Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development with Rails

“Ruby on Rails™ Tutorial by Michael Hartl has become a must-read for developers learning how to build Rails apps.”

— Peter Cooper, Editor of Ruby Inside

Best-selling author and leading Rails developer Michael Hartl teaches Rails by guiding you through the development of three example applications of increasing sophistication. The tutorial’s examples focus on the general principles of web development needed for virtually any kind of website. The updates to this edition include full compatibility with Rails 5, a division of the largest chapters into more manageable units, and a huge number of new exercises interspersed in each chapter for maximum reinforcement of the material.

This indispensable guide provides integrated tutorials not only for Rails, but also for the essential Ruby, HTML, CSS, and SQL skills you need when developing web applications. Hartl explains how each new technique solves a real-world problem, and then he demonstrates it with bite-sized code that’s simple enough to understand, yet novel enough to be useful. Whatever your previous web development experience, this book will guide you to true Rails mastery.

This book will help you

• Install and set up your Rails development environment, including pre-installed integrated development environment (IDE) in the cloud
• Go beyond generated code to truly understand how to build Rails applications from scratch
• Learn testing and test-driven development (TDD)
• Effectively use the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern
• Structure applications using the REST architecture
• Build static pages and transform them into dynamic ones
• Master the Ruby programming skills all Rails developers need
• Create high-quality site layouts and data models
• Implement registration and authentication systems, including validation and secure passwords
• Update, display, and delete users
• Upload images in production using a cloud storage service
• Implement account activation and password reset, including sending email with Rails
• Add social features and microblogging, including an introduction to Ajax
• Record version changes with Git and create a secure remote repository at Bitbucket
• Deploy your applications early and often with Heroku

Michael Hartl is a best-selling author and founder of the educational website LearnEnough.com. His prior experience includes writing and developing RailsSpace, an extremely obsolete Rails tutorial book, and developing Insoshi, a once-popular and now-obsolete social networking platform in Ruby on Rails. In 2011, Michael received a Ruby Hero Award for his contributions to the Ruby community. He is a graduate of Harvard College, has a Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech, and is an alumnus of the Y Combinator entrepreneur program.