Ruby on Rails: Up and Running
Bruce Tate and Curt Hibbs
O’Reilly
ISBN: 0-596-10132-5
Non-Fiction, Business
Reviewed by Alain B. Renaud

Ruby on Rails: Up and Running provides a comprehensive overview of this revolutionary open source web-publishing framework. The framework allows developers to build applications quickly and simply. Written as a “how to” guide ranging from the initial installation of the framework to building real world applications, this book focuses on the development of a specific application called Photo Share. Therefore, upon the conclusion of this resource, and with the help of a computer, the reader will have built a complete online photo sharing application using the technologies offered by the Ruby on Rail framework.

Covering a wide range of topics including an overview of a comprehensive introduction to the Rails framework, an overview of the directories created during the installation of the framework, and advice on which web server is best suited for the framework, this resource will help you become fluent in the language of Ruby on Rail. 

In addition, this book also covers the notion of Active Records, which are records that control the interaction between an application and a database. It also provides a comprehensive review of Active Record relationships and examines scaffolding in a very simple but efficient way. In doing so, it looks at how Rails implement Ajax and provides practical implementation examples. There is also a full step-by-step guide on how to test Rails programmes.

I really enjoyed the way this book was presented and would recommend it to anyone interested in getting into the wonderful world of Ruby on Rails. The authors present the subject in a very logical format with easy to read chapters. Additional resources that I found to be useful were the comprehensive installation guide for various operating systems as well as the quick reference guide. Due to my experience with this book, I look forward to seeing the next guide in the series!