It's a good text, but it might be recommended that an Agile Development specific book be read, either beforehand or concurrently, while evolving the knowledge imparted in these pages. "The Art of Agile Development" by James Shore is a good compliment to this reading. Agile of course, does not only apply to Ruby and Rails, but Ruby and Rails are uniquely fashioned to promote Agile techniques. Prior Rails books do not illuminate this connection so well as this one does, if at all. As such, it can be more highly recommended to learn rails via this book as it exposes this connection through-out. As a context sensitive framework, rails can be learned to the degree of exposing just that much, or ... one might learn how to use rails in an fully iterative and collaborative development environment. That statement should clarify the import of this book. One might claim that there is a right way to learn Rails and well then too, the old way. Learn it the right way, using Agile Development practices. One quickly notes that Agile is not just a management tool, but a programmer's development methodology. In fact it transcends many development functions, from product management to testing, final release and continued maintenance and support. Rails as a framework, is enhanced by an understanding of how it fits with Agile. This book goes miles toward making that clear.
Author(s): Sam Ruby, Dave Thomas, David Heinemeier Hansson
Edition: 3
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 731
Contents......Page 5
Preface to the Second Edition......Page 12
Preface to the Third Edition......Page 14
Introduction......Page 16
Rails Is Agile......Page 18
Finding Your Way Around......Page 19
Acknowledgments......Page 21
Getting Started......Page 23
Models, Views, and Controllers......Page 24
Active Record: Rails Model Support......Page 27
Action Pack: The View and Controller......Page 31
Installing on Windows......Page 33
Installing on Mac OS X......Page 35
Installing on Linux......Page 36
Development Environments......Page 37
Rails and Databases......Page 41
Keeping Up-to-Date......Page 42
Rails and ISPs......Page 43
Creating a New Application......Page 44
Hello, Rails!......Page 46
Linking Pages Together......Page 57
What We Just Did......Page 60
Building an Application......Page 62
Incremental Development......Page 63
What Depot Does......Page 64
Let's Code......Page 68
Iteration A1: Get Something Running......Page 69
Create the Products Model and Maintenance Application......Page 74
Iteration A2: Add a Missing Column......Page 79
Iteration A3: Validate!......Page 84
Iteration A4: Prettier Listings......Page 88
Iteration B1: Create the Catalog Listing......Page 95
Iteration B2: Add a Page Layout......Page 99
Iteration B4: Linking to the Cart......Page 101
Sessions......Page 105
Iteration C1: Creating a Cart......Page 109
Iteration C2: A Smarter Cart......Page 112
Iteration C3: Handling Errors......Page 115
Iteration C4: Finishing the Cart......Page 120
Task D: Add a Dash of AJAX......Page 124
Iteration D1: Moving the Cart......Page 125
Iteration D2: An AJAX-Based Cart......Page 130
Iteration D3: Highlighting Changes......Page 133
Iteration D4: Hide an Empty Cart......Page 135
Iteration D5: Degrading If Javascript Is Disabled......Page 139
What We Just Did......Page 140
Iteration E1: Capturing an Order......Page 142
Iteration F1: Adding Users......Page 158
Iteration F2: Logging In......Page 168
Iteration F3: Limiting Access......Page 171
Iteration F4: A Sidebar, More Administration......Page 174
Generating the XML Feed......Page 181
Finishing Up......Page 188
Tests Baked Right In......Page 192
Unit Testing of Models......Page 193
Functional Testing of Controllers......Page 205
Integration Testing of Applications......Page 221
Performance Testing......Page 229
Using Mock Objects......Page 233
The Rails Framework......Page 236
Directory Structure......Page 237
Rails Configuration......Page 244
Naming Conventions......Page 248
Debugging Hints......Page 252
What's Next......Page 254
Generally Available Extensions......Page 256
Enumerations and Arrays......Page 257
String Extensions......Page 258
Extensions to Numbers......Page 260
Time and Date Extensions......Page 261
