Building sites using rails [closed] - ruby-on-rails

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I am new to programming. A friend suggested I start with rails.Once in,I realize,Rails has steep learning curve for a non programmer. Then I come across this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quLmIuIrIigaches
It teaches how to build a website locally in 12 minutes ... JustIt says ... 1. Make a rails app
2. Get an html template
3. Add js,css,images to relevant folder generated in rails_app>>apps>>views.
4. The site is ready
Is that all there is to rails ? The other tutorials are rally hard. or could you suggest me some tutorial that directly gets me into a real life prject and teaches along the way ?
Thank you :)

Answer 1

I am new to programming
Some of the best programmers live on the computer. They have a deep appreciation for the structure, flow & artistry required to craft digital experiences.
If you're new to programming, make a point of looking into what interests you with the system; if it's games, try and look up how games like DOOM were created etc. This will help you more than reading tutorials on how to do generic things.
Foundation
If you're really new to programming, build yourself a website, using HTML and CSS. This will give you appreciation of how Rails works.
Here are some basic tutorials on making HTML/CSS websites (you'd be surprised at how many people got their start making base level websites):
4 Hour Long HTML/CSS Tutorial (long tutorials are generally a waste of time)
15 minute HTML/CSS/JS tutorial (this is more the time you should be looking at)
A 23 minute long tutorial (this looks good but might be a bit long)
Read up on the HTTP protocol, how HTML fits into the the "web", how the world wide web != the "Internet", and was invented in 1989 by Tim Berners Lee.
Read up how Windows95 changed the game, how Marc Andreessen brought people online with Mosaic and NetScape. How Apple brought more people online with iMac and the iPhone.
Read up about how Elon Musk and his merry band of rogues started to monetize the Internet with companies such as Amazon, Zip2, Paypal, Google, etc, etc.
Rails is the distillation of all this stuff.
It will also help you appreciate that web apps are not some golden ticket to riches. Real people use the Internet; your app has to benefit them in some way.
Getting Started
Here's a tutorial:
Download & Install Ruby & RubyGems on your system
If you're using Windows, you can use RubyInstaller, or better still RailsInstaller. It's recommended you use Linux to develop Rails, but it's not essential. We use Windows and people always raise question with it :)
Once you have Ruby installed, in your cmd, you can type gem install rails. This will install the Rails Gem (explained in a second)
4. Once you have Rails installed, you're ready to start developing an "app".
To clarify the role of Ruby and Rails, you have to appreciate that Ruby is the language, Rails the framework.
This means that when dealing with your development environment (OS), you'll be mainly dealing with your Ruby installation. Rails is a layer of abstraction higher than Ruby. Programming issues are typically a Rails problem, environment issues are typically a Ruby issue.
RubyGems is the dependency library for Ruby. Although Rails works perfectly with almost all Ruby Gems, the gems are for Ruby. Most people don't know that Rails is just a gem for Ruby...
First App
Here's how to make a simple app (it will look like shit):
In your CMD, cd to a directory, and type rails new app_name:
This puts all the Rails files in the directory you cd'd into.
This will allow you to then boot up the Rails server. However, before you do that, you need to make sure you have a database.
Rails ships with SQLite, which I've never used. Apparently it stores data in files, which should give you the ability to start developing out of the gate.
We use a simple MYSQL database server on some shared hosting. This gives us the ability to just use it for development, it adds latency but retains data integrity.
I'll let you ask another question about the db. It's another matter in itself.
--
Once you've generated your rails app, you'll be able to boot up the Rails server.
Do this by typing rails s / rails server in your cmd:
(Sorry, this is the best picture I could find)...
The standard Rails server is one called WEBrick. You can alter this later, but I won't go into this now.
All you need to know is that if you're able to successfully boot your server, it is good news, and you'll be able to access it at http://localhost:3000; we use http://lvh.me:3000 which does the same thing.
Once you get to this point, you'll be able to do some programming:
MVC
Rails is made up of 3 components - models, views, controllers (MVC):
MVC is nothing new; tons of other frameworks use it. Since many people enter programming through Rails, they attribute the pattern to this framework, although that's incorrect.
The MVC pattern is very simple (once you understand it):
User browses to your url
Request is sent to your server
Server software passes request to Rails
Rails "middleware" stack handles request, sends to appropriate controller
Controller pulls data from Model (which loads data from the db)
Controller inserts data into view and renders view as HTML, with layout
Controller passes rendered HTML back to web server, which sends to browser
User sees dynamically updated web page
This means if you want to have a simple app, you need to at least have a model, views and controller.
To do this, browse to your Rails application directory (the one you cd'd into at the beginning). Each file below is one you should edit (we use SublimeText):
#config/routes.rb
root "posts#index"
resources :posts
#app/controllers/posts_controller.rb (you have to create this)
class PostsController < ApplicationController
before_action :set_post, only: [:show, :edit, :update, :destroy]
def index
#posts = Post.all
end
def new
#post = Post.new
end
def create
#post = Post.new post_params
#post.save
redirect_to #post
end
def edit
end
def show
end
def update
redirect_to #post if #post.update
end
def destroy
redirect_to posts_path if #post.destroy
end
private
def post_params
params.require(:post).permit(:title, :body)
end
def set_post
#post = Post.find params[:id]
end
end
This will then mean you have to create certain views:
#app/views/posts/index.html.erb
<% #posts.each do |post| %>
<%= link_to post.title, post %>
<% end %>
<%= link_to "New Post", new_posts_path #-> will have to check the route %>
#app/views/posts/new.html.erb
<%= render "form", locals: {post: #post} %>
#app/views/posts/edit.html.erb
<%= render "form", locals: {post: #post} %>
<%= link_to "Destroy Post", post, method: :delete %>
#app/views/posts/_form.html.erb
<%= form_for post do |f| %>
<%= f.text_field :title %>
<%= f.text_field :body %>
<%= f.submit %>
<% end %>
--
Finally, you should then populate the data model. To do this, you need to make sure you have your database infrastructure set up; if this is in place, stop your Rails server by pressing crtl+c in cmd, then type:
$ rails g migration CreatePostsTable
A file will be created at:
#db/migrate/_____.rb
class CreatePostsTable < ActiveRecord::Migration
def change
#### You'll have to add this part ###
create_table :posts do |t|
t.string :title
t.string :body
t.timestamps
end
end
end
After that, go back to your cmd and type: rake db:migrate.
If your database is set up correctly, this should create a new posts table for Rails to interact with. Then, you just need a Model to work with it:
#app/models/post.rb ##-> you'll have to create this
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
end
Once that's done, fire up your Rails server again (rails s in cmd), and access the following:
http://lvh.me:3000
It should show you a single button saying "New Post". If you press it, type out a post and it should appear, if all works.

Answer 2

Google search query "rails tutorial" gives that as the first link, and it is (subjectively) the best one: https://www.railstutorial.org/book. So if you really want to learn rails, go through it.