The Web Directions site has just been launched with all the juicy details and online registration.

The registration system was built with Rails and thanks to the kind folk that are WD I’ll be releasing a few extracted plugins in the coming weeks: SimpleAuthorisation, AccessibleFormBuilder and eMatters support for ActiveMerchant.

SimpleAuthorisation allows you to add simple, HTTP-based, app-wide password protection for the initial stages of your application’s development. Using it is a matter of:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  include SimpleAuthorisable
  before_filter :simple_auth_required
end

and setting the username and password in your environment.rb.

AccessibleFormBuilder is a Rails 1.1 form builder that help output input labels which respect a model’s validation. It’ll allow you to use code such as:

<dl class="horizontal-form billing">
  <dt><%= f.label :name, :required => true %></dt>
  <dd><%= f.text_field :name %></dd>
  <dt><%= f.label :company %></dt>
  <dd><%= f.text_field :company %></dd>
  <dt><%= f.label :email, :required => true %></dt>
  <dd><%= f.text_field :email %></dd>
  <dt class="last">
    <%= f.label :phone_number,
                :required => true,
                :value => "Ph. number" %>
  </dt>
  <dd class="last"><%= f.text_field :phone_number %></dd>
</dl>

It also ships with a few view helpers: accessible_form_for and accessible_fields_for.

If you haven’t already done so, go grab your ticket for WD06. If you’re involved with web development you’d be crazy to miss this year’s killer lineup.