Product Description

Quickly create Web sites with this poweful tool

Use this free and easy programming language for e-commerce sites and blogs

If you need to build Web and database applications quickly but you don't dream in computer code, take heart! Ruby on Rails was created for you, and this book will have you up and running in no time. The Ruby scripting language and the Rails framework let you create full-featured Web applications fast. It's even fun!

Discover how to

• Install and run Ruby and Rails
• Use the RadRails IDE
• Create a blog with Ruby
• Connect your Web site to a database
• Build a shopping cart
• Explore Ruby's syntax

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #511227 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 330 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780470081204
• Condition: USED - LIKE NEW
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Back Cover
Quickly create Web sites with this poweful tool

Use this free and easy programming language for e-commerce sites and blogs

If you need to build Web and database applications quickly but you don't dream in computer code, take heart! Ruby on Rails was created for you, and this book will have you up and running in no time. The Ruby scripting language and the Rails framework let you create full-featured Web applications fast. It's even fun!

Discover how to

• Install and run Ruby and Rails
• Use the RadRails IDE
• Create a blog with Ruby
• Connect your Web site to a database
• Build a shopping cart
• Explore Ruby's syntax

About the Author
Dr. Barry Burd received an M.S. degree in Computer Science at Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Illinois. As a teaching assistant in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, he was elected to the universitywide “List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students” five times.
Since 1980, Dr. Burd has been a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. When he’s not lecturing at Drew University, Dr. Burd leads training courses for professional programmers in business and industry. He has lectured at conferences in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. He is the author of several articles and books, including Java For Dummies, 4th Edition, and JSP: JavaServer Pages, both from Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A gentle introduction to Ruby on Rails
First I want to make clear who this book is for an who it isn't. If you are a real programmer, not someone like me with just a smattering of PHP and JavaScript, you will find this book entirely too basic. It is a true Dummies book, an introduction not a complete course. If you tried the Ruby on Rails (RoR) bible, Agile Web Development with Rails, and found it a bit over your head, you should find this an kinder and gentler primer.

Ruby on Rails for Dummies assumes absolutely no prior programming experience. It doesn't even assume any command line knowledge. It does assume a decent grounding in HTML and CSS, but that's true of any web based programming book. Going directly from a visual web layout tool to RoR will be too big a leap. It would be like trying to complete a 10 K run after practicing by jogging a mile three times a week for a month or so. You might get through it but the process would be more than a bit painful. But if you have your hand coding chops but no real programming background you should find this book a gentle introduction to Ruby on Rails.

It made a number of ideas clear that the Agile book assumed I was already familiar with. It provides a nice quick start to RadRails, a free RoR development environment, which somewhat insulates you from the straight command line approach taken my more advanced RoR texts and provides a pre-packaged Ruby on Rails development environment. There is also a short introduction to the Ruby programming language. It's very basic but probably helpful.

Ruby on Rails for Dummies proceeds step-by-step through a couple of very simple RoR applications. It's enough to get your feet wet and make more advanced books approachable. It does not provide enough of a knowledge base to actually go out and start developing web applications. You'll still need to get a more advanced book but at least you will have a decent foundation on which to build.

Excellent primer to Ruby, RoR, HTML and RadRails
I could not recommend RoR for Dummies more. It is an excellent book to a person who is looking for what I was looking for: a cohesive intro into RoR.

I am not a programmer and I need to learn how to develop online application, i.e. database driven website (rather than static one using HTML and CSS alone) for our business.

After thorough looking around I decided to go ahead and jump on Ruby, and ride the Rails (the framework within which online applications using Ruby language are built).

The package is playfully called Ruby on Rails, shortly RoR (the book also explains how this name originated).

I chose RoR over other available tools out there like PHP, C# in MS Visual Studio or Java with Struts, and others for the sheer beauty of Ruby. [...]

RoR for Dummies is a bit more than an intro into RoR. It is a succinct primer for the Ruby programming language itself, Rails framework, HTML(!) and RadRails. RadRails is one of the available RoR's IDEs - Integrated Development Environment. IDE refers to a software that integrates working with all the essential parts of RoR in one place (namely Ruby, Rails, HTML, CSS, and some database (MySQL is the 'native' database in RoR). Very much like 'word processor' refers to a software for writing and formatting text documents.

There are also a few paragraphs on databases spread around the book which I found very useful and informative. The book does not delve into CSS, which is understandable; CSS - albeit syntactically very simple - is a powerful formatting tool that can swiftly become challenging animal to tame if one leaves arena of coloring fonts and backgrounds. CSS is a subject matter of plethora of books.

All of the parts necessary for work in RoR are available free of charge for immediate download and use. For a novice, this may seem a daunting task but RoR for Dummies guides reader through the download and installation of all of the parts safely and painlessly. I had no problem installing any of them following the instructions in the book (running Windows XP).

The book is written in such a way that if one knows nothing about any of the topics (I think so, I cannot say about myself that I know nothing about these things), one can still proceed chapter by chapter and get all things done. There were only a handful of points in the book where I felt it was necessary to look elsewhere for additional explanations. And that was simply because I am a curious person and want to know the why's.

The book is also quite funny at times.

Of course that I have a slew of other books to go through in order to get efficient in using RoR. But again, I feel, that RoR for Dummies did excellent job in introducing me to the entire fleet of technologies involved in building an online application using Ruby, Rails, and HTML (the three covered topics).

On the margin, I have a good working knowledge of HTML and CSS. I have some knowledge of Ruby, as I am learning Ruby on my own (I have taken courses on Visual Basic and PHP to get my feet wet in terms of programming). I am also currently taking courses on databases - database design and SQL. All of these pieces are needed for building online applications.

One more thing, RoR/RadRails is not a Dreamweaver - although a huge amount of scripts is generated by Rails (hence the tremendous boost in efficiency of work), RoR/RadRails is not about dialog windows simplifying your job, it is about coding into what was prefabricated for you by Rails.

Not Current and NOT Macintosh Friendly
This book is almost two years old which means it's sorely behind in the advances of Ruby. Worse, it depends on RadRails, an open source program that's constantly evolving. Mr. Burd's RadRails examples are completely outdated. For example, RadRails uses a new layout and uses new extensions on its files.

Worst of all, in spite of the author's flippant remarks that a Mac users should be able to follow along with the examples, his statement is simply not true. There are too many differences between Windows and the Mac OS. I wasted too much time following his directions believing his assessment of the Mac OS was correct. Fortunately I found plenty of tutorials online to skip his set-up instructions so I could get to the meat of his tutorials.

Finally, this is where he falls flat. He gives the reader just enough direction to create his little examples, but not enough solid explanation as to why these steps are taken and what code they create. He continually uses sloppy terminology (and unnecessary jokes) when explaining the intricacies of the code.

Skip this book and its careless job of being dumbed down. Find a tutorial online that fits your unique set up.

Good luck!