Ruby on Rails Tutorial

Ruby on Rails is an extremely productive web application framework written in Ruby. This tutorial gives you a complete understanding on Ruby on Rails.

What is Ruby on Rails?

Ruby on Rails (or simply Rails) is a server-side web framework. It follows the MVC (model view controller) pattern for the application development. It is written in Ruby programming language.

Rails is a full-stack framework that comes with all the tools that facilitate rapid application development. In addition to the web apps, Rails is also used in developing APIs and SaaS (software-as-a-service) applications.

Ruby on Rails Features

Some of the important features of Rails are as follows −

MVC

MVC stands for Model-View-Controller. It is a well-known software architectural pattern that enables the separation of concerns in an application and hence it makes the code easier to understand and maintain.

CoC: Convention over Configuration

Rails follows a set of naming conventions, which allows you to focus on solving business-specific problems. For example, if your code has a model called Employee, Rails associates with the employee table, thus it becomes easier to query the database without explicitly writing SQL queries.

DRY: Don't repeat yourself

Rails follows this established principle in software development, whereby the repetition of same piece of code or information is avoided.

Scaffolding

Rails provides this useful feature which lets you generate a standard structure of the project and autogenerates the models, its controllers and the corresponding views for a given resource in a single operation. It is an important feature that greatly contributes to the rapid application development.

Testing

Testing the application is an important aspect of web development. Rails offers testing tools such as RSpec and Minitest.

Installing Ruby on Rails

Rails can be installed on Windows, Linux as well as MacOS operating systems.

To develop a Rails application, you need to have Ruby installed on your system, which you can download from https://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/ (for Windows) or for Linux and MacOS, use the gem install command for the purpose.

Note that you may need to install certain dependencies for Linux and MacOS installation. You can also install Ruby as well as Rails in WSL if using the latest versions of Windows.

Getting Started with Ruby on Rails

Make sure that you have installed Ruby and Ruby on Rails on your machine. Create a new Rails app with the following command −

rails new myapp

Change to the myapp directory and run the following command to create a controller named index and action named index.

rails generate controller index index

Create a new file in the src folder with the name index_controller.rb and add the index action.

class IndexController < ApplicationController
  def index
end
  end

Create a Rails template with name index.html.erb and add the following code −

<h1>Hello World</h1>

Edit the config/routes.rb file and define a route

Rails.application.routes.draw do
   root "index#index"
end

Run the Puma server built-in with the Rails installation

bin/rails server

Visit the URL https://localhost:3000/ to get Hello world text displayed in the browser.

What is Ruby on Rails Used for?

Ruby on Rails is used to build web applications and services. It is employed in developing eCommerce sites, social media platforms and other custom web applications. Rails finds its use in building Software as a service (SaaS) application.

Because of its ease of use and open-source licensing, it is adapted by the startups. An active community of Rails developers is also one of its advantages.

Who Invented Ruby on Rails?

David Heinemeier Hansson, a Danish programmer, entrepreneur, and writer is credited as the creator of Ruby on Rails. He extended his work on the project management tool Basecamp into this framework. Hansson first released Rails as open source in July 2004. In 2007, Apple shipped this framework with Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard".

Rails is distributed under the MIT license. https://rubyonrails.org/ is the official website for Ruby on Rails. Its latest version 8.0.1 was released in December 2024.

How to Check Rails Version?

To check the Rails version, open a command terminal of your operating system and use the command −

rails -v

This will display the version of Rails software installed on your system.

How to Learn Rails?

Start by setting up your Development environment with Ruby and Rails installed. An extensive Ruby on Rails Guide is available on https://guides.rubyonrails.org/index.html. You can learn Ruby on Rails with the help of several online tutorials including the one at Ruby on Rails.

Like with any technology, it always helps to keep practicing by building simple projects to reinforce your understanding, gradually adding more advanced features as you progress. Rails is frequently updated. Stay in touch with the latest Rails features and employ them by working on real-world projects or contributing to open-source projects to sharpen your skills.

Disadvantages of Rails

Ruby on Rails is an opinionated framework which means it guides you into their way of doing things. Due to its "slow" runtime speed, which makes it harder to scale your RoR applications. Another issue is that the frequent updates to the Rails framework make it difficult to maintain compatibility.

Skills Required for Becoming a Rails Developer

To become a Rails developer, you will need strong Ruby programming skills, a solid understanding of web development concepts, proficiency in the functioning of MVC framework (on which Rails is built). You also need to be familiar with databases and SQL, and should be able to work with Git.

Which Companies Use Ruby on Rails?

Shopify, a leading e-commerce platform that relies heavily on Ruby on Rails for its backend functionality.

GitHub is built using Ruby on Rails. It is a popular code hosting platform.

Rails itself was extracted from the project management tool, Basecamp.

Ruby on Rails is also used by Airbnb, which is a widely popular online accommodation booking system.

Careers and Opportunities in Ruby and Rails

Rails is one of the popular web development frameworks. For someone proficient in Rails there are many career opportunities such as a web developer where you'll be responsible for building and maintaining web applications. A Rails developer is often required to work on both the front-end and back-end of applications. If you prefer focusing on server-side logic, you can specialize as a back-end developer.

Proficiency in Ruby and Rails along with good knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is essential. You should also be comfortable working with databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL. Another desirable skill is Version Control, API design and application testing.

Who Should Learn Ruby on Rails

This tutorial has been designed for beginners who would like to use the Ruby framework for developing database-backed web applications.

Prerequisites to Learn Ruby on Rails

You need to have a basic knowledge of Ruby and object-oriented programming to understand this tutorial. In addition, you need to be familiar with internet and websites programming in general.