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Hey all you ruby on railers...
I'm just a newbie as of right now.. currently work on my first rails project at work.
I'm going to be taking some time on my own time to dig deeper and I was wondering what the best strategy is to go about front-end development of a rails app.
is it better/easier to have a workflow like the following
1. Concept / Idea
2. Wireframe, Mockup
3. *** Design front-end of the app
4. Rails development
5. template all the views
or is it better to do it flipped?
1. Concept / Idea
2. Wireframe, Mockup
3. Rails development
4. Template all the views
5. *** Design front-end of the app
Maybe neither of these?
How do you go about your ruby on rails workflow.
I'm a complete mashup of developer / designer
But most of my inspiration comes from having an idea, then designing designing it, then doing all the front-end
What are some thoughts ideas for better rails workflows when you know exactly what you want the front-end of the site to look like.
This can work either way. Different companies -- or even different projects in the same company -- can reach success with different approaches.
That being said, I have a pretty strong preference for the following approach:
Concept / Idea
Wireframe, Mockup
Design front-end of the app
Template all the views
Rails Development
Basically, I usually describe it this way:
First, do the design to the point of having mockups and images laid out by a designer.
Have a UI specialist convert that to HTML/CSS (or HAML/SASS or whatever)
Do the rails implementation behind the html.
These steps will normally overlap -- and that's OK. You should start some basic development prior to getting everything eles final. But the more you have the design done ahead of time the better.
Note that this approach doesn't mean design the entire site in detail before anything else is done. It means that once you've decided to do some coding, do the design for that bit first. You'll want to implement things in small chunks and iterate as you do the development. Implement things in small chunks, but try to get the design for those pieces done before you start coding.
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I've been working on a large website with Ruby on Rails for more than 2 years now and found it really convenient and easy to code a web application or service. Now I want to build a really thin web service: no DB, no front end 1-2 controllers with 2-3 actions each.
When I invoke rails new, it sort of "scaffolding" a large application structure, there is any way to get the default large structure replaced for a small service suitable structure with rails? (btw, If you think I don't need to use rails for such a project you're welcome to explain why. )
I was just going to upvote some comments, but we try not to answer in comments, so I'll try to synthesize the relevant points:
Rails' infrastructure is designed to accomodate a fairly complex app, and is probably overkill for the sort of simple app you're talking about building. This matters because Rails embraces Convention Over Configuration, and the conventions are geared toward larger apps.
Here's a couple of examples (not an exhaustive list):
Rails separates routes into their own file, with individual controller classes for interacting with each type of resource. If you have only a handful of pages in your app, this can be more structure than you need.
Although you can tell it not to, Rails assumes by default that you want to use ActiveRecord (and that you have a database for it to talk to). It also assumes you'll want model classes, and that there's both enough of them and they're complex enough that they need their own directory of individual files.
The Rails Asset Pipeline is great for dealing with lots of complicated assets that require extensive preprocessing. It's also kind of a pain in the ass.
There are a number of Ruby-based microframeworks that are likely better suited to the sort of app you describe. Sinatra is probably the most widely used. It makes few assumptions and is consequently lightweight, allowing you to establish whatever design patterns you want in your app. There are also bunch of others that might be worth considering.
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I've been really getting into Ruby on Rails. I want make great apps that don't just function well but look really nice as well, and I'm worried I might not pick the right front-end language to compliment RoR development. My question is how do you simultaneously prepare for both back-end and front-end? Summer is coming up and I'm already enrolled in a few RoR classes, but am trying to choose some great front-end courses as well. Appreciate any guidance
Sam --
TLDR; Know HTML and CSS like the back of your hand. Spend time learning intermediate and advanced javascript. Its libraries are powerful, its frameworks provide a rich client experience, and its not going away anytime soon.
I've been a RoR developer for two years. When I was first learning Ruby, and coding principles in general, its common to want to learn and learn all kinds of different stuff. While it's tempting, I would suggest the opposite -> Hyperfocus.
