You sometimes come across web applications that are really bad: ugly UI, bad user feedback, minimal usability, no API. To improve such an app, a Rails hacker may have to prove him/herself by prototyping improvements first.

Rails makes it possible by actually "taking over" parts of a legacy app, by presenting the user with a Rails UI that submits back to the original app. A prototype that works against the legacy app and is usable and testable by real users.

This session will present you with the techniques and tools you need to do this:

• Advanced two-way screen/form scraping from "bad" legacy applications
• Guessing the data model
• Essential tools for screenscraping and proxying a legacy app
• Introducing the Reform plugin for getting started taking over legacy apps in your own environment

Along with this, we will discuss how we used this technique on a particular internal timetracking application and, in particular, the lessons learned on how to navigate a Rails prototype into the political game in a world of legacy systems.

Screenscraping as a prototyping strategy could be just what you need in a political environment where it's hard to convince management to build an existing legacy application in Rails.