An Extension to Ruby Symbols......Page 263
with_options......Page 264
Unicode Support......Page 265
Migrations......Page 270
Creating and Running Migrations......Page 272
Anatomy of a Migration......Page 273
Managing Tables......Page 277
Data Migrations......Page 282
Advanced Migrations......Page 285
Schema Manipulation Outside Migrations......Page 289
Managing Migrations......Page 290
Active Record: The Basics......Page 292
Columns and Attributes......Page 293
Primary Keys and IDs......Page 297
Connecting to the Database......Page 299
CRUD---Create, Read, Update, Delete......Page 304
Aggregation and Structured Data......Page 322
Miscellany......Page 329
Active Record: Relationships between Tables......Page 332
Creating Foreign Keys......Page 333
Specifying Relationships in Models......Page 335
belongs_to and has_xxx Declarations......Page 337
Joining to Multiple Tables......Page 352
Self-referential Joins......Page 363
Acts As......Page 364
When Things Get Saved......Page 368
Preloading Child Rows......Page 370
Counters......Page 371
Validation......Page 373
Callbacks......Page 384
Advanced Attributes......Page 391
Transactions......Page 394
The Basics......Page 403
Routing Requests......Page 404
Resource-Based Routing......Page 420
Testing Routing......Page 436
Action Methods......Page 439
Cookies and Sessions......Page 450
Flash---Communicating between Actions......Page 460
Filters and Verification......Page 462
Caching, Part One......Page 470
The Problem with GET Requests......Page 477
Templates......Page 481
Using Helpers......Page 487
Helpers for Formatting, Linking, and Pagination......Page 489
How Forms Work......Page 496
Forms That Wrap Model Objects......Page 498
Custom Form Builders......Page 510
Working with Nonmodel Fields......Page 515
Uploading Files to Rails Applications......Page 518
Layouts and Components......Page 522
Caching, Part Two......Page 530
Adding New Templating Systems......Page 535
Prototype......Page 538
Script.aculo.us......Page 559
RJS Templates......Page 575
Conclusion......Page 582
Sending E-mail......Page 584
Receiving E-mail......Page 595
Testing E-mail......Page 596
What AWS Is (and What It Isn't)......Page 600
The API Definition......Page 601
Dispatching Modes......Page 606
Using Alternate Dispatching......Page 607
Method Invocation Interception......Page 609
Testing Web Services......Page 611
Protocol Clients......Page 614
Secure and Deploy Your Application......Page 615
SQL Injection......Page 616
Creating Records Directly from Form Parameters......Page 618
Don't Trust ID Parameters......Page 620
Don't Expose Controller Methods......Page 621
Cross-Site Scripting (CSS/XSS)......Page 622
Avoid Session Fixation Attacks......Page 624
File Uploads......Page 625
Don't Store Sensitive Information in the Clear......Page 626
Use SSL to Transmit Sensitive Information......Page 627
Knowing That It Works......Page 628
Deployment and Production......Page 630
Starting Early......Page 631
How a Production Server Works......Page 632
Comparing Front-End Web Servers......Page 634
Repeatable Deployments with Capistrano......Page 635
Setting Up a Deployment Environment......Page 636
Checking Up on a Deployed Application......Page 642
Production Application Chores......Page 643
Moving On to Launch and Beyond......Page 645
Appendices......Page 646
Ruby Is an Object-Oriented Language......Page 647
Ruby Names......Page 648
Methods......Page 649
Classes......Page 651
Modules......Page 653
Arrays and Hashes......Page 654
Control Structures......Page 655
Blocks and Iterators......Page 656
Exceptions......Page 657
Ruby Idioms......Page 658
RDoc Documentation......Page 660
Top-Level Configuration......Page 661
Active Record Configuration......Page 663
Action Controller Configuration......Page 665
Action View Configuration......Page 666
Action Mailer Configuration......Page 667
Test Case Configuration......Page 668
The Full Depot Application......Page 669
Online Resources......Page 696
A......Page 697
C......Page 703
D......Page 707
E......Page 709
F......Page 710
H......Page 712
I......Page 713
L......Page 714
M......Page 715
N......Page 716
P......Page 717
R......Page 720
S......Page 723
T......Page 725
U......Page 727
W......Page 728
Z......Page 729
