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Beginning Rails is the practical starting point for anyone wanting to learn how to build dynamic web applications using the Rails framework for Ruby. You'll learn how all of the components of Rails fit together and how you can leverage them to create sophisticated web applications with less code and more joy.
This book is particularly well suited to those with little or no experience with web application development, or who have some experience but are new to Rails. Beginning Rails assumes basic familiarity with web terms and technologies, but doesn't require you to be an expert.
Topics include:
- A gentle introduction to the Ruby programming language
- Installing Ruby and Rails on a Mac, Linux, or Windows system
- The philosophy behind Rails and why it matters
- The Model-View-Controller architecture
- The basics of relational databases and SQL
- Setting up a MySQL database and creating a schema with migrations
- Experimenting with your live application in the Rails console
- Creating rich relationships between your models
- Using controllers and templates properly
- Leveraging helpers to keep your templates clean and logic free
- Adding Ajax and visual effects to enrich your user interfaces
- JavaScript with Prototype and script.aculo.us
- How to send and receive mail from your application
- Using and creating your own plug-ins
- Ensuring your code against Murphy's Law through writing tests
- Using Capistrano to deploy your application
Rather than delving into the arcane details of Rails, the focus is on the aspects of the framework that will become your pick, shovel, and axe. Part history lesson, part introduction to object-oriented programming, and part dissertation on open source software,
Beginning Rails doesn't just explain how to do something in Rails, it explainswhy.
Every programmer fondly remembers the book that helped them get started. The goal of
Beginning Rails is to become that book for you, today.
List of contents
Introducing the Rails Framework.- Getting Started.- Getting Something Running.- Working with a Database: Active Record.- Advanced Active Record: Enhancing Your Models.- Action Pack: Working with the View and the Controller.- Improving Interaction with Ajax.- Sending and Receiving Mail.- Testing Your Application.- Extending Rails with Plugins.- Deploying Your Rails Applications.
About the author
Hampton Catlin is the inventor of Sass, a CSS generating language, and the Haml markup language. He is the original creator of Wikipedia Mobile and is also the creator of several successful iPhone applications including Dictionary!
Summary
Beginning Rails is the practical starting point for anyone wanting to learn how to build dynamic web applications using the Rails framework for Ruby. You'll learn how all of the components of Rails fit together and how you can leverage them to create sophisticated web applications with less code and more joy.
This book is particularly well suited to those with little or no experience with web application development, or who have some experience but are new to Rails. Beginning Rails assumes basic familiarity with web terms and technologies, but doesn't require you to be an expert.
Topics include:
- A gentle introduction to the Ruby programming language
- Installing Ruby and Rails on a Mac, Linux, or Windows system
- The philosophy behind Rails and why it matters
- The Model-View-Controller architecture
- The basics of relational databases and SQL
- Setting up a MySQL database and creating a schema with migrations
- Experimenting with your live application in the Rails console
- Creating rich relationships between your models
- Using controllers and templates properly
- Leveraging helpers to keep your templates clean and logic free
- Adding Ajax and visual effects to enrich your user interfaces
- JavaScript with Prototype and script.aculo.us
- How to send and receive mail from your application
- Using and creating your own plug-ins
- Ensuring your code against Murphy's Law through writing tests
- Using Capistrano to deploy your application
Rather than delving into the arcane details of Rails, the focus is on the aspects of the framework that will become your pick, shovel, and axe. Part history lesson, part introduction to object-oriented programming, and part dissertation on open source software,
Beginning Rails doesn't just explain how to do something in Rails, it explainswhy.
Every programmer fondly remembers the book that helped them get started. The goal of
Beginning Rails is to become that book for you, today.
Additional text
From the reviews:
"This book on Rails, a Web application development framework based on Ruby language, is both timely and accessible to beginners. … this is an excellent book for a novice in both Web applications and the Rails framework. At the end of the book, the readers will have developed a fairly sophisticated Web application while learning about Rails." (Suma Adabala, ACM Computing Reviews, October, 2008)
Report
From the reviews:
"This book on Rails, a Web application development framework based on Ruby language, is both timely and accessible to beginners. ... this is an excellent book for a novice in both Web applications and the Rails framework. At the end of the book, the readers will have developed a fairly sophisticated Web application while learning about Rails." (Suma Adabala, ACM Computing Reviews, October, 2008)
