Ready to transport your web applications into the Web 2.0 era? Head First Rails takes your programming -- and productivity -- to the max. You'll learn everything from the fundamentals of Rails scaffolding to building customized interactive web apps using Rails' rich set of tools and the MVC framework. By the time you're finished, you'll have learned more than just another web framework. You'll master database interactions, integration with Ajax and XML, rich content, and even dynamic graphing of your data -- all in a fraction of the time it takes to build the same apps with Java, PHP, ASP.NET, or Perl. You'll even get comfortable and familiar with Ruby, the language that underpins Rails. But you'll do it in the context of web programming, and not through boring exercises such as "Hello, World!" Your time is way too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First Rails uses a visually rich format designed to take advantage of the way your brain really works.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 14 Ratings

Little outdated, but a good first start for new Rails Developers - 2010-01-10
Reviewer Rating:
I've just started getting back into Rails after playing with it 4 years ago when the framework was still in its infancy. Also I have the benefit of experience with other Web Development frameworks like ASP.NET so I'm not unfamiliar with how the web works. If you understand the basics of how web development works on every framework, you will fly through this book and be eager to learn more.

This book is great for anyone with decent programming background to pick up the basics of Rails and quickly start following the exercises to create working applications. However it does fall short in a few areas.

As other reviewers have stated, it is a little outdated in terms of the conventions being used regarding routes, REST, etc. Also it doesn't touch at all on the unit testing aspect of Rails (a HUGELY important part of the framework in my opinion). I suspect that we will see a second edition of this book soon after Rails 3 lands later this year.

So while this is a good book to get started with Rails, its imperative to move onto an advanced book soon after. I'm planning to read the Ruby Way by Hal Fulton to understand Ruby a bit better, and then switch to The Rails Way by Obie Fernandez. This triple play will probably be enough to really get started with Rails.

Not for folks serious about developing web apps using Rails - 2009-12-11
Reviewer Rating:
I got a copy of this book from my library since the hype surrounding Ruby on Rails spiked my curiosity enough to see it for myself.

I am a developer from the .NET camp and read the book without any prior Ruby or Rails knowledge. After finishing the book, I could see how Ruby on Rails makes developing web applications easy and the support the framework provides for simple tasks and plumbing required in any web app. However, If you want to go beyond creating a dummy, overly simplistic web-app, it would require much more ground work and understanding of Ruby, the language as well as grasping lots of concepts around Rails. This book will not give you either.

The book is ideal for people wanting to explore casually the possibilities that Ruby on Rails offers and give a 50,000 feet overview of the framework but for serious programmers trying to learn the foundations to aid in real-world web app development need to look elsewhere.

Great rails book - 2009-09-24
Reviewer Rating:
This is the best Rails book I have picked up. It really explains what is happening within a rails application at each step of the process while you build - most other rails books simply have you build an application and hope that you pick up what is happening from the code that you are writing. This one is different. Highly recommended!

Starts strong, finishes a bit vaguely - 2009-06-18
Reviewer Rating:
I'm ambivalent about the Head First series. I acknowledge the validity of the concepts behind it, but somehow I can't quite ignore the taint of condescension inherent in the format. Reading the Head First books always feels like a shameful and remedial act.

That said, this is the first Rails book that made complete sense to me. I read a couple of other Rails books out of curiosity, but although I got the general drift, there was still a significant chasm between reading the books and actually going out and building a Rails application. After Head First Rails, I did my next little project in Rails and everything worked out great. I got it.

My main complaint is that the second half tackles material that really has no business being in a Head First book. For example, several of the later chapters involve increasingly sophisticated mashups of the Google Maps API. This seems like a specialized and peripheral application to me, whereas the strengths of the Head First format are in conveying fundamental concepts. It's odd to have multiple chapters on Google Maps and nothing on the various flavors of many-to-many relationships supported by ActiveRecord, for example.

I really enjoyed the "inductive approach" - 2009-05-19
Reviewer Rating:
I have extensive experience in both structured and OO programming, but I had never tried the Ruby on Rails framework before - although this technology has been of interest to me for almost two years.

This is the reason why I decided to get a Rails book. I was happy to get "Head First Rails" and "give it a go".

It has been my first book of the "Head First" series. And I must admit I found this learning methodology to be brilliant.

The inductive approach consistently used throughout the book allows students to ask themselves questions and be actively part of the learning process. Starting from observations and examples, the student is encouraged to discover the rules behind this language (probably the term "conventions" is more appropriate).

In my opinion, the concepts that are learnt this way are more solid. I have to say though that this book is mainly targeted to students with good web design concepts and no Rails background. Although Rails has extensive and detailed documentation, I believe the inductive approach makes this book worthwhile.

After a very interesting and comprehensive introductory chapter, which allows users to rapidly create a small web application, the book explains what "scaffolding" is (a Rails technique for faster setup of conventional web applications), when to use it and when not to use it.
The book covers also database interaction (I really appreciated the examples on PostgreSQL, my favourite RDBMS) and CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update and Delete) on database records.

Throughout its 400+ pages, full of images and figures (necessary for the inductive approach), the book cannot extensively cover all the aspects
of an Object Oriented programming framework for web applications. Some aspects are just introduced (routing, validation, XML, REST). However, in my opinion, the book does not fail in helping readers get into Rails
for the first time.

I recommend this book, possibly with parallel readings from the official Rails documentation. Hence I give this book 4 stars (out of 5).

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