Simplifying Web Development - Cambelt gets a Gem
A Gem for Cambelt
I'm delighted that I've now published an early version of a Gem for Cambelt - that renders placeholder images in Rails (extends ActionPack) or Sinatra (no dependency on ActionPack, so it doesn't bloat your code).
Using this is as simple as issuing the following in your views:
<%= placeholder(:text => "This is Cool!") %>
You can preconfigure all the options - width/height/font/font_size/colors - in an initializer, or pass them in on a per request basis.
Roadmap
CambeltPRO is getting closer to coming into beta, and it looks really cool if I do say so myself. Here are some teasers for you:
Abilty to save preset placeholder options and apply them automatically on a per-site basis
Control over image name, so calling "title.jpg" instead of "300x200/Title?format=jpg"
Plugs into a choice of CDN backends, so ultra rapid delivery of images.
Custom font uploading, and limiting use to a set of domains.
Textures/Image backgrounds.
And more (I wouldnt' want to spoil all the surprises!)