Best plugin for creating a "friends" system/social network for latest Rails?

Question

I'm looking for a Rails plugin that eases the development of a "friends" system or social networking system for the latest versions of Ruby on Rails.

Before anyone says it...I know, I should probably create it myself, from scratch. And I am fully capable of this (I think). I'm just looking for a good plugin that can a.) make life a bit easier for me and b.) give me some ideas for reference.

I tried to make my own authentication system, and did what I thought was okay, but then I switched to restful_authentication and realized how poor my system was in comparison.

Thanks in advance...

Answer 1

The only one I know of is Insoshi. I haven't used it myself, but it sounds like that's what you're looking for.

Answer 2

I would recommend using OpenID library for rails to handle authentication.

Answer 3

For avatars i would use avatar and try will-paginate for pagination. other then that i love can_serach to make it alot easier to search in the database.

You should also look at the other gems by technoweenie. There is alot of great stuff there that can help you

Answer 4

U might wanna try Community Engine

from the website

CommunityEngine is a free, open-source social network plugin for Ruby on Rails applications. Drop it into your new or existing application, and you’ll instantly have all the features of a basic community site.

it uses engines, easy to change layouts or do modifications

real world example - http://www.weebabystuff.com/

another option I know is Insoshi as Chuck posted

updated : look at this blogpost http://jimneath.org/2008/04/25/building-a-social-network-site-in-rails/

-- Ed :) --

Answer 5

You could look into http://lovdbyless.com/

This is a free open-source Rails social networking app which should give you plenty of ideas and pointers.

Ronald

Answer 6

I've just been researching this myself and chosen to go with Bort & CommunityEngine

Bort because I am familiar with it already and it provides all you need in user authentication and basic application functionality. Community Engine because it is an Engines based plugin and some aspects of Engines are being merged into Rails 2.3 so I know what I learn will continue to be useful and because CommunityEngine seems more modular while lovedbyess and Insoshi seem more like complete applications and I suspect it would likely be more work to disentangle the features I want from the ones I don't. However, take that with a huge grain of salt since it is just based on high-level quick browse initial impressions.

If you just want an activity feed then there is the activity streams plugin

Answer 7

On top of what others have said, there's also acts_as_network. The bonus of this one is that it's a pure plugin (doesn't require engines). Not having to worry about engines is a huge plus. The downside, of course, is that it's not a full fledged social network. It's just a friending plugin for models.

Answer 8

Hi, try acts_as_network plugin

Answer 9

You HAVE to see this railscasts video.