The importance of choosing the right technology stack

With the ever-increasing importance of attractive business websites, there has been a dramatic surge in the demand for effective web development frameworks. And it’s here that Ruby on Rails fits into the picture with great impact. As a highly scalable and flexible web development framework, Rails makes your web development project highly affordable. That’s not all; this particular web development framework also offers opportunities for swift development and improved performance.

However, web developers will require considering quite a few significant aspects while using Ruby on Rails. There is no denying the cost-effectiveness or numerous other benefits offered by this particular framework. At the same time, it’s also imperative to know when and where to use Ruby on Rails.

Here’s a guide for all those passionate web developers out there.

Projects demanding Ruby on Rails

If you wish to create a customer-friendly, sales-oriented, or social participation sites, Rails will turn out to be the best solution. Check out the following categories, and see of Rails is an ideal option for you.

1.      Membership sites

If you are into building social networking sites or social participation platforms, Ruby on Rails will emerge as the greatest option. With a unique range of plug-ins, Rails will help you combat every critical social networking site.

2.      Ecommerce sites

Ecommerce platforms depend on two crucial aspects. In simple words, your ecommerce development project will rely on two significant approaches. High sales and effective customer engagement are the two most important factors in this context.

With Ruby on Rails, ecommerce site owners will find a modular approach. The unique features offered by the framework will help developers integrate site functions such as site updates, bulk uploads, custom price algorithms, along with photo cropping features for thumbnail creation.

3.      Content management systems

As one of the highly scalable web development frameworks, Rails allows easy navigation to its users. If your website involves a lot of content creation, uploading, and management, Ruby on Rails will prove to be the best solutions.

4.      Custom database management systems

Digital transformations have led businesses towards embracing innovation. Every new-age entrepreneur today strives hard towards establishing a strong business model. Quite inevitably, that creates the demand for custom database management solutions. Ruby on Rails offers the fastest and most cost-effective way of creating such systems.

When to avoid Rails

In spite of these amazing benefits and unique features, Ruby on Rails fails to meet the requirements of quite a few site development projects. The following conditions will help you know when to avoid Rails.

        I.            Building brochure sites

First-time entrepreneurs have countless things in mind while creating their business websites. Most of them opt for brochure-styled websites capable of offering a lot of information to potential customers. These websites have an attractive appearance and also contain crucial contact information about the company.

      II.            Creating blogging sites

If you wish to integrate blogging as functionality in an extensive internet site, Rails will turn out to be the best solution. But, if it’s a dedicated blogging platform, choosing Ruby on Rails will not be feasible.

Conclusion

We would love to hear your words on this piece about Ruby on Rails. Do write in to us and let us know your thoughts.

Ruby on Rails is among the most important and used programming languages and framework used in millions of websites already. More and more websites are shifting towards this language use in the modern times. Being learned and skilled in this language is an added advantage for a web designer to earn gracious salary.  The model view controller pattern applied in this language is hard to master. Hence professionals who have excelled in this difficult but productive web application framework, definitely have their career rolling at a breakneck speed!

Lucrative skill

The graph depiction of number of ruby developers since 2010 clearly suggests an increasing trend proving that this web development language is here to stay. The mind boggling salaries ranging from $70000- $100000 around the world and with quicker and higher raises is definitely driving more towards learning this ‘cash rich’ skill. Professionals skilled at Ruby are a rare bunch and hence attract high demand and less supply. This is also the reason why they are the ones who rule the web development market.

Showcase a Resume with a bright career scope

Like C or Java, Ruby is a general purpose language, although best known for its web programming capabilities. RoR offers several advantages including rapid development, less of coding and a wide resource of 3^rd party libraries. Companies ranging from startups to established multinationals use Ruby to their end. According to the latest (2016) data from indeed.com, Ruby is positioned among the top 10 programming languages, alongside SQL, Java, C#, C++, Python, PHP and iOS. This ensures that a Ruby certification can help you land up in a range of companies and promise a bright career.

Your Career can take off with Ruby on Rails skills

Making a good, secured website is a preliminary SEO requirement. Hence, eradicating any security flaws is the prerogative of the web developers of RoR.  A bachelor in computer science with the technical skills in various web tools including RoR can definitely bring the job seeker in the limelight.

With RoR enjoying a long run (with no indication of slowing down anytime soon), it makes total sense for a newbie in technology domain to master this language and enhance his/ her skillset. Some of the more essential pointers that a new programmer can focus on include the ways to implement upgrades, release codes and also make database changes.

