Ruby on Rails Enterprise Application Development: Plan, Program, Extend Book

Building a complete Ruby on Rails business application from start to finish Create a non-trivial, business-focused Rails applicationSolve the real-world problems of developing and deploying Rails applications in a business environmentApply the principles behind Rails development to practical real-world situations In Detail All businesses have processes that can be automated via computer applications, thereby reducing costs and simplifying everyday operations. This book demonstrates that a modern web application framework makes an ideal platform for such applications. It shows how the attributes that make the Rails framework so successful for Internet applications also provide great benefit within a business intranet. These attributes include easy roll-out and update of applications, centralized processing and data handling, simple maintenance, straightforward code development, and scalability. Ruby on Rails is an open-source web application framework ideally suited to building business applications, accelerating and simplifying the creation of database-driven websites. Often shortened to Rails or RoR, it provides a stack of tools to rapidly build web applications based on the Model-View-Controller design pattern. This book covers topics such as installing Ruby, Rubygems, and Rails on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X; choosing and installing a database; installing an IDE for Rails development; setting up a Subversion repository to manage your code; creating a new Rails application; understanding Rails models; understanding controllers and views; improving user interfaces with Ajax; using Rails plugins to manage file uploads; using Capistrano to manage application deployment; techniques for scaling Rails applications, such as caching and using Apache to proxy through to the Mongrel server. The example application is straightforward to develop, easy to roll out, and simple to maintain. What you will learn from this book? Creating a new Rails applicationInstalling an IDE for RailsConnecting Rails to a databaseUtilizing Rails' Model-View-Controller componentsSetting up Mongrel with ApacheAdding Ajax to your Rails applicationBacking up Rails applicationsAdding an authentication system to your applicationOptimizing Rails applications using cachingScaling up your Rails production infrastructure using Apache, Mongrel, and load balancing Approach This book concentrates on application development as a whole process and is intended to complement existing Rails tutorials. Each chapter deals with a key feature or functional area of a complex, full-scale Rails application. Who this book is written for? This book is aimed at developers who want to find out how to rapidly build easily-deployed, easily-supported business applications. It is for developers who have learned Ruby on Rails, probably from one of the tutorial books, and want to apply that knowledge to effectively build full, realistic applications.Read More