Simply Rails 2: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Ruby on Rails

Want to learn all about Ruby on Rails 2.0, the web application framework that is inspiring developers around the world?

The second edition of this practical, hands on book will:

• show you how to install Ruby on Rails on Windows, Mac, or Linux
• walk you, step by step, through the development of a Web 2.0 social news application, just like digg.com
• show you how to test, debug, benchmark, and deploy your Rails application

Unlike other Rails books, this book doesn't assume that you are an experienced web developer, or that you've used Ruby before. An entire chapter is devoted to learning Ruby in a fun way, using the interactive Ruby console, so you can follow along at home. You'll be an accomplished Ruby programmer in no time!

The example application that the book builds - a user-generated news web site - is built upon with each following chapter, and concepts such as sessions, cookies and basic AJAX usage are gradually introduced. Different aspects of Rails, such as user authentication, session cookies, and automated testing are explored with each feature that is added to the application.

The book finishes with chapters on debugging, benchmarking and deployment to a live web server.

By the end of the book, you'll have built a fully-featured Web 2.0 application and deployed it to the Web. And all code is up-to-date for Rails 2.0, so you can begin coding immediately with the latest version of Rails.

What Will You Learn?

This book will teach you how to:

• Program with confidence in the Ruby language.
• Build and deploy a complete Rails web application.
• Exploit the new features available in Rails 2.
• Use Rails' Ajax features to create slick interfaces.
• Reap the benefits of a best-practice MVC architecture.
• Work with databases easily using ActiveRecord.
• Implement RESTful development patterns and clean URLs.
• Create a user authentication system.
• Use object oriented concepts like inheritance and polymorphism.
• Build a comprehensive automated testing suite for your application.
• Add plugins to easily enhance your application's functionality.
• Use migrations to manage your database schema without data loss.
• Achieve maximum code reuse with filters and helper functions.
• Debug your application using the ruby_debug client.
• Analyze your application's performance using the Rails logging infrastructure.
• Benchmark your application to determine performance bottlenecks.
• And a whole lot more