Fundamentals Ruby on Rails

Learn the basics of Ruby on Rails with an example of creating and deploying a blog in minutes.

What is Ruby on Rails?

Ruby on Rails is an open source web application framework written in Ruby. It is designed to make programming web applications easier by making assumptions about what every developer needs to get started. It provides a structure for developers to write code that follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. It also provides a number of helpful tools and libraries to help developers build their applications faster.

Rails is closely associated with the Ruby programming language, and many developers choose to use both together. Rails is often used to create web applications that use a database to store data, such as user accounts and posts. Rails is also used to create APIs that can be used by other applications.

Using Ruby on Rails

To use Ruby on Rails, a developer needs to install Ruby as well as the Rails framework. Once installed, a developer can create a new Rails application with the rails new command. This command will create the basic structure of a Rails application including the basic directory structure, configuration files, and a database.

Once the application is created, the developer can start writing code. Rails follows the MVC pattern, which means that the code is organized into three parts: the model, the view, and the controller. The model is responsible for interacting with the database, the view is responsible for displaying the user interface, and the controller is responsible for handling user input and directing it to the appropriate model and view.

Rails also provides a set of helpful libraries for developers to use. These libraries make it easy to perform common tasks such as authentication, sending emails, and uploading files. Rails also provides a built-in testing framework to help developers test their applications.

Example Code

The following code is an example of how to create a simple Rails application. It creates a basic controller with a single action that renders a view. The view simply displays a "hello world" message.

# config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  get '/hello', to: 'pages#hello'
end

# app/controllers/pages_controller.rb
class PagesController < ApplicationController
  def hello
  end
end

# app/views/pages/hello.html.erb
<h1>Hello World</h1>

This is just a basic example of how to use Ruby on Rails, but it demonstrates how easy it is to create an application with the framework. With Rails, developers can quickly create web applications with powerful features.