What is Ruby on Rails?
Ruby on Rails , also known as “Rails”, is a web application development framework written in the Ruby language. Rails uses a modelviewcontroller (MVC) structure to organize application programming. Rails has major principles like Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY), Convention Over Configuration (CoC) and active record pattern. You have likely already used many of the applications which are developed with Ruby on Rails: Basecamp, GitHub , Twitter , Shopify, SoundCloud, Zendesk, Square, etc. Those are just big names but thousands of applications have been built with the Rails framework since its release in 2004. David Heinemeier Hansson , inventor of Ruby on Rails framework, extracted Rails framework from his work on the project management tool Basecamp. He released Rails as open source in July 2004, but did not share commit rights to the project until February 2005. In December 2005, Rails Version 1.0 was released. Ruby on Rails is supported by many databases like SQLite , MySQL , PostgreSQL , etc. Rails framework comes with a great many packages, like active record, action mailer, active support, gems, etc. Rails has one out of the box feature, called scaffolding , which is used for creating CRUD operation very quickly for any web application. WEBrick is a ruby server which comes with Rails framework by default. We can also configure many servers with Rails, like Apache, nginx, etc. Ruby on Rails is also installed using RubyGems , a package manager for the Ruby programming language that provides a standard format for distributing Ruby programs. There are hundreds of open source contributors, blogs, forums and IRC channels available for Rails. A huge number of gems are available in the market for Rails application.
Rails comes with good concept to test the application. Rails uses TDD (Test Driven Development) and BDD (Behaviour Driven Development) in widely manner to implement testing into your application. There are so many gems are available in the market to achieve TDD and BDD. In Rails 3.0, bundler feature was introduced which is the best way to manage gem dependencies in rails applications. Bundler is tracking and installing the exact gems and versions that are needed for your Rails applications. Gems dependencies are specified into Gemfile of your Rails applications. Rails 2 is compatible with Ruby 1.8.7 , Rails 3 is compatible with Ruby 1.9.3 , Rails 4 is compatible with Ruby 2.0.0 and Rails 5 compatible with Ruby 2.2.2 . (Recommended Ruby Versions). As per http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe_index , ranking for Ruby language is at 9th place (April 2016).
Right now, Rails 5 is available in the market which has lots of new features compared to previous versions. Like Action Cable, Rails API, New Command Router, Attributes API, Application Record, Active Record Relation (OR method).
Conclusion: Finally, Ruby on Rails framework is the best choice for many fastest growing companies who are developing web based applications. Many companies choose Ruby on Rails framework because of speedy development & agility of building web applications and increased the productivity and company growth. About The Author:
This Article is written by Codal’s RoR Developer. Codal is a UX design and development agency with a focus on blending an Agile process with the latest emerging technologies. Based in the heart of Chicago, we have a knack for bringing out the best in every brand that we work with, worldwide. Our clientele has ranged from small business to enterprise, but our philosophy has always remained the same: to empower brand visibility and deliver the most elegant web and mobile solutions possible.
www.codal.com UX Design & Apps Development Agency