Rails is a robust framework, spend some time with it. I will agree that Rails views are very bare bones and I do not like the way they organize javascript and stylesheet logic. It is very loose. But, unless you're building a huge app, organizing .js and .css files isn't super important.
As far as looks go, html and css are the backbone. There's literally a javascript library for everything you could want to do from a UI/UX perspective, so focus on intermediate/advanced js. That will make opening doors to robust client side js frameworks like angular, ember, and backbone much easier down the road using Rails as simply an API.
Lastly, one of the hardest things to find in the industry is a great designer who can also code, or a great software engineer who can also design. If you really care about UI/UX get some books on fundamental web design principles; they go a long way.
Well, I encourage you to first code a few apps with the default rails stack and after that start to poke other front end options with rails as back end api.
Stay comfortable with rails first, has a lot of good tools and is enough for most of the apps you may want to build, mainly on the first stage of your learning path.
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This is not a core programming problem as most posts on this website are, forgive me for that but I didn't know where else to ask this.
I am a beginner in web languages and want to build a small website for our family business, mostly a bunch of galleries that would display our different product lines with prices and some basic specs for customers to get an idea..currently I'm pursuing comp science at the undergrad level
So here is the problem, I can't decide between platforms
I started out with HTML and making a basic mock up but that didn't quite work out as i needed to have dynamic galleries that was quite hard to code by hand and since we need to update often it would be a pain even if I did manage to get it going
then I thought of Joomla as it would be easy to update but soon realized that its not that easy to customize templates
Then I started reading about Ruby on Rails and what it offers and it sounded really interesting might be useful in developing applications that we possibly would need in some time.
so I wanted to know from the community which course should one pursue: DHTML, Joomla, RoR
Please keep in mind that I want this to be a learning experience that will be useful possibly in the future in my professional career and at the same time get the job done.
I would also greatly appreciate any resources or suggestions that the community might have.
You are actually comparing apples to oranges here as DHTML, RoR, and Joomla are not the same thing. You are comparing a mark up language, to a programing framework, to a content management system. You could feasibly learn a CMS (Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, etc) and never learn to code a single line of HTML or PHP.
For the purpose of getting a site that you can manage and edit yourself, then what you are asking is which CMS should you use. There are dozens of CMSes and opinions on which one is the best. In general are the big 3 - Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal. Wordpress is by far the easiest to learn. It has a very simple admin that shouldn't take more than a few minutes to figure out. There are tons of themes and extensions that go along with it. The downside is that it's coded to be a blogging platform, not an extensible CMS. That means that doing things other than blogging are harder to accomplish (relative to Joomla and Drupal). It can still be done, but the more complex the site, the harder it is to do in Wordpress.
Joomla is the next step in ease of use. The admin is significantly more complex than WordPress, but a tech savvy user will get the basics down in the first couple of hours or so. Extendding Joomla is much easier for both the developer since the framework is specifically designed to be extended, and the user since installing is very quick and easy for most extensions. It's a pretty good balance between ease of use for the admin and ease of extension for the developer.
Drupal is probably the most powerful of the 3, but the trade off is in the user admin. Most non-developers will struggle to understand how the admin works or what taxonomy is and how it works. Again, the trade off is that it allows developers much more power in extending Drupal. Drupal makes it easier for the developer to accomplish much more complex tasks than Joomla or Wordpress.
At the end of the day, all 3 can accomplish the exact same thing on a website. You need to determine which one will accomplish your particular needs the best.
That said, you should still learn HTML and a programming language. My recommendation would be to learn PHP and mySQL. That will give you a solid foundation on which to build on once you are well versed. Other languages and flavors of SQL will come easier, plus many of the large open source projects are done in PHP/mySQL.
Since what you are trying to do is a pure learning exercise, I suggest you look around into a lot of things(rails/css/javascript/php etc) until you finally find the one that you will have fun playing-with. You learn faster when you can tinker with it.
