Here is the next part of the Merb, DataMapper, RSpec book. I was planning on releasing more today but I am rewriting the examples for DataMapper 0.9. There is a example app for DataMapper 0.3 in the git repository of the book, if you can't wait to play with it.

Communities

i'm going to become rich and famous after i invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet - <[SA]HatfulOfHollow>

The internet is a scary place, but fortunately the Ruby community is very friendly. All these open source projects rely on the contributions from the community, if something needs fixing consider helping out.

Websites

These are the first places to go for help. Check out the API documentation and see if you can find your answer there.

• http://merbivore.com/
• http://datamapper.org/
• http://rspec.info/

IRC Channels - freenode.net

If you can't find what you were looking for in the API docs then you could join the respective IRC channel on FreeNode and ask your question in there, you may need to wait for a response.

• #merb
• #datamapper
• #rspec

Mailing Lists

The mailing lists are another good way to get help, the response time isn't as fast as asking in an irc channel but it can be useful to do a search to see if someone else has had your problem before.

• http://groups.google.com/group/merb/
• http://groups.google.com/group/datamapper/
• http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/rspec-users/

Bug Trackers

Your problem may or may not be a known bug. Search the bug trackers and submit a ticket if its not there already (don't forget to include a description and test cases, or better yet: a patch!). You may find the ticket is solved in the edge version.

• http://merb.lighthouseapp.com/
• http://wm.lighthouseapp.com/projects/4819-datamapper/overview
• http://rspec.lighthouseapp.com/

Wikis

• http://wiki.merbivore.com/
• http://wiki.datamapper.org/

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Next we'll cover installing the gems, and generating a bare project.