Learn professional-grade web application development with Ruby on Rails
The Ruby on Rails Tutorial, 6th Ed. Application Development 02
Since its publication in 2010, the Ruby on Rails Tutorial has been one of the leading introductions to web development. In this bestselling tutorial, you’ll learn how to develop and deploy real, industrial-strength web applications with Ruby on Rails, the open-source web framework that powers top websites such as Hulu, GitHub, Shopify, and Airbnb.
An intro to our
Learning MaterialsThe Learn Enough tutorials are available as books, downloadable videos, and online courses. Ruby on Rails Tutorial includes 883 pages of book content and 20 hours of video.
Courses (by Monthly Subscription)
Full online version of the book content, embedded streaming videos for all sections, exercises with editable answers, progress tracking, and membership in the Learn Enough Society (community exercise answers, private chat group). Pause your subscription at any time!
ebooks (Online and Offline)
Online HTML version accessible from any web browser, downloadable ebooks in all common formats (EPUB, MOBI/Kindle, PDF). Files are yours to keep forever!
Offline Screencasts
Downloadable versions of all screencast videos. Note: Does not include ebooks, so the video/ebook bundle is strongly recommended. Files are yours to keep forever!
Get Started Now!
Course & DownloadsNeed a little help?
Learn Enough offers a generous scholarship program to help out in case cost is a factor. We’ve already awarded over 1000 Learn Enough Scholarships to a wide variety of recipients, including students, people between jobs, and residents of countries with unfavorable exchange rates. Applications are quick, easy, and 100% confidential. Learn More
Money-Back Guarantee
All our tutorials come with a 100% money-back guarantee. If for any reason you aren’t satisfied with any tutorial purchase, just let us know and we’ll refund your payment.
Learn Essential Skills
In the Ruby on Rails Tutorial
Professional-grade web development
Building a real web application
The Ruby on Rails Tutorial teaches you how to develop custom web applications with the popular Ruby on Rails web framework. Since its launch in 2010, the Ruby on Rails Tutorial has been the leading introduction to web development with Rails.
The Ruby on Rails Tutorial is designed to give you a thorough introduction to web application development, including a basic grounding in Ruby, Rails, HTML & CSS, databases, version control, testing, and deployment—sufficient to launch you on a career as a web developer or technology entrepreneur. If you already know web development, this book will quickly teach you the essentials of the Rails framework, including MVC and REST, generators, migrations, routing, and embedded Ruby.
App development principles
The basics of working with Rails
The Ruby on Rails Tutorial takes an integrated approach to web development by building three example applications of increasing sophistication, starting with a minimal hello app, a slightly more capable toy app, and a real sample app. The emphasis throughout the tutorial is on general principles, so you will have a solid foundation no matter what kinds of web applications you want to build.
Setting up your dev environment
Web development requires tools
In the first chapter, you’ll get started with Ruby on Rails by installing all the necessary software and by setting up your development environment. You’ll then create your first Rails application. The Rails Tutorial emphasizes good software development practices, so immediately after creating your fresh new Rails project you’ll put it under version control with Git. And, believe it or not, in the chapter you’ll even put your first app on the wider web by deploying it to production.
Simple toy application
It might not be pretty, but it works
In Chapter 2, you’ll make a second project, whose purpose is to demonstrate the basic workings of a Rails application. To get up and running quickly, you’ll build this toy app using an automatic code generator; because this code is both ugly and complex, Chapter 2 will focus on interacting with the toy app through its URLs using a web browser.
Putting everything together
Putting all your knowledge into action
The rest of the tutorial focuses on developing a single large real sample application, writing all the code from scratch. You’ll develop the sample app using a combination of mockups, test-driven development (TDD), and integration tests. You’ll get started in Chapter 3 by creating static pages and then add a little dynamic content. You’ll take a quick detour in Chapter 4 to learn a little about the Ruby language underlying Rails. Then, in Chapter 5 through Chapter 12, you’ll complete the foundation for the sample application by making a site layout, a user data model, and a full registration and authentication system (including account activation and password resets). Finally, in Chapter 13 and Chapter 14 you’ll add microblogging and social features to make a working example site.
The result is a thorough grounding in web application development that will serve you well as a technical manager, entrepreneur, or professional software developer.