Ruby on Rails may 'seem' easy to an advanced web developer. Its an advanced framework and needs considerable amount of investment in terms of time and interest and most importantly you need to have an aptitude for it. If you REALLY want to do this, and you have a general aptitude for Web programming, I suggest you start with Wordpress. Its search-engine friendly and will get you running in no time.
Learning we development and design is not a small task. It'll take you years to get even moderately good, so if you need to get something up and running now, I'd not recommend you to build it yourself.
There are a lot of nice Joomla templates and plugins available if you are ready to pay a small price for it. Search around a bit more, and you might find something that works for you.
I would start with a CMS such as Joomla or perhaps even Wordpress. Grab a template and tweak it - this will be a good introduction to coding websites as the really hard parts are already taken care of.
Once you have finished the site that you are working on then you can think about moving on to a framework such as Rails or even a PHP based once like Code Igniter. The frameworks will take a lot longer to figure out but at the end of the day they will give you a better learning experience then just tweaking a CMS template.
I would say it depends on your goal. As mentioned they have different purposes. That said I would say Joomla or Rails.
If you are interested in CMS (or design), and don't want/care about getting down and dirty into coding then I would use Joomla and learn what you need to acccomplish your goal.
If your goal is to be able to develop custom web APPLICATIONS, I would probably learn Rails. There is much more of a learning curve but you will get experience with things like html5, javascript (or coffeescript), css3 (or sass), exposure to the MVC model (model view controller) and exposure to Ruby.
But with Rails there is a lot more to learn, but you will have a lot of knowledge.
If you want to go down the rails path, maybe start with a Rails CMS (like locomotive or refinery) b/c they are written in Rails, you could look at the code or have some insight into the CMS. Disclaimer I have not used a Rails CMS (just did some research)
I would choose Joomla. They have a vast array of components and modules that should meet your needs. As far as customization, if you are a beginner this will be difficult no matter the platform. DHTML is not a platform. DHTML is mainly javascript, css and php. I suggest you get some books on doing dynamic stuff with javascript and jquery, styling with css and creating MVC sites with PHP. When you learn all this first your job customizing an whatever platform will be much much easier.
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I am still new to web framework and I am thinking of choosing either Ruby on Rails or Django. Which one should I go for as a beginner?
If you don't know either, you're maybe a little better off with Ruby on Rails...
If you are experienced with programming at all, try this: I have found that almost all of my developer colleagues decide on RoR or Django based on the language. Both are a quick pick-up, and more often than not, one of the two languages will just "speak" to you.
I'm somewhat OCD with my code (and life) and for me, Python was a better fit. I felt calm while writing it, and more importantly, calm while reading it. However, the guy that sits next to me - and I have a mountain of respect for - found Ruby to be more appealing.
So my suggestion? If you already know how to write code and the meaning of Object Oriented, spend a day with each language. Almost invariably, you'll respect one, and fall in love with the other.
THEN pick a framework :)
I have no experience in using RoR but 3 years of knowledge about Django. A very huge advantage of Django is its very good Documentation.
Especially for a beginner this might be the most important fact. Even most of the third party apps (pluggable modules/plugins) for django are document very good and are easy to use.
On the other hand Django code is in IMO more readable since its Python code - Ruby code tends to get messed up a bit faster.
I'll assuming you don't know Ruby or Python already, since that would be the number one determinate of which way to go. Having developed both Rails and Django projects, my take is that you probably can't go wrong with either, but my feeling is that Django is better oriented towards building sites for publishing, whereas Ruby is more oriented towards webapps. This is not to say that you can't build a great web app in Django build an awesome CMS in Rails, of course. But take a look at most of the high profile users of Django: NYTimes, The Guardian, Washington Post, LA Times, The Onion, AV Club, Everyblock. Those folks are more oriented towards publishing. Meanwhile, things like GitHub, BaseCamp and Twitter (partially) run Rails. So ask yourself what type of sites you are likely to be building and go from there. But really, like other posters have recommended, there's no reason no to spend a few days playing around with both and seeing what feels like a better fit.
Both are good. From experience, though, you'll get better and more up-to-date documentation most of the time for both Python and Django.
