Rails 7 completely redefines what it means to produce fantastic user experiences and provides a way to achieve all the benefits of single-page applications - at a fraction of the complexity. Rails 7 integrates the Hotwire frameworks of Stimulus and Turbo directly as the new defaults, together with that hot newness of import maps. The result is a toolkit so powerful that it allows a single individual to create modern applications upon which they can build a competitive business. The way it used to be.

Ruby on Rails helps you produce high-quality, beautiful-looking web applications quickly - you concentrate on creating the application, and Rails takes care of the details. Rails 7 brings many improvements, and this edition is updated to cover the new features and changes in best practices.

We start with a step-by-step walkthrough of building a real application, and in-depth chapters look at the built-in Rails features. Follow along with an extended tutorial as you write a web-based store application. Eliminate tedious configuration and housekeeping, seamlessly incorporate JavaScript, send and receive emails, manage background jobs with ActiveJob, and build real-time features using WebSockets and ActionCable. Test your applications as you write them using the built-in unit, integration, and system testing frameworks, internationalize your applications, and deploy your applications easily and securely.

Rails 1.0 was released in December 2005. This book was there from the start, and didn't just evolve alongside Rails, it evolved with Rails. It has been developed in consultation with the Rails core team. In fact, Rails itself is tested against the code in this book.

What You Need:

All you need is a Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux machine to do development on. This book will take you through the steps to install Rails and its dependencies. If you aren't familiar with the Ruby programming language, this book contains a chapter that covers the basics necessary to understand the material in the book.

Part I — Getting Started

1. Installing Rails

Installing on Windows

Installing on macOS

Installing on Linux

Choosing a Rails Version

Setting Up Your Development Environment

Rails and Databases

2. Instant Gratification

Creating a New Application

Hello, Rails!

Linking Pages Together

When Things Go Wrong

3. The Architecture of Rails Applications

Models, Views, and Controllers

Rails Model Support

Action Pack: The View and Controller

4. Introduction to Ruby

Ruby Is an Object-Oriented Language

Data Types

Logic

Organizing Structures

Marshaling Objects

Pulling It All Together

Ruby Idioms

Part II — Building an Application

5. The Depot Application

Incremental Development

What Depot Does

Let’s Code

6. Task A: Creating the Application

Iteration A1: Creating the Product Maintenance Application

Iteration A2: Making Prettier Listings

7. Task B: Validation and Unit Testing

Iteration B1: Validating!

Iteration B2: Unit Testing of Models

8. Task C: Catalog Display

Iteration C1: Creating the Catalog Listing

Iteration C2: Adding a Page Layout

Iteration C3: Using a Helper to Format the Price

Iteration C4: Functional Testing of Controllers

Iteration C5: Caching of Partial Results

9. Task D: Cart Creation

Iteration D1: Finding a Cart

Iteration D2: Connecting Products to Carts

Iteration D3: Adding a Button

10. Task E: A Smarter Cart

Iteration E1: Creating a Smarter Cart

Iteration E2: Handling Errors

Iteration E3: Finishing the Cart

11. Task F: Hotwiring the Storefront

Iteration F1: Moving the Cart

Iteration F2: Creating a Hotwired Cart

Iteration F3: Highlighting Changes

Iteration F4: Broadcasting Updates with Action Cable

12. Task G: Check Out!

Iteration G1: Capturing an Order

Iteration G2: Adding Fields Dynamically to a Form

Iteration G3: Testing Our JavaScript Functionality

13. Task H: Sending Emails and Processing Payments Efficiently

Iteration H1: Sending Confirmation Emails

Iteration H2: Connecting to a Slow Payment Processor with Active Job

14. Task I: Logging In

Iteration I1: Adding Users

Iteration I2: Authenticating Users

Iteration I3: Limiting Access

Iteration I4: Adding a Sidebar, More Administration

15. Task J: Internationalization

Iteration J1: Selecting the Locale

Iteration J2: Translating the Storefront

Iteration J3: Translating Checkout

Iteration J4: Adding a Locale Switcher

16. Task K: Receive Emails and Respond with Rich Text

Iteration K1: Receiving Support Emails with Action Mailbox

Iteration K2: Storing Support Requests from Our Mailbox

Iteration K3: Responding with Rich Text

17. Task L: Deployment and Production

Configuring the Database

Managing Secrets

Building a Docker Image

Getting Up and Running

Checking Up on a Deployed Application

18. Depot Retrospective

Rails Concepts

Documenting What We’ve Done

Part III — Rails in Depth

19. Finding Your Way Around Rails

Where Things Go

Naming Conventions

20. Active Record

Defining Your Data

Locating and Traversing Records

Creating, Reading, Updating, and Deleting (CRUD)

Participating in the Monitoring Process

Transactions

21. Action Dispatch and Action Controller

Dispatching Requests to Controllers

Processing of Requests

Objects and Operations That Span Requests

22. Action View

Using Templates

Generating Forms

Processing Forms

Uploading Files to Rails Applications

Using Helpers

Reducing Maintenance with Layouts and Partials

23. Migrations

Creating and Running Migrations

Anatomy of a Migration

Managing Tables

Advanced Migrations

When Migrations Go Bad

Schema Manipulation Outside Migrations

24. Customizing and Extending Rails

Creating a Reusable Web Component

Testing with RSpec

Creating HTML Templates with Slim

Customizing Rails in Other Ways

Where to Go from Here

About the Authors

Sam Ruby is president of the Apache Software Foundation, previously co-chaired the W3C HTML Working Group, and has made significant contributions to many open source projects and standards.

Dave Thomas, as one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto, understands agility. As the author of Programming Ruby, he understands Ruby. And, as an active Rails developer, he knows Rails.