Ruby on Rails for Microsoft Developers

With its valuable combination of simplicity and productivity, Ruby on Rails is a portable, extendable, open source web application framework that quickly gained worldwide acclaim. The aim of this book is to make the enticing Rails methodology more approachable for developers who are already familiar with Microsoft tools.

After an overview and brief history of the framework, you'll focus on learning Rails development from the point of view of a beginner-to-intermediate level Microsoft developer.

The author explores all the fundamental aspects of Rails, and includes comparisons and references to Microsoft development tools that you may already be familiar with. In doing so, he provides you with an easier path to learn how Rails simplifies the design and implementation of web applications.

By serving as a roadmap for migrating your skill set, development processes, and applications to the newer Agile programming platform that Rails offers, this book will help you leverage your existing skills so you can quickly take advantage of the full potential of Rails.

What you will learn from this book

• The Rails history and culture, as well as common misconceptions
• How to install Rails on Windows and other platforms
• How to grasp the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture pattern as implemented by Rails
• The different philosophies between Rails and Microsoft frameworks like ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC
• The essentials of the Ruby language and its datatypes
• Techniques for creating and developing a new RESTful Rails application
• Using the ActiveRecord Object-Relational Mapper (ORM) to work with databases
• Publishing and consuming Web Services with Rails
• Getting ready for deployment in production

Who this book is for

This book is for programmers who have experience developing the Microsoft Windows platform and are interested in learning more about, and getting the most out of, Ruby on Rails.

About the Author

Antonio Cangiano is a Software Engineer and Technical Evangelist at the IBM Toronto Software Lab. He authored the initial ActiveRecord adapter for IBM DB2 and received an IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for his work with Rails. As a long-standing programmer, he has developed with Microsoft .NET since its first public beta, while maintaining a keen interest in multiple programming languages and technologies as well. He discovered Ruby and Ruby on Rails in 2004, immediately recognizing their potential, and has adopted them as his favorite development tools ever since. Cangiano has contributed to books on the subject in both English and Italian, as well as to a few Open Source projects.