This article aims to introduce you to Ruby on Rails, a framework specifically designed for dynamic website development.
Ruby on Rails.
Unless you constantly have a nose in websites and / or magazines dedicated to the world open source, this triplet of words assembled oddly probably tells you nothing.
This situation should not last. I'm ready to take the gamble you'll hear a lot about Ruby on Rails in the coming months. I am even convinced that Ruby on Rails will become, thanks to its many qualities, one of the essential development platforms of the coming years.
If I give you this information in a somewhat brutal and a little provocative way, it is because I have discovered in Ruby on Rails a development platform particularly well thought out. It was built by web development specialists who wanted to create an open source development platform (so free) allowing developers to focus - finally! - on the business processes they have at develop, without being polluted by technical issues remote from the needs of their customers. After Several months of study of this product, I am today deeply convinced that they have succeeded their bet.
Ruby on Rails, what is it?
In "Ruby on Rails" there is "Ruby". If Ruby on Rails is a website development platform, Ruby is the language on which this platform is based. Ruby is older than Ruby on Rails. The first version of this language was created in 1993 by a Japanese named Yukihiro Matsumoto. According to him, Matsumoto wanted to create a language "more powerful than Perl and more object than Python". He seems to have succeeded.
The Ruby's clear syntax, complete object orientation, and powerful class libraries make it an ideal Versatile language suitable for many fields. The craze for Ruby is such that like his older Python and Perl, it now has a port on most operating systems: Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OS and Be0S. All that is missing is the iSeries, but we can expect IBM to close this gap quickly. Yes you doubt it, take the time to read more.
Ruby would be just another programming language (so without much interest) if it had not been chosen to become the base of a much more ambitious project, I named Ruby on Rails.
Ruby on Rails is a development framework designed specifically for website development dynamic. It was developed by the company 37 Signals, initially to serve as a base for the management software of
Basecamp project. Ruby on Rails proved so good that 37 Signals decided to make it a standalone software whole, made available to the greatest number in the form of an open source product. The first version of Ruby on Rails (also called "Rails" or "RoR" by slackers) appeared on the market in mid-2004.
Ruby on Rails is part of the evolution of Web 2.0-oriented development tools. It is based on architecture MVC (for "Model-View-Controller") which allows to separate treatments, data and presentation. This architecture makes it possible to quickly develop robust, maintainable and scalable applications. Ruby on Rails supports Ajax and offers many tools to simplify its use.
To date, Ruby on Rails is able to attack several databases, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, DB2 of IBM, Oracle, etc ... IBM has also understood the value of such a development tool and provides recently a version of Ruby on Rails integrating DB2 Express-C (which I mentioned in a previous article) to replace of MySQL. This version is simply called "DB2 on Rails". If it interests you, you can download for free from the IBM site (you will find the link to the IBM site at the end of this article).
The publisher of DBMS Oracle offers the same service with a packaged version of Ruby on Rails for its database lighthouse (see link at the end of the article). ##
I hope through this quick presentation have aroused your curiosity for Ruby on Rails. If that's the case, I offers a selection of websites to help you get started in studying this great tool of development.
The sites around Ruby and Rails:
For starters, some essential links to deepen the very fast presentation I just made.
You will find links to most official sites and even msore:
- Ruby's presentation on Wikipedia
- Ruby on Rails on Wikipedia
- Wiki definition of the MVC architecture
- Wiki portal dedicated to Ruby on Rails
Here are the links to a selection of very interesting sites, which you will not necessarily find on Wikipedia:-
- Ruby on Rails official website
- Ruby online documentation
- Another Ruby Initiation
- Official site of the Ruby language
- DB2 on Rails: here is the link to the IBM site where you can download the framework in a version specific to DB2. Attention, the version of DB2 Express-C provided with DB2 on Rails is the one dedicated to Windows XP Pro.
- A Ruby intro for DB2 developers
- Flash tutorials to get started with DB2 on Rails
- An intro to Ruby on Rails for Oracle developers (1)
- Another intro to Ruby on Rails for Oracle developers (2)
The tools of the developer Ruby on Rails:
The search for development tools to improve the comfort of the developer is a recurring topic in development forums, and Rails developers are no exception.
On the Macintosh, the Textmate editor is unanimously supported by the Rails developer community.
On Windows and Linux, there is a large choice of editors to work on Ruby. For my part, I use Notepad ++, which I find very powerful (user friendly, fast and resource-intensive). other developers appreciate Scite which comes standard with Ruby. Some developers use Jext which is a Multi platform editor developed in Java. Other publishers are under development, such as Intype which seems promising and is currently available in alpha version.
Developers looking for an IDE will be able to turn to Radrails which is an IDE based on eclipse, or to RoRED. Another solution, EasyEclipse open source product extremely complete, but requiring muscular material configurations.
Other tools available to developers include InstantRails which is a project-based software open source EasyPhp, well known Php developers. It allows to install the trio MySql / Apache / Rails in one only pass.
END OF TUTORIAL...........
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