Both are GREAT!! by I prefer Rails because of:
MVC! Model View Controller.
The wide community of Rails.
Many big projects like Twitter, 37signals products are built on Ruby on Rails.
The BIG and the HUGE libraries and gems for Rails/Ruby.
and many other reasons. Well, you have to see this: Rails Django-Comparison and rails-vs-django
Amr
This is a little subjective since it can depend in no small part on your general programming background. Do you know Python? Do you know Ruby? In general, you're best off choosing the framework for a language you already know since then you're only learning one new thing instead of two.
If you don't know either, you're maybe a little better off with Ruby on Rails due to its greater mind-share in the general development community currently. This will make it easier to find help and example code online.
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I have been interested in learning Rails for some time now and feel now is as good as time as ever to dip in and actually get my hands dirty. I've spent the past week reading every free ebook on Ruby and Ruby on Rails I can find. I just finished reading Ruby Essentials. I have also been playing with http://tryruby.hobix.com/
I have installed Ruby, Rails, MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin on a Windows XP machine, I also have access to a Ubuntu machine.
I come from several years of PHP experience and around a year using CodeIgniter.
What I would really like now is a fairly basic Rails app that is a little more in depth than Hello World but not quite up to par with say a forum or blog.
I find its much easier to learn how something works when I can play with already made code and do some trial and error changes.
What I am really looking for is that 'Ohhh, I totally understand now!' moment I had when I first started learning PHP.
Does anyone have an app or know of one that could possibly provide that moment?
Check out the screen casts on Rails at BuildingWebApps . I've watched several and they have been exactly what I was looking for when learning rails. They start simple and keep adding more and more functionality. The commentators move at a good pace and subscribing to the lessons is free.
If you want something that is built already build the sample application that comes with Agile Web Development on Rails, buy the pdf from pragprog.com, the latest version is set to work with Rails 2.2, so will work with 2.3 as all the basic features of the framework will be the same.
When you are ready to move on from that, the Rails Guides website is all new and is a great resource for all developers new and old.
dwc is right though, a blog is a good thing to start on your own, so when you are confident give it a go, even if you don't put it in production it will help you along.
I would recommend railsforphp.com. They have a PHP to Ruby reference which could be quite helpful.
You can also buy the 'Rails for PHP Developers' book as either a paper or digital copy (or both if you really want to). The book is full of examples that show the PHP way and how it compares to the Ruby/Rails way.
As for ready made code, I suggest having a play with Enki. It is a somewhat bare-bones blogging system that should give you a good testing ground.
You should rethink your idea that a blog is too complex. At it's simplest a blog is a textarea and a submit button, and then storing and regurgitating the results. Start with that to get your hands dirty, then add features as you go. In fact, why not practice some Agile and do your own iterations?
The Rails Guides are nice http://guides.rubyonrails.org/
If you don't like the blog idea, you could make a wiki, this isn't very complex either. you simply need a edit button on every page with the text from the linked to it. This will teach you how to handle rails and play with ruby for things like regular expressions and such.
Take your time, break down these problems and and they should be easy for you to solve with rails.
And go on IRC (server freenode channel #rubyonrails) you can use MIRC for that. Ask questions there, I usually am there, (look for nims).
My suggestion would be to start with a simple CMS. This is something you can continue to use and expand as your skills progress and you start other more complicated projects. In the most basic form, this consists of a Page model, and a Topic model. You could then add a User model, some login capabilities and a simple admin interface. After all, Rails was originally envisioned to make it easy to CMS type sites.
As you get this up and running, you can add some plugins to extend the functionality to include tagging, comments, and more. Or you can roll these capabilities yourself.
Set up an account on Github and learn how to use Git. Its great, and better than what you used before (if anything.) You should also learn rake, and capistrano, as these are huge timesavers and work hand in hand with Rails and Github.
http://blog.caboo.se/articles/2007/4/11/sample-rails-application
http://www.railsinside.com/elsewhere/100-7-barebones-rails-apps-to-kick-start-your-development-process.html