1. Ruby On Rails (ROR) Development - Advantages
Ruby On Rails is a full-stack (all parts needed for a Web application are present),
open-source web framework. It lets you write beautiful code by favouring
convention over configuration. It was created in 2003 by David Heinemeier
Hansson and since extended by Rails Core Team. It runs on all major operating
systems like LINUX, OS X and Windows. It supports most common open source
Databases like MySQL and Postgre SQL, SQL Server, Oracle and others. It uses
any Web Server that supports CGI, the most popular being Apache and Lighttpd.
The entire framework is written in Ruby, a language whose popularity has shot
up ever since Rails hit the scene.
Why ROR?
Thanks to ROR, programming now appears like a simple task. Powerful web
applications that have formerly taken weeks or months to develop can be
produced in a matter of days.
There is no doubt that web frameworks have exploded in popularity over the past
few years, and while it is likely that a large part of that growth can be attributed
to ROR, the outpouring of Mobile View Controller (MVC) frameworks in other
languages is no less impressive.
Before we decide on a framework for our project we should list out its purpose
and also know about the development team behind the scenes. 3 considerations
for the projects would be-
1. Primary focus of the application- Is it an eCommerce business, a social
community, a messaging platform or a directory? If we’re building an eCommerce
site, for instance, we may want to choose a framework with some baked-in
libraries with proven extensions for dealing with credit card processing. On the
other hand, a light-weight messaging platform may need to scale very rapidly or
use multiple servers and databases for load balancing and faster connectivity.
2. Hosting Environment- Some frameworks require additional PHP modules or
software installation on the server, which may not be an option in the shared
environments.
Furthermore, a lightweight framework on which everything is self-contained and
highly portable may not provide the best functionality for serious data
manipulation or large information processing. For instance, some frameworks
work best with MySQL while others include libraries for working with key-value
and document store databases.
3. Strengths and weaknesses of developers- It is important to get a sense of the
2. skills and shortcomings of the developer who will actually build and maintain the
application.
Some frameworks are more user-friendly and better for beginners. Just as it is
difficult to start speaking a new language, resistance to switch to a new
framework is an acknowledged fact. But strengths and weaknesses of each
framework has to be laid bare to enable the developer decide what is best suited
to him.
Advantages of ROR over PHP
• ROR is framework and PHP is language. Recently many new standards in ROR
are introduced which PHP frameworks are copying such as CakePHP.
• ROR includes a web server for development whereas a web server has to be
installed for PHP
• ROR implements MVC architecture whereas MVC framework has to be
installed on PHP
• ROR framework provides the Create-Read-Update-Delete (CRUD)
functionality by using Ruby, whereas PHP is language which doesn’t support
this.
• ROR is bit slower than PHP frameworks.
ROR uses a concept called Convention over Configuration which makes us follow
conventions while coding, leaving us with little configuration to do. For instance,
while creating a model class called “Post” the corresponding databases will be
called “Posts” and the controller class will be called “PostsController. Further
Rails has a nice feature called Scaffolding. Scaffolding allows us to create useful
prototypes for clients in superfast times. But we should be aware that it is deemed
bad practice to use scaffolding code for actually building the final draft of a web
application.
When working in a group, it can become hard to keep track of changes to
database. While someone makes a change to the database we could continue to
write a code that expects the field to exist whereas it doesn’t. ROR solves this
problem with Migrations that automatically migrates databases as and when
modifications are made.
The growing demand for Ruby On Rails has been driven by successful companies
who have benefited from the speed and agility of building applications in Rails
resulting in increased productivity and company growth. Around 200,000
websites are using ROR a measure of the success and utility of this framework.
Anil Bhat
Cell : +91 – 9911 720 780
