Getting Started with Ruby on Rails: A Compilation of Resources

Are you interested in checking out this innovative web development platform? The following resources were helpful when I was getting started, hopefully you will also find them helpful. Except for the last section, all resources compiled here are absolutely free! This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but a hand-picked selection of worth-while resources.

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Index

1. What Ruby on Rails is about
   1. Rails as a web application framework
   2. Ruby as a freedom language
2. Setting up an efficient developing environment
   1. Eclipse for Rails
   2. RadRails
3. Developing your first application
4. Getting a better grasp on Ruby
5. Getting started with Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) within Ruby on Rails
   1. What is AJAX about?
   2. AJAX on Rails
   3. Javascript
6. Keeping up-to-date
7. Once you are convinced and are actually willing to invest a bit of money

• Start at the Beginning by Matt Lightner
• What is Ruby on Rails by Curt Hibbs

• Freedom languages by Kevin Barnes

For a nice description of all the necessary software to install see Install & Configure Apache, PHP, JSP, Ruby on Rails, MySQL, PHPMyAdmin & WordPress on Windows XP/2000 by Jeff Lundberg.

For development in Rails and Java, the Eclipse IDE has worked great for me. I have found two ways to add Ruby on Rails specific features to the Eclipse environment. I have both of them installed.

Brian Hogan explains how to set up Eclipse manually in Setting up a Rails Development Environment on Windows Using Eclipse and offers Eclipse for Rails as a pre-packaged development environment.

It is very flexible and works with Edge Rails. The only downside I can see is that all the commands are crammed up in a single button in the toolbar.

RadRails is nicely packaged as a plugin. The servers and generators are easily accessible as tabs on a bottom pane.

What I don't like about RadRails:

• The consoles can easily clutter up since each time you start and stop a server a new console is added and you cannot get rid of previous consoles.
• If there is a bug in the start up code, the server gets stuck on "Starting..." Not even restarting Eclipse gets rid of it. You can solve this by deleting the file .servers in your_app_path \ .metadata \ .plugins \ org.radrails.server.core after having closed RadRails. Start again and the annoying message won't be there but neither will the servers which you have to re-create.
• Edge Rails doesn't quite work with RadRails. For instance, Edge Rails is now using Mongrel as the default server instead of webrick, nevertheless RadRails insists on loading webrick.

• Rolling with Ruby on Rails by Curt Hibbs
• Rolling with Ruby on Rails, Part 2 by Curt Hibbs
• Four Days on Rails by John McCreesh
• Using Ruby on Rails for Web Development on Mac OS X by Mike Clark (thanks rick for pointing out this resource!)
• Understanding What Methods Go Where by Brian Luczkiewicz
• RubyGems Documentation Index. Installed with Ruby.
  • First you have to start the rdoc server. For the Windows installation go to the Ruby folder under All Programs and click on the Start RubyGems RDoc Server short-cut.
  • Now load the main page by clicking on the View Installed Gems Rdoc short-cut
  • To see the documentation for the various libraries in Rails click over the [rdoc] link under en actionpack.
  • To see the documentation on Active Records click over the [rdoc] link under en activerecord.

As rick has pointed out in the comments sections, care should be taken since some of these resources are outdated, given that the Rails platform still in active development. Complement them with up-to-date posts such as Guide: Things You Shouldn't Be Doing In Rails by Kevin Clark. See the keeping up-to-date section for more updated resources.

• Programming Ruby, The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide by Dave Thomas.
• Documentation for Ruby's built-in classes and modules
• RubyGem's documentation

• Ajax: a New Approach to Web Application by Jesse James Garrett

• Ajax on Rails by Curt Hibbs

Javascript is an indispensable ingredient in the Ajax recipe, for which a good handle of Javascript is a must in order to develop Ajax-enabled websites. Here are a couple of good sites for Javascript:

• Javascript Tutorial
• Scriptaculous

As a platform still in active development, keeping up-to-date is indispensable. I recommend keeping a close eye on the following sites; they all have RSS feeds which you can read via your favorite RSS reader (I use Google Reader) or podcasts:

• Official Ruby on Rails Wiki
• Official Ruby on Rails Blog
• Loud Thinking by David Heinemeier Hansson
• PragDave by Dave Thomas
• Rails Podcast by Geoffrey Grosenbach
• Gluttonous by Kevin Clark
• has_many :through by Josh Susser
• RailsExpress.blog by Stefan Kaes

The following two books are a definite buy:

• Agile Web Development with Rails--Second Edition by Dave Thomas, Mike Clark, and David Heinemeier Hansson
• Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide, Second Edition by Dave Thomas, with Chad Fowler and Andy Hunt

Technorati tags: ruby on rails, ruby-on-rails, Ruby, Ajax, Rails, eclipse, javascript

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