The web applications development can become less intimidating for the people who know Ruby on Rails. Hence, the people who are at any stage of their career can upgrade their skills and add this wonderful tech skill into their CV to get their careers zooming up. The philosophies of this language like ‘don’t repeat yourself’, ‘convention over configuration’ makes it a practical programming language which requires less coding and hence less repetitions unlike other programming software. This makes Ruby a preferable platform for businesses and consequently a winning addition to your CV!

While the developer demand for Ruby on Rails is still high, there’s a lot of scope for both the framework and the language to shine. Both the Ruby language and the Ruby on Rails framework has been a major step for developers and programmers. For more than a decade, Ruby has been running in the wild but that also accompanies a 20+ years of experience, allowing it to stalk specific territories. Let’s take a closer look where Ruby on Rails feels more at home and niches that feel challenges, both existential and technical.

As of today, there are about 894,785 live websites that are running on Ruby and this comprises 0.3% of the entire internet content. The most important niches for Ruby development have been in shopping/ecommerce, business and technology. However, the penetration still seems low for a language that has been able to survive for more than a couple of decades. So what makes Ruby complicated?

The obstacles with Ruby on Rails

It would be fair to say that Ruby usage is sliding but to be specific, it has been losing out to frameworks and languages like Go and Node.js when it comes to performance and scale. Legacy projects are subsequently being rewritten in alternative frameworks. There are several examples proving this, some quite high profile. The first that comes to mind is Parse, the mobile app outfit that recently switched from Ruby on Rails to Go. The obstacle with Ruby here was that the engineers were finding it hard to deal with the explosive growth and Ruby failed to offer the required amount of scaling.

In fact, Twitter had originally been a Ruby on Rails project but was eventually rewritten with Scala and its front end was replaced by a customized Java based solution. Other examples would be the Puppet project server component that switched to Clojure since there were greater advantages with the Java Virtual Machine.

If you are looking up to JRuby, it too has it limits with convenience and speed. As the Parse team rightly suggest, “JRuby is still Ruby”.

The good things with Ruby

Given the above problems, what is still keeping 0.3% of the internet stick to Ruby? As with Python, Ruby too is more useful when it is about task automation or stitching different functionalities from different part of the IT ecosystem. Ruby’s software packages, lovingly called the “Gems” can be installed easily and they are counting 6,400 and beyond. Further, SDK for services and third party applications like Amazon include Ruby libraries and wrappers to make access Ruby apps.

Ruby has also been addressing specialized computing needs with projects such as SciRuby.

However, the best thing about Ruby had been its ability to keep things simple and make the programmer happy. Ruby ensures that web apps can be prototypes in just a fraction of time it would have taken with other languages/frameworks. The demand for Ruby on Rails expertise also compliments front end JavaScripting.

To conclude, it would be right to say that the growth we still see with Ruby is basically to maintain the existing Ruby infrastructure, as opposed to investing it in new objects. In any case, the growth is still there are Ruby developers have an equal lifestyle as any other IT guy!

The best programmers never quite were pushed into the career. It’s usually the passion and inclination to create your own platform on the internet that makes the start to this incredible journey. Among the most popular languages popular with programmers today is Ruby on Rails. A compact, elegant and a very fun way to create web applications, Ruby on Rails is simple enough to use. Written in the Ruby language, the application designing framework is intended to make job easier for programmers and web developers. It allows writing fewer lines of codes to accomplish more than any other language would be able to.

The logic of Ruby on Rails brings forth a ‘best way’ to do things and encourage designs. Someone who has discovered the potential of Rails will love the tremendous increase in productivity and create a happy experience for both the programmer and the end user of applications.

The Ruby on Rails philosophy is based on two important elements:

1 – Don’t repeat yourself

DRY of ‘don’t repeat yourself’ explains that every piece of information must follow an unambiguous, authoritative and single representation within the system. Not having to write the same things over and over again coding gets more extensible, less buggy and more maintainable.

2 – Convention over configuration

Ruby on Rails offers several different ways to reach the same goals. All its defaults are set to this convention and programmers will not have to attend endless number of configuration files.

Installing your first ‘Rails’ framework

The first of the steps on your Ruby on Rails journey is installing the application framework. Open the command line prompt on your system (“Open Terminal App” for MAC OS users and “Run” for Windows users) and type ‘cmd.exe’. It is necessary that you verify the latest version of Ruby on Rails installed in your system. Also note that any commands that are prefaced by the $ sign must be executed in the program line.

Alternatively, MAC users can use the Tokaido tool to run Rails and Windows users can seek help of the Rails Installer.

