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.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

Great Intro Rails Book - 2009-05-28
Reviewer Rating:
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.

Great, But Watch Out - 2009-07-25
Reviewer Rating:
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.

Nice Intro to Rails - 2009-07-10
Reviewer Rating:
This book is definitely a very nice introduction to RoR. After having read the whole book I'm going to the classic AWD with Rails 3rd edition. That book's 'Depot' application is a lot of fun. However, I can't help but feel that Learning Rails has given me such a nice "ramp up" that I'm not left wondering what's going on with the Depot application.

Good explanations on what things are and how they work (i.e. Controllers, Partials, etc.); good overall rails coverage; as of my review, a pretty timely book - 2009; but a bit week on rationale (but this is probably not to be expected from a "get up and running" type of book -- for this I've started with The Art of Rails which is so far a great theoretical type book).

4 stars because, although I know there's no way to not have errors, there are a LOT of typos in the book. That being said, if you keep the errata open while you study you should be ok; nothing too preventative, just some minor annoyances. I've tried to add to the errata myself when possible. The next edition of this book will probably iron out these issues and will be a 5 star book. The other reason I knocked off a star is because the later chapters just seemed a wee bit "rushed" to me.

Overall, I'm glad I used this book to ramp up on RoR!

Consider writing the next level text with the same focus - 2009-03-31
Reviewer Rating:
I saw this text in a local book-store and browsed through it extensively. I did not buy it since I am a bit beyond the intended target audience for this book, but if I was learning rails then I would have definitely bought this along with Simply Rails 2 which was very useful to me in Rails 1.2.x days.

I would encourage the authors to take their work to the next level. That is, keep the view centric focus but write an intermediate to advanced text which allows users to create professional looking UIs with Rails rapidly and consistently. More important, teach us how to create our own UI toolkit in Rails to build application rapidly and with confidence. I am building mine and it is slow and painful going, but I must do it if I want to take my skills to the next level. Towards that, if I have any help I would be very happy to pay for it. Ryan Bates' screencasts for Pragmatic Programmers are a very good example. We need a few more books with intermediate to advanced view focus.

Rails Demystified! - 2009-03-29
Reviewer Rating:
I have been playing with Rails for several weeks, and I was rather confused until I picked up this excellent book. Reading it has brought me realization after realization about how Rails works.

What was especially helpful to me was that the book did not start (as most other Rails books do) from setting up the model (database), but instead started with the view (ruby-embedded html), something much easier to get my head around. I think this makes the book an excellent choice for those with experience in web design but little programming experience, those who have some programming experience but are not familiar with the how the model-view-controller paradigm is implemented by Rails (as I wasn't), those who have limited experience with SQL (mine is), or really for anyone who is confused about what Rails does and wants to know how to use it.

There is a Ruby reference included in the book, but those who are not familiar with Ruby at all might want to check out an online tutorial or read the first few chapters of a beginning Ruby book (such as Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional) ). While it isn't strictly necessary, Rails is based on Ruby and having some knowledge of Ruby made everything more clear to me (I read the first few chapters of the aforementioned book). The authors suggest some knowledge of HTML, but just a glancing acquaintance with HTML will do.

This book reads like taking a course, if that makes sense. Simon St. Laurent and Edd Dumbill have anticipated the questions that those new to rails will have (for example, how do I set the default page for Rails applications?) and answered them clearly. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

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