunch to see which of your competitors get funding or fold.
- Make sure you aren’t making any SEO mistakes.
- Come up with features that are unique to your social networking niche.
- Learn how to make money off your site in ways other than adsense.
* if you’re having trouble getting your site developed, contact us. We’d be happy to develop it for you. Here are two social networking sites we built with Ruby on Rails:
Comments (12 comments)
It probably doesn’t hurt to have content that 723 people want to bookmark:
http://del.icio.us/url/56d6871027f42fcebbddbc0caf5c5d86
Congrats! It was cool to see you at #1 on delicious.com/popular
Eric Skogen / January 11th, 2007, 7:16 pm / #
Thanks for this. Interesting summary.
Planning/brainstorming/thinking about what you’re trying to build is conspicuously absent from the high-level process list, was that deliberate?
bitbutter / January 24th, 2007, 3:32 am / #
No, I think it’s just assumed that you’ve already thought about what you want to build. Interesting point, though, and I’d argue that you should get way too detailed about what you want to build, since it will change over time anyway. That’s not to say you shouldn’t think about it; just realize your vision is likely to change.
bruno / January 25th, 2007, 10:43 am / #
Interesting blog post. I’m building a social networking site and it’s good to know I’m following pretty much a proven path.
Garth / January 27th, 2007, 4:38 pm / #
[…] Posted on April 14th, 2007. I’m going to keep this updated as more useful tidbits pour in. The folks behind food social site Chow.com reveals some of their favorite Rails toolkits. The guys behind Curbly.com - a social network for interior designer wannabees has a great list of social network friendly Rails plugins here […]
Rails Toolbox & Helpful Plugins « hykoo.com - adventures of a social media startup / April 14th, 2007, 5:34 pm / #
[…] On the other hand, while there isn’t a complete Rails social CMS, Rails does have the majority of plugins needed to quickly deploy a social application. In this repository alone, there is a ton of great plugins, many like make ratable, commentable, google Maps are perfect for a community site. While I’ve yet to see an all-in-one Rails social platform, there are enough plugins and successful rails social sites (YFly, Curbly, Twittr) to use as inspiration. There’s also good advice out there (in this case by the makers of Curbly and YFly) To see more, visit “plugins” on the blogroll. […]
On the hunt for a good Rails Social Networking Package « hykoo.com - adventures of a social media startup / May 1st, 2007, 11:37 am / #
What about commnunities/groups?
Clarnick / May 24th, 2007, 11:23 am / #
Hm.. aren’t you missing the methods of building the community itself?
Aria Rajasa / July 29th, 2007, 7:11 pm / #
[…] clipped from www.missingmethod.com […]
Very cool list of Ruby Gems.. « Amul’s Digital Life? / August 24th, 2007, 12:51 pm / #
[…] How To Build a Social Network with Ruby on Rails (tags: rails rubyonrails social ruby amarillotoday) […]
links for 2007-10-09 at toshism / October 24th, 2007, 9:03 am / #
[…] I’ve been looking at social networks a bit more closely, to use in some projects, and found some interesting resources: the microformats site is very informative. And for implementation in Rails, The Whiny Nil give some good resources. […]
Links on a tired ol’ wednesday / March 19th, 2008, 4:04 pm / #
[…] Article on building a social network site over at The Whiny Nil. […]
Building a Social Network Site in Rails | Jim Neath / April 25th, 2008, 6:04 am / #
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