Creating a blog application

Ruby on Rails offers several scripts called ‘generators’ that have been designed to make life easier for a developer. It creates everything necessary to begin with a Rails project. One of such tools is the ‘new application generator’ that offers the foundation of your first application without having to write codes. To be able to use this generator, users need to open a ‘terminal’ and navigate to the directory where you will be able to create files. The next step would be to type: ‘$ rails new blog’.

This command will open up a Rails application referred to as ‘Blog’ and subsequently install ‘gem directories’ mentioned in ‘Gemfile’ via the ‘bundle install’. Next step would be switching to its folder $ cd blog.

Hello Rails! You will have a functional application ready. All you need is to access the web server for your development machine. This could be run using the blog directory ‘bin/rails server.

The Ruby community is amazing and there is a lot of positive energy, enthusiasm to support every developer associated with it. This has kept the demand for Ruby and Rails on part of the developers quite high since the platform was first launched. However, Ruby and Rails are quite different aspects of the language and it is important to know how each work to create a successful product.

Ruby on Rails officially stepped into the web space on July 2004 when David Heinemeier created the Basecamp web application – a project management tool. However, the language got its first impetus when Apple recognized the potential and decided to ship it with its Mac OS X v.10.5 “Leopard” on August 2006. Through a series of regular updates and upgrades, Ruby and Rails is believed to be one of the most elegant programming languages today.

Similar to any other web application framework, Ruby on Rails uses Model View Controller (MVC) for its architecture. It brings in tools that make it a whole lot easier to create development functions for websites and applications. Rails, as of today, have been in the news for more than a decade now and for Ruby, the development experience is double. Both languages have created their specific territories. Here we look at the technical and existential challenges and opportunities that each face.

The changing programming environment

The main aim behind Ruby and Rails was to make work easier for the programmer. The simple, easy to use, constantly updated and highly supported frameworks have weaved a success story for both. With Rails, prototyping web apps are a matter of seconds and a striking example of the same can be seen with the Twitter bootstrap module. Several other sites including Hulu and GitHub work on the same principle. Rails, thus remains one of the broadest of practical applications. Even the high demand for Ruby somehow revolves around Rails. Ruby expertise goes hand in hand with JavaScript skills in the job market today.

The above points hint that Rails has been the driving factor for the Ruby business. With more performance improvements coming in, there is certainly a long way to go.

Libraries and scripting

Ruby, like Python, has been highly useful to automate tasks and stitch together various functionalities from across the web. The “Gems” package from Ruby is easy to install and so are third party applications and SDKs. However, Python gets an edge with its specialized computing features, specifically related to maths and science. Ruby addresses the gap with features like SciRuby and both languages bring forward a healthy competition.

However, Libraries and Scripting from Ruby and Rails still have alternatives and this lowers its competitiveness.

Speed, scale and asynchronicity

This is where Ruby and Rails could be said to be on the losing end. Several legacy projects done with Rails are suffering for their poor performance scale. At the same time, the programs are being re-written in competing languages like Go and Node.js. A glaring example of this failure has been Parse, a mobile application outfit that switched from Ruby to Go to achieve better scale. Similarly, Twitter, which was originally a Ruby project, was replaced with Scala and a custom Java-based solution.

While it has been a great experience with Ruby, it needs to be maintained and preserved to continue existing as opposed to bringing/building new tools.

Ruby on Rails is a web application framework designed to be a part of the Ruby programming language. It is important to know that Rails is not the same thing as Ruby. In fact, Ruby on Rails is a smart collection of shortcuts that are written using Ruby and lets developers build websites and web applications really quick. Consequently, it is highly recommended for beginners into the coding industry.

Interestingly, though Ruby on Rails is a small part of the Ruby framework, it alone has been able to create websites like Scribd, Groupon, Kickstarter, SlideShare, Zendesk, Shopify, SoundCloud, Hulu and many more. Ruby on Rails makes it easier and fun to develop entire web ecosystem for brands and is also one of the most in-demand thing if you are looking for a job in the programming / web development industry. Good Ruby on Rails developers are however very hard to find.

Here are some important reasons why every programmer should get acquainted with Ruby on Rails development:

1.       Beginner friendly

Every beginner would love the “cleanliness” of coding that Ruby on Rails offers. It’s easy to pick up, easy to read, easy to review and an effective way of understanding the relationship between front end architecture and back end development. Even experienced programmers use Ruby on Rails to pump out high quality apps in little time.

2.       Suits MVP

For any tech startup, it is not just important to gain customer approval but also being able to provide reasons for it. Ruby on Rails allows programmers to create MVP prototypes quickly that showcase how the startup is going to operate. It is just like creating a blue print before diving into the actual project process. Blueprints / prototypes using Ruby on Rails will allow you to approach and gain the client’s trust.

3.       Keeps investment under limit

Put simply, learning Ruby on Rails is cheap. Regardless of whether you opt for a free online course, a boot camp or a certified part time course, a Ruby on Rails course will be based upon the time that you invest. Programmers of any experience level will be able to create apps that with surprise the audience.

4.       Happy to be a developer

Ruby is object oriented, reflective, highly dynamic and a general purpose programming language. Originally created for “developer happiness” by Matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto) from Japan in the mid 1990s, Ruby on Rails has now become the first language that any developer learns. The coding structure is very easy to follow and will also help you bring out your creative side as opposed to banging your head over complicated scripts for simple functions. In simple words, with Ruby on Rails, you would be investing most of your talent into creating something unique.

5.       A great community

Apart from being easy to learn, Ruby on Rails is backed up an amazing community of developers who are ready to help and answer queries. You get loads of free tutorials and build groups who come together to create originality.

Ruby on Rails is one of the most versatile and dynamic high level programming language for object oriented jobs. The multi level framework makes the task easier and quicker for the programmers looking to expand the flexibility of their job irrespective of the scale and complexity of the project. This however makes it a hard fact that Ruby on Rails is not for beginners. To be a Ruby on Rails professional, one has to gain at least 5 years of experience with added software engineering skills. To make things easier, Ruby 4.2 already comes with several new features that make it the top programming language used globally. Here are some of the tools that will expand the flexibility of the language up by a notch.

1.       Action Mailer and Active Job

The Active Job is added as a ne adaptive layer that compliments commanding queuing systems including Resque, Delayed Job, Sidekiq, etc. It allows programmers to write jobs directly to the queuing systems which will run them with no changes whatsoever. On top of this, the Action Mailer enables programmers to add the “#deliver_later” tag which in turn will add an email id as a job in the queue.

2.       Adequate Record

Adequate Record has been added to Ruby 4.2 as a set of updated patches and other fixes, making the execution time almost half. Active Record has been commonly used to construct SQL strings with multiple transformations. To process scripts faster, Adequate Record separates static and dynamic data, wherein the former is sent directly to the cache process. This makes Active Record a highly functional tool to convert AST strings to SQL strings passed onto databases.

3.       Web Console

Web Console is a specialized set of debugging tool for Rails installation. In case Rails encounters errors, this interactive console helps the programmer quickly inspect and trace codes that seem to be conflicting. The console brings in added advantage for Ruby on Rails as it can even be shared with your co-developer without the need to configure a new system. The console can be operated in the browser using a command line interface.

4.       Foreign key support

Ruby on Rails is now attached with excellent support to add or remove foreign keys. Quick removal of keys just requires them to be dumped into the theschema.rb. As of now, MySQL, mysql2 and gresql have foreign key support. Further, programmers can utilize the “connection#supports_foreign_keys?” to determine whether the current adapter supports the APIs being used.

5.       HTML Sanitizer

There had been several issues with the HTML sanitizer that Ruby on Rails offered in previous versions. However, the current version offers a more robust alternative that has been built upon Loofah and Nokogiri. This makes the tool more secure and the HTML sanitization process more flexible. Also, the new algorithms make the sanitized output greatly different from pathological inputs of the past. For programmers still looking for the output that the older sanitizer version offered, you just need to add “rails-deprecated sanitizer gem” into the gemfile. This brings back the old behavior.

These new tools to Ruby on Rails will undoubtedly make the platform more robust and user friendly. Let us know which of these features you will be using in your next RoR project.

Over the last decade, the popularity of Ruby on Rails as a web app development solution has always been on the higher end of the graph. Knowledge in Ruby on Rails can land developers into great jobs, projects and lucrative positions in Ruby on Rails development companies. From startups to highly established app development companies, everyone agrees to the same conclusion that Ruby on Rails would be the best choice even when compared to alternatives like Java, Python and others.

So what makes Ruby on Rails so popular?

1.       Handy and versatile

In just 5 lines of code, programmers can choose to take an existing class and overwrite its behavior. While this may seem to be counter intuitive, there is risk in everything. Ruby also makes it much more versatile to draw codes. Ruby does miss out on some features available with newer languages, but all in all, it can be used as a ‘language power continuum’.

2.       Pragmatism

Ruby integrates deep pragmatism into its coding DNA. In collaboration with the other benefits, it has been producing elegant solutions since the last decade. Often referred to as ‘tent’ by programmers, Ruby on Rails doesn’t encourage any level of scripting complications. With Ruby on Rails development, it’s actually more of convention than configuration.

3.       Expressiveness

Using Ruby on Rails is just like studying English. The internal DSL of the language extends with the language’s semantics. With other languages, constructing DSL is always risky as it’s an external addition. With Ruby however, programmers don’t require external parser and yet strike an even balance with the DSL. The platform is perfect to use DSL where it makes good sense and demonstrate self-control. The bottomline of programming in Ruby on Rails is inherent usage of the high quality syntax and smart naming.

4.       The Community

Ruby on Rails is supported by an army of committed programmers who ensure that it stays in the most updated condition. With other languages, one might experience projects simmering down with age but with Ruby, the sparks are retained! A great addition to the language has in fact been its package manager, known to us as RubyGems. Though it was sidetracked for a little while RubyGems found its course and remains unified and acts as a superb resource for bright programmers. There is a provoking synergy between the cool language and its superb community and the pragmatic web framework.

5.       Maturity

When it comes to important decision making, anyone would go for tools that have a proven track record.  Ruby fits the criteria perfectly as it has been around the block for quite some time now and has established several runtimes and interpreters to make it conducive for programmers.

6.       Marketing

Lastly, compared to its younger alternatives, the Ruby site is awesome. Even in the older days, Ruby’s screen cast was breathtaking and one would totally agree to the point that when frameworks are in question, it is best to be in the crowd. Ruby is an obvious choice!

Experts say that the platform gives a perfect solution for the rapidly changing technological environment by speeding up the development processes and saving money and time in the process. These reasons show us why Ruby on Rails remains so popular even after so long.

Ruby is a widely popular programming language deployed in applications ranging from Simulations, robotics, 3D modeling, to web applications and business security. For beginners, the best way to learn Ruby on Rails is to go through the various free and paid resources and tutorials, community support, instructor guided courses and several reference tools available on the internet. Here’s a list of the top 8 Ruby resources that every developer should look into.

• Treehouse

Treehouse is an active community of developers that beginners can use to learn the web design fundamentals, Ruby development foundations and also create some basic Ruby applications. The resource is equipped with video tutorials supported by a browser integrated text editor. This forum is suitable for students at all experience levels. Treehouse resources are also available on iPad and native iOS apps. This is a paid resource that will cost you between $25 and $49 per month.

• Code School

Code School integrates interesting 80’s arcade and Zombie themed courses for Ruby and Ruby on Rails. Each of the course chapter comes as video and slide presentation that seek to breakdown the language in comprehensive tutorials. Learners can try out the interactive challenges and the free orientation courses like “Try Ruby” and “Rails for Zombies”. Code School registration costs $29 per month.

• Codecademy

Highly popular among students of Ruby, Codecademy is perfect for anyone looking to get introduced into the language. The course consists of several hours of interactive material that helps develop a solid understanding of Ruby foundation, thus helping in exploring the language. When you think to have progressed enough, you can even check out some of the Ruby API tutorials and learn how to connect your applications with Twitter, Twilio, Box, WePay, SendGrid, Ordr.in, easypost, 23andMe and Mashape. Codecademy is available free of cost.

• Codelearn

A test based and highly interactive walkthrough for Ruby, Codelearn’s interface is split into columns that mimic the real time workflow process between file browsers, terminals, app output, and code editor. Codelearn has been deemed to be one of the safest ways to learn Ruby on Rails before you begin with the root folder.

• RubyMonk

RubyMonk integrates several interactive lessons to guide learners towards Ruby development basics. You are required to solve problem sets (they get harder as you progress), with the help of The Master! RubyMonk is a free resource.

• Thinkful

A great choice for someone who can afford to pay $500 per month, Thinkful will let you work with a one-on-one mentor who guides you throughout the learning process. You can use this resource to be able to build applications from scratch and even come up with a job-ready portfolio. Another advantage with Thinkful is that you code alongside other passionate developers in the industry and collaborate with them on their projects.

• RailsCasts

RailsCasts is as old as the language Ruby itself and helps learners in a modular fashion. It integrates more than 400 screencast episodes by Ryan Bates, the master programmer. RailsCasts is available both as a free version and a paid version costing $9 per month.

• Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

Bizarre but effective, this guide is an entertaining way to learn Ruby programming. The book is also considered to be the root of several jokes popular in the Ruby community. Program with a soundtrack!