Table of Contents
- Chapter 1: From zero to deploy (free)
- Chapter 2: A toy app (free)
- Chapter 3: Mostly static pages (free)
- Chapter 4: Rails-flavored Ruby
- Chapter 5: Filling in the layout
- Chapter 6: Modeling users
- Chapter 7: Sign up
- Chapter 8: Basic login
- Chapter 9: Advanced login
- Chapter 10: Updating, showing, and deleting users
- Chapter 11: Account activation
- Chapter 12: Password reset
- Chapter 13: User microposts
- Chapter 14: Following users
Happy people
saying nice things!
Jimmy Wales Founder, Wikipedia
Q: What is Jimmy Wales' favorite book?
A: It changes often. At the moment, it’s Ruby on Rails Tutorial by Michael Hartl. :)
Quora link
About the Learn Enough Courses
I must say, this Learn Enough series is a masterpiece of education. Thank you for this incredible work!
— Michael K.
I must say, this Learn Enough series is a masterpiece of education. Thank you for this incredible work!
— Michael K.
I have nothing but fantastic things to say about @LearnEnough courses. I am just about finished with the #javascript course. I must say, the videos are mandatory because @mhartl will play the novice, and share in the joy of having something you wrote actually work! 🤓
— claudia marie (@StarvingHearts) May 30, 2019
I want to thank you for the amazing job you have done with the tutorials. They are likely the best tutorials I have ever read.
— Pedro I.
I have been trying to learn web development and programming on and off for the past 3 years and your website is the first one that I feel does the job right.
— Janelle S.
Just bought the new ebook and want to say keep up the great work!! The Learn Enough to Be Dangerous series re-ignited my desire to code after 10+ years of “meh”.
— Diane Y.
The Learn Enough Society and the courses are incredible. It’s the best value in the market of online courses in my opinion. Like you say, it’s learning to tech, which is very useful in our world.
— Sébastien D.
I just meant to tell you: your tutorial books from the Learn Enough series are awesome! The books are well-written, clear, concise, super-useful, and even fun to read. Thank you so, so much for this! I have bought the first three and will buy whatever you publish next. Keep up doing this very good work and thanks again.
— Pierre W.
Have been following the whole “Learn Enough to Be Dangerous” series and am VERY impressed with it. I am a project manager who works with software developers daily. These sessions have provided me with a huge amount very useful information, to the extent that I now not only understand what the dev guys are talking about, but am starting to use the tools (command line, Git, etc.) that they use.
— Brian
Amazon linkMichael Hartl is one of the best educators around when it comes to web development. I have been following him for a long time, and everything he produces is top quality. If you are looking for a quick way to become a thorough and productive professional web developer, Hartl’s books are a great place to start.
— Abram Bailey
Amazon linkAlso - if you are working through @RailsTutorial you will probably check out @LearnEnough quite soon, which is an incredible resource for people starting out. Same high quality as the rails tutorial, while still digestible for people starting out.
— Michael Wallbaum (@mwallba) April 24, 2018
Hi, my name is Philip, and I’m a beginning learner of web development. I’ve dabbled in small ways in Ruby/Rails for about a year and a half. Occasionally, I write ruby scripts to solve problems at my job. I also dabble in learning: JavaScript, Ember, more Ruby/Rails, brief intro readings into Scala.
I’ve tried Codeschool, Codecademy, and I’ll stop there, so you don’t spend the next 3 hours reading all the different learning resources I’ve tried.
Ruby on Rails Tutorial (Rails 5) is undoubtedly, the most effective and educational resource I’ve ever come across when it comes to learning anything about web development or writing any code on any level.
Here’s what you seem to understand that everyone else just gets wrong: There’s a big spectrum between the very beginner basics: declaring variables, to voodoo, magical, incantational trickery of witchcraft, like building your own web server.
Almost all tutorials make this mistake. The first couple “lessons” are good for people who don’t even have a clue what computer programming is and then suddenly, there’s a big jump to what seem to be concepts that only seasoned developers have mastered.
Thanks for such a great, educational guide in Ruby on Rails.
— Philip
About the Author
Michael Hartl
Michael Hartl is the creator of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial, one of the leading introductions to web development, and is cofounder and principal author at Learn Enough. Previously, he was a physics instructor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a graduate of Harvard College, has a Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech, and is an alumnus of the Y Combinator entrepreneur program.
