Friday, May 27, 2005

Book I'll purchase with gift certificate from my sister

Agile Web Development with Rails: A Pragmatic Guide
by Dave Thomas (Author), David Heinemeier Hansson (Author)

Agile Web Development with Rails: A Pragmatic Guide
List Price: CDN$ 41.95
Our Price: CDN$ 29.37 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $39. See details
You Save: CDN$ 12.58 (30%)

This item has not yet been released. You may order it now and we will ship it to you when it arrives.

See larger picture

Book Description
Rails is a full-stack, open-source web framework that enables you to create full-featured, sophisticated web-based applications, but with a twist... A full Rails application probably has less total code than the XML you'd need to configure the same application in other frameworks.

With this book you'll learn how to use ActiveRecord to connect business objects and database tables. No more painful object-relational mapping. Just create your business objects and let Rails do the rest. You'll learn how to use the Action Pack framework to route incoming requests and render pages using easy-to-write templates and components. See how to exploit the Rails service frameworks to send emails, implement web services, and create dynamic, user-centric web-pages using built-in Javascript and Ajax support. There are extensive chapters on testing, deployment, and scaling.

You'll see how easy it is to install Rails using your web server of choice (such as Apache or lighttpd) or using its own included web server. You'll be writing applications that work with your favorite database (MySQL, Oracle, Postgres, and more) in no time at all.

You'll create a complete online store application in the extended tutorial section, so you'll see how a full Rails application is developed---iteratively and rapidly.

Rails strives to honor the Pragmatic Programmer's "DRY Principle" by avoiding the extra work of configuration files and code annotations. You can develop in real-time: make a change, and watch it work immediately.

Forget XML. Everything in Rails, from templates to control flow to business logic, is written in Ruby, the language of choice for programmers who like to get the job done well (and leave work on time for a change).

Rails is the framework of choice for the new generation of Web 2.0 developers. Agile Web Development with Rails is the book for that generation, written by Dave Thomas (Pragmatic Programmer and author of Programming Ruby) and David Heinemeier Hansson, who created Rail


Can't wait to get back into Ruby programming. Now with buzzwords like AJAX (which I actually do have a use for).