Product Details
Learning Rails

Learning Rails
By Simon St Laurent, Edd Dumbill

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Product Description

While most books written about Rails cater to programmers looking for information on data structures, "Learning Rails" targets web developers whose programming experience is tied directly to the Web. Rather than begin with the inner layers of a Rails web application--the models and controllers--this unique book approaches Rails development from the outer layer: the application interface. You'll learn how to create something visible with Rails before reaching the more difficult database models and controller code. With "Learning Rails," you can start from the foundations of web design you already know, and then move more deeply into Ruby, objects, and database structures. This book will help you: Present web content by building an application with a basic view and a simple controller, while learning Ruby along the way Build forms and process their results, progressing from the simple to the more complex Connect forms to models by setting up a database, and use Rails' ActiveRecord to create code that maps to database structures Use Rails scaffolding to build applications from a view-centric perspective Add common web application elements such as sessions, cookies, and authentication Build applications that combine data from multiple tables Create simple but dynamic interfaces with Rails and Ajax

Once you complete "Learning Rails," you'll be comfortable working with the Rails web framework, and you'll be well on your way to becoming a Rails guru.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #53889 in Books
  • Published on: 2008-11-01
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 417 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Simon St. Laurent resides in Greensboro, NC. and is currently eimployed by Systems Intergation and Support Services, Inc.


Dumbill is the managing editor of XML.com. He is a software developer, as well as a writer.

Customer Reviews

One of the better places to start with Rails ...5
I am reading this book at present, and agree w/ the "shelleyp" review completely. If you want to get started w/ Rails, this book is an excellent choice, even more so if you are already familiar with HTML/CSS. I also think it's great that they suggest using Heroku, which is a great way to get started w/ Rails!

While all of that is true, however, I can't help but suggest that new-to-Ruby coders look at Sinatra while they are learning Ruby, and grow their apps to Rails via their Rack commonality. Rails is great, but I think it is over-kill and at once overly complicated for the scope of the applications that many new developers are making while getting started. That being said, this is a phenomenal choice for getting started with Rails, and a refreshingly different angle for doing so.

Great, But Watch Out4
I am almost done with the book and I found it much easier to grok than the Agile Rails book. Its likely because the latter book deal with the shopping cart example (and e-commerce was the last thing I wanted to deal with at the time I bought the book), so going through this book was a pleasure. So far, I got some apps up and running thanks to it and I am pretty comfortable going into more advanced at this point.

That said, the code in the book do needs to be proof-read more throughly - a number of times I got stuck in one section, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, only to find by looking at the errata online (or the source code download) that the snippets are wrong. Take my advice - if something broke or didn't work the first time, look at the errata and then source code to make sure the code in the book is correct or not (hopefully, they will correct it in later printings).

With that out the way, I recommend this book to anybody interested in Rails. It'll get you going in short order.

Great Intro Rails Book5
I have been using Rails for going on two years now, but have a penchant for accumulating books on subjects that interest me. I tore into this book the day that it was delivered, and was not disappointed. Very well written, and informative. I picked up a few kernals here and there from the book ( remember, I'm not a total newbie ), which made it worth the money.

If you are not familiar with web development in general, this book alone will not help you. You'll need a basic grasp of the fundamentals: (X)HTML, the general way web development client-side and server-side work, basic data base knowledge. Nothing earth shattering, but none of these things are covered. Though there is a small crash course on the Ruby language, you'd do well to get a beginning book on it as well, for better understanding, though the author does describe what his code does.

The book does what it's charter describes well. It can bring you up to speed with the basics of Rails. I liked it, and recommend it.