Agile Web Development with Rails,
2nd Edition by Andreas Schwarz
Third Editiion In Beta
The definitive, Jolt-award winning guide to learning and using Rails is now
in its Second Edition. Rails is a new approach to web-based application
development that enables developers to create full-featured, sophisticated
web-based applications using less code and less effort. Now programmers
can get the job done right and still leave work on time. NEW IN THE
SECOND EDITION: The book has been updated to take advantage of all
the new Rails 1.2 features. The sample application uses migrations, Ajax,
features a REST interface, and illustrates new Rails features. There are
new chapters on migrations, active support, active record, and action
controller (including the new resources-based routing). The Web 2.0 and
Deployment chapters have been completely rewritten to reflect the latest
thinking. Now you can learn which environments are best for your style
application, and see how Capistrano makes managing your site simple. All
the remaining chapters have been extensively updated. Finally, hundreds
of comments from readers of the first edition have been incorporated,

making this book simply the best available. Rails is a full-stack, open
source web framework that enables you to create full-featured,
sophisticated web-based applications with a twist...you can create a full
Rails application using less code than the setup XML youd need just to
configure some other frameworks. With this book, youll learn how to use
Rails Active Record to connect business objects and database tables. No
more painful object-relational mapping. Just create your business objects
and let Rails do the rest. Youll learn how to use the Action Pack
framework to route incoming requests and render pages using easy-to-
write templates and components. See how to exploit the Rails service
frameworks to send emails, talk to web services, and interact dynamically
with JavaScript applications running in the browser (the Ajax architecture).
Youll see how easy it is to deploy Rails. Youll be writing applications that
work with your favorite database (MySQL, Oracle, Postgres, and more) in
no time at all.
Personal Review: Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd
Edition by Andreas Schwarz
OK, I'm coming to rails late. I've played with Ruby on and off for about a
year. I though it was a bit of a "kitchen sink" language until I got a good
kick in the head by Neil Ford.
So this week I picked up this book (version 2) and I started reading it. It is,
as far as technical books go, a page turner.
It gives a basic overview and the walks through an example as a tutorial.
I recommend you learn a little Ruby first (not necessary but makes working
through the examples more focused on Rails rather than Ruby and Rails).
If you want to learn about Ruby on Rails and get an idea of what web
development should be, read this book. THEN, the next time you need to
start working on a site for a customer, sit down with them and start
developing the site in real-time.
If they don't like Ruby, call it an "executable requirements description".
Eventually, they might even think that the solution is good as is. If not, you
still have a better explanation of where to go.
After Rails, I'm going back to RSpec and story tests and examine the
maturity of developing a Ruby solution using TDD. I'm pretty sure it's
already being done, so I just need to get on that learning curve.
This is a GREAT book. Get it, read it, TYPE in the examples - ok maybe
download the CSS's and the style-sheet.
WARNING: the material related to OS X installation is a bit out of date.
Use macports and install mysql, rb-mysql, rails, ruby (and I'm probably
forgetting something), change your path to point to where that stuff got

installed (probably /opt/local/bin/) and you'll be good to go - once you get
mysql setup. There are some chicken scratchings here:
http://schuchert.wikispaces.com/Ruby.RailsConfiguration.OSX, or do a
google search. It'll be October 2008 before I actually put up good details,
but it'll happen.
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