Ruby on Rails Tutorial (Rails 5) Learn Web Development with Rails Michael Hartl

• What are Ruby and Ruby on Rails?

  Ruby is a general-purpose programming language, and Ruby on Rails (or “Rails” for short) is a framework for making web applications written in Ruby.

• Why should I learn Ruby on Rails?

  Ruby on Rails is one of the most powerful and popular web development frameworks available, used by sites like Twitter, GitHub, Airbnb, and Hulu. Learning Rails will give you the tools you need to make your own web applications, while also putting you in a good position to work for a web development consultancy, startup, or other tech company.

• What is the Ruby on Rails Tutorial?

  The Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development with Rails is the 4th edition of a book and a screencast series designed to teach web development with the Ruby on Rails web framework.

• Who should study the Ruby on Rails Tutorial?

  The Ruby on Rails Tutorial is designed for anyone who wants to learn how to develop web applications. This audience includes entrepreneurs, small business owners, aspiring developers, and experienced developers with experience in other languages or frameworks.

• Is the Ruby on Rails Tutorial appropriate for complete beginners?

  The Ruby on Rails Tutorial is likely to be very challenging if you have no programming experience at all, but many beginners have reported that they were able to get through it with enough determination (in some cases, by going through the entire tutorial twice!).

• What are the prerequisites for the Ruby on Rails Tutorial?

  There are no formal prerequisites, but I recommend familiarity with HTML and CSS, and some previous programming experience is helpful.

• Does the Rails Tutorial use the latest version of Rails?

  Yes, The Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development with Rails is fully up-to-date with the latest version of Rails.

• What does the Ruby on Rails Tutorial cover?

  Here are the chapter titles for the 4th edition of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial:

  1. From zero to deploy
  2. A toy app
  3. Mostly static pages
  4. Rails-flavored ruby
  5. Filling in the layout
  6. Modeling users
  7. Sign up
  8. Basic login
  9. Advanced login
  10. Updating, showing, and deleting users
  11. Account activation
  12. Password reset
  13. User microposts
  14. Following users

  See the full table of contents for more details.

• How is the screencast series related to the book’s content?

  The screencast series includes all the content from the book, while adding dozens of tips and tricks to help you go beyond the text, including debugging hints, testing techniques, and more detailed explanations of some of the finer points of web development. And though the screencasts are carefully edited, I’ve left in some of the problems I encountered along the way, so that you can learn how to recover from the inevitable application errors—and see that even experts sometimes make mistakes.

• Why did my download include only the first three chapters?

  That’s the sample book available even to non-logged-in users. If you log into your account, you’ll be able to download the full text.

• What about single-page web frameworks like Angular, Backbone, and Ember?

  While some applications benefit from a JavaScript-heavy front-end, most applications are still more naturally structured as a collection of documents, and Rails is a better fit for this more common case. In addition, JavaScript frameworks like Angular and Ember still need a back-end to process requests, talk to the database, etc.—a job at which Rails excels. (Indeed, two of the core Ember developers are also current and former members of the Rails core team.)

• Do I have to buy a subscription to the Cloud9 IDE to complete the Rails Tutorial?

  No, Cloud9 has a free tier that is perfect for doing the tutorial without committing to a monthly fee.

• Where can I find the latest updates about the Ruby on Rails Tutorial?

  The best thing to do is to join the email list. Announcements are also typically available online via the Rails Tutorial News feed.

• If I buy the Rails Tutorial, will I get updates for free?

  Minor updates are free, while new editions are paid upgrades with substantial upgrade discounts for current customers.

• Is there a print edition of the Rails Tutorial?

  The print edition’s Amazon page is here.

• Is the print edition the same as the online version and ebook?

  Yes. Apart from minor corrections, the print edition has the same content as the online version and the ebook edition.

• Are the previous versions of the Rails Tutorial still available online?

  Yes, previous versions are available at the following links:

  • Rails 4.2 version (3rd edition)
  • Rails 4.0 version
  • Rails 3.2 (updated 2nd edition)
  • Rails 3.0 (updated 1st edition)
  • Rails 2.3 (pre–1st edition)

• Should I report a tiny typo I found?

  Typo reports, no matter how small, are gratefully received. My only request is that you check the online version first to make sure the typo hasn’t already been corrected. Please send reports via email to the address below.

• How do I contact the author?

  You can reach me by email at admin at railstutorial dot org.

• Do you offer a money-back guarantee?

  Yes, every Rails Tutorial purchase comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee.

MORE INFO

The Ruby on Rails Tutorial helps you learn Rails by example through the development of a substantial sample application, including a site layout, a user data model, a full registration and authentication system, user-micropost associations, social “following”, and a feed of status updates. The Ruby on Rails Tutorial also teaches good software development practices, including version control with Git and GitHub, test-driven development (TDD) and integration testing, and instant deployment with Heroku. Though of necessity the book and screencasts focus on a specific sample application, the emphasis throughout the Rails Tutorial is on general principles, so you will have a solid foundation no matter what kind of web application you want to build.

New in the current edition

• Fully updated for the latest version of Rails
• Use of a free integrated development environment in the cloud for maximum cross-platform compatibility
• 100% default stack use of the Rails framework for greatest ease of use
• Lightweight, intuitive approach to testing
• Completely rewritten chapter on login and authentication
• All-new section on image upload
• All-new chapter on account activation and password resets, including sending email with Rails
• Strong focus on universal principles of web development

Translations

Translations of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial are available in several languages:

Fourth edition

• Japanese translation of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial
• Chinese translation of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial

Third edition

• Italian translation of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial

Earlier versions

• Russian translation of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial

Help

Web development is a tricky business, and despite the best efforts of the tutorial it’s likely that you’ll run into trouble at some point. If you do, I suggest comparing your code to the reference implementation of the sample app to track down any discrepancies. You can also post your question at Stack Overflow using the tag railstutorial.org. (Click here to see questions labeled with that tag.) The creators of the Learn_Rails subreddit have graciously offered to answer questions as well.

Errors in the tutorial can be reported by email, but please triple-check by comparing with the reference implementation of the sample app first.

Debugging tips

While it’s impossible to anticipate every potential problem, here are some debugging tips that might help:

• Have you compared your code to the reference implementation of the sample app?
• Are you using the exact gem versions (including Rails) used in the tutorial?
• Did you restart the web server?
• Did you try stopping Spring using bin/spring stop?
• Did you kill all relevant Spring processes (as described in the book)?
• Did you copy-and-paste from the book’s code? (Experience shows that typing in code, while a better learning technique in general, is error-prone, so when in doubt be sure to copy all code exactly.)
• Did you re-run bundle install?
• Did you try running bundle update?
• Did you try Googling the error message?

If your problem is of a general nature, such as having issues installing Rails or configuring your system, I suggest posting to Stack Overflow (again using the tag railstutorial.org), sending a message to the Ruby on Rails Talk mailing list, or posting to the Learn_Rails subreddit. This will allow other people running into your issue (and not just those following the Rails Tutorial) to benefit from the discussion. You can also try asking your question on the Rails IRC channel (#rubyonrails) to get live assistance from other Rails programmers. For issues deploying to Heroku, please contact Heroku technical support.

When asking your question on any mailing list or forum, be sure to include as much relevant information as possible. To maximize your chances of a helpful reply, I especially recommend the article How To Ask Questions The Smart Way by Eric Raymond.

Contact

I can be reached by email at admin at railstutorial dot org.

Affiliate notification

Michael Hartl is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.