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Jun 26th, 2009

Artificial System Clock Code review critique

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Hi - I'm very new here (1st post). I read the introductory docs, and looked at the categories, but I didn't see a specific place for posting code for review/critique. My apologies if this is not the appropriate place to do that...

Here is some code I am hoping to get reviewed/critiqued by people who know Ruby. I don't know squat about Ruby, but I am pretty familiar with modern OO lang's (C++, Java, C#, PHP, etc.), and I wrote this after reading a few tutorials.

It is an implementation of an Artificial System Clock (ASC). The idea is that you will use the getSystemDate method of this class everywhere in your app. that gets the date/time directly. Then you can change the date-time context for the whole app. for testing purposes. When in "channel" mode, it will go fetch the date-time value from TimeChannels.com, so that you can integration-test with multiple interfacing apps. all on the same shared ASC value.

Here's the TimeChannels class I wrote in Ruby:

Ruby Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
require 'date'
require 'net/http'
require 'open-uri'
 
class TimeChannels
  @@tcURL = "http://www.timechannels.com/GetChannel"
  @@tcURLms = "http://www.timechannels.com/GetChannelMS"
  @@tcAscState = "TimeChannels.state.Production"
  @@tcChannel = "0"
  @@tcAscDateTime = nil
  @@tcServiceURL = "http://www.timechannels.com/GetChannel"
  @@tcMillisecondMode = "false"
 
 
  def TimeChannels.setToProductionState
    @@tcAscState = "TimeChannels.state.Production"
  end
 
 
  def TimeChannels.setToStaticTestState(aDateTimeValue)
    @@tcAscState = "TimeChannels.state.TestDate"
    @@tcAscDateTime = aDateTimeValue
  end
 
 
  def TimeChannels.setToTestState(aChannel)
    @@tcAscState = "TimeChannels.state.TestChannel"
    @@tcChannel = aChannel
  end
 
 
  def TimeChannels.setToMillisecondMode()
    @@tcMillisecondMode = "true"
    @@tcServiceURL = @@tcURLms
  end
 
 
  def TimeChannels.setToStandardMode
    @@tcMillisecondMode = "false"
    @@tcServiceURL = @@tcURL
  end
 
 
  def TimeChannels.getSystemDate
    if @@tcAscState == "TimeChannels.state.Production"
      return DateTime.now
    end
 
    if @@tcAscState == "TimeChannels.state.TestDate"
      return @@tcAscDateTime
    end
 
    if @@tcAscState == "TimeChannels.state.TestChannel"
      return getChannelFromTimeChannelsService(@@tcChannel)
    end
 
    DateTime.now
  end
 
 
  def TimeChannels.getHTTPContent(url)
    #res = Net::HTTP.get_response(URI.parse(url))
    #data = res.body
 
    data = open(url).read
    data
  end
 
 
  def TimeChannels.getChannelFromTimeChannelsService(aChannel)
    url = @@tcServiceURL + "?channel=" + aChannel
    result = getHTTPContent(url)
 
    if (result.nil?) 
      return Time.now
    end
 
    if (@@tcMillisecondMode == "true")
      retVal = result
      #retVal = DateTime.parse(result)
    else
      retVal = DateTime.parse(result)
    end
 
    retVal
  end
 
end
require 'date'
require 'net/http'
require 'open-uri'

class TimeChannels
  @@tcURL = "http://www.timechannels.com/GetChannel"
  @@tcURLms = "http://www.timechannels.com/GetChannelMS"
  @@tcAscState = "TimeChannels.state.Production"
  @@tcChannel = "0"
  @@tcAscDateTime = nil
  @@tcServiceURL = "http://www.timechannels.com/GetChannel"
  @@tcMillisecondMode = "false"


  def TimeChannels.setToProductionState
    @@tcAscState = "TimeChannels.state.Production"
  end


  def TimeChannels.setToStaticTestState(aDateTimeValue)
    @@tcAscState = "TimeChannels.state.TestDate"
    @@tcAscDateTime = aDateTimeValue
  end


  def TimeChannels.setToTestState(aChannel)
    @@tcAscState = "TimeChannels.state.TestChannel"
    @@tcChannel = aChannel
  end


  def TimeChannels.setToMillisecondMode()
    @@tcMillisecondMode = "true"
    @@tcServiceURL = @@tcURLms
  end


  def TimeChannels.setToStandardMode
    @@tcMillisecondMode = "false"
    @@tcServiceURL = @@tcURL
  end


  def TimeChannels.getSystemDate
    if @@tcAscState == "TimeChannels.state.Production"
      return DateTime.now
    end

    if @@tcAscState == "TimeChannels.state.TestDate"
      return @@tcAscDateTime
    end

    if @@tcAscState == "TimeChannels.state.TestChannel"
      return getChannelFromTimeChannelsService(@@tcChannel)
    end

    DateTime.now
  end


  def TimeChannels.getHTTPContent(url)
    #res = Net::HTTP.get_response(URI.parse(url))
    #data = res.body

    data = open(url).read
    data
  end


  def TimeChannels.getChannelFromTimeChannelsService(aChannel)
    url = @@tcServiceURL + "?channel=" + aChannel
    result = getHTTPContent(url)

    if (result.nil?) 
      return Time.now
    end

    if (@@tcMillisecondMode == "true")
      retVal = result
      #retVal = DateTime.parse(result)
    else
      retVal = DateTime.parse(result)
    end
      
    retVal
  end

end

Many thanks in advance to all who reply...

John

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JohnBoy2

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Jul 29th, 2009

Re: Artificial System Clock Code review critique

I have a suggestion, I think your code need a exception handler when your internet connection is lost.

slac3dork

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Aug 8th, 2009

Re: Artificial System Clock Code review critique

Though I'm no Ruby expert, here are a few suggestions:

Ruby Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
if (result.nil?)
  return Time.now
end
if (result.nil?)
  return Time.now
end

can also be written as:

Ruby Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
return Time.now if result.nil?
return Time.now if result.nil?

= Instead of using @@tcMillisecondMode = "false" , why not just use @@tcMillisecondMode = false ?

= Your ASC state can be better represented using Ruby Symbols.

= In Ruby in absence of a return statement, the value of the last expression evaluated is returned hence the method:

Ruby Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
def TimeChannels.getHTTPContent(url)
    data = open(url).read
    data
end
def TimeChannels.getHTTPContent(url)
    data = open(url).read
    data
end

can be replaced by:

Ruby Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
def TimeChannels.getHTTPContent(url)
    open(url).read
end
def TimeChannels.getHTTPContent(url)
    open(url).read
end

though as already mentioned, handling exceptions in case establishment of a connection fails should come first.

= The Ruby way of naming variables and methods is *not* to use camelCase but use under_scores; though it's a matter of taste. However it pays to follow and use the conventions used by the community in general to facilitate easier understanding of others' code and vice-versa.

In case you require a more in-depth review, feel free to post your code on the official ruby forums and you'll surely get more feedback.

HTH
-sos

Last edited by ~s.o.s~; Aug 8th, 2009 at 12:22 pm.

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