August 30, 2006; 05:04 AM
Rails may just be the most important open source project to be
introduced in the last ten years. So claim Bruce Tate and Curt Hibbs,
authors of the just-released Ruby on Rails: Up and Running
(O'Reilly, US $29.99). They're certainly not alone in their belief. Now
in its second year of existence, the framework has seen (by a
conservative estimate) more than half a million downloads. The
publishing world has rallied in support of Rails developers; in fact,
by December 2006, according to Tate and Hibbs, we're likely to see more
books on Rails than on any of Java's single flagship frameworks,
including JSF, Spring, or Hibernate.
What makes Rails different from the other quick-and-dirty
environments out there is that Rails lets developers keep the quick and
leave the dirty behind. "It lets you build clean applications based on
the model-view-controller philosophy," Tate and Hibbs explain. "Rails
is a special framework."
"Ruby on Rails is the harbinger of a new way of developing
software," adds Hibbs. "Future generations of software developers will
look back and recognize this as the opening volley in a revolution that
pushed productivity to new heights." Rich internet applications, Ajax,
Web 2.0, social web apps, interconnectedness, and mashups will all be
part of this: "Ruby on Rails is one of the enablers at the center of
this revolution."
The advantage of using Rails is that development becomes much
simpler; programmers can focus on the creative parts of their
applications rather than on the wiring and plumbing. "Ruby on Rails: Up
and Running" provides a quick, no-nonsense introduction that takes
developers from zero to full speed in seven chapters (167 pages in
all). The book shows how to build real applications, covering
everything from using scaffolding to "test the waters" to writing
responsive, user-pleasing applications with Ajax.
"Our book will quickly launch readers into a basic understanding of
Ruby on Rails, offering enough knowledge and guidance to point them
down the path of full mastery," says Hibbs. But the book goes even
further. It shows the established programmer, armed with nothing more
than a little Ruby knowledge, how to go beyond the basics and become
productive in Rails. The book covers:
Using ActiveRecord to work with a database
Using Migrations to modify a database without using SQL
Modeling relationships between tables in a database
Building controllers to express an application's fundamental operations
Developing HTML views with templates
Incorporating Ajax features into applications
Writing unit tests, functional tests, and integration tests
Hibbs acknowledges that determined would-be Ruby on Rails users can
find most of the information in the book on the Internet. "However, if
they want the shortest, easiest way to jumpstart their knowledge of
Ruby on Rails, this book will save them a lot of time."
Ruby on Rails: Up and Running doesn't attempt to reiterate
the reference manual. Instead, it presents the big picture of how Rails
applications hold together. It shows readers where to go for
information that isn't covered in the chapters. Readers will see how
Rails dynamically adds features to all database models, called Active
Record objects. Then, by understanding the big picture, they'll be able
to make better use of the best reference manuals to fill in the
details. In short, this book gives readers the foundation they need to
get up and running. If you want to work with Ruby on Rails, it's the
book you have to have.
About O'Reilly
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computer technologies. The company's books, conferences, and web sites
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