This is a complete guide that answers the following three main career questions about Ruby on Rails (RoR):
- What is Ruby on Rails?
- Where it stands out with other web development?
- How to become a Ruby on Rails developer?
What is Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is an open-source web application based on Linux, which is also open source. It seems difficult to learn and build modern web applications; Ruby on Rails makes it much easier and more fun. Until now you have used many famous web applications built by Ruby on Rails such as,
These are just famous names; there are thousands of applications based on Ruby on Rails. Ruby is a programming language created 20+ years ago by Yukihiro, It is included in the top ten programming languages and mainly due to Rails. Rails is basically a library that extends Ruby language; that’s why it is named Ruby on Rails by David Heinemeier Hansson.
Ruby on Rails Advantages
- RoR doesn’t let their creators sacrifice on security. They have a special section on their website for complaining and fixing security patches. RoR creators provide critical security features to come with the basic package for developers. They have update policies with the latest RoR security.
- For 10+ years, they are still updating every now and then.
- It is easier to build a website from scratch in Ruby on Rails.
- Ruby on Rails has very little artificial complexity than any other language and framework.
- The best part of RoR is its popular community. Through which many problems are sorted out very fast, new gems are added to public repositories every day.
- Ruby on Rails is free of cost. All necessary packages, open-source code libraries, support resources- all are free.
- Developers save the time for debugging in late stages of development, all thanks to Ruby on Rails.
- Pragmatism, along with Ruby, produces elegant solutions.
- Ruby on Rails is very expressive as it is closer to the English
- When it comes to the flexible convention for productivity, Rail comes with a small toolbox for agile development.
- As there is a vast community of RoR, developers contribute a lot to these communities by creating and publishing new gems, which are also free to use and open source. One of the benefits of an active community is there will always be someone on Slack/Discord/Reddit to help you out.
Costing Advantages of Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is famous for many readymade modules and plugins, which makes it easier for a programmer to use already written codes in it. RoR developers are 30 times faster than any other programming developer, lesser the time you take to code more money in your pocket.
Costing depends on these factors,
- How complicated is your application?
- Numbers of people working on RoR Application.
- The complexity of the application.
Ruby on Rails is an open-source framework that means it saves money on the framework itself. Hence it is cost-efficient.
CI services provide automated testing which ensures developer to avoids collision between new and old code, the average cost of such services per year is 300$-600$.
Debugging in Ruby on Rails
Debugging programming code from time to time is how professionals work, RoR makes debugging easier for developers. RoR forbade code execution at the breakpoint and marked that spot by a keyword known as byebug. During execution, when it reaches the breakpoint, the marker will point to the current so that the developer can write commands there. This gem offers a lot of other commands for e.g., next, step, break and continue. All gems have similar functions but different syntax and semantics.
Few tips and tricks for debugging includes,
- During the production environment, use staging test servers for testing and checking your code.
- The only way to fix production errors on the production site is it should be first fixed on the local machine and reproduce
- To revert back to the old version, you must have backup each production version before pushing a new
- You can fix production error only if,
- Error is caused by specific dataset
- Error is caused by deeper code bugs by the production
- Error is caused by some server
Learn Ruby on Rails
If you are a professional and wanted to switch your career in ruby on rails,
- You must learn the Rails convention.
- Become the part of huge Ruby on Rails community
- Get to know more about Gems and Package managers.
- Learn and practice more and more
But if you are a beginner then,
- You must learn basic building blocks of web development.
- Join web developer boot camps and polish your skills.
- Join FreeCodeCamp.com; it’s an interactive browsing coding platform.
- If you have money, joins Codeacademy.com. It is very profitable for all kind of RoR learners.
- Most importantly, practice every day, build modern web applications.
- Be very patient and don’t humiliate yourself by fasten up things.
Online Resources for Ruby on Rails
Below is a helpful resource list for someone who wants to learn RoR,
Ruby on Rails Tutorial by Michael Hartl
It is an online book help by Micheal Hartl for classic learning of RoR. Beginners must take start by reading this. Someone with no idea of RoR, this book will help him to start his career in Ruby on Rails.
Learn Ruby on Rails: the Ultimate Beginner’s Tutorial
Patrick Lenz created this ultimate tutorial guide. It gives plenty of knowledge to beginners trying their hands on Ruby on Rails. It is free and helps better-understanding web development using Rails.
Rails for Zombies
It uses zombies theme graphics along with interactive videos and quizzes. It is free and gives the comfort of working with the Rails framework.
CodeWars
Choose to opt for this website after you are well aware of Ruby. Codewars offer a considerable lot of coding challenges that can be solved in your own browser. It makes you solve real problems by practicing and more practicing. Also, after finishing a challenge, you can also see how others completed the same challenge. By this, you can learn different ways to solve the same problem.
Famous application developed on Ruby on Rails
GitHub
It is a Git repository hosting service. It is a code hosting platform for version control and collaboration. It allows you and other to work together from any part of the earth.
Shopify
It is basically an eCommerce platform, an online selling platform. It gives you a base for creating and developing online stores by which you can sell, ship, and promote products.
Codeacademy
Codeacademy is one of the larger online coding providers. It was founded in 2011 by students of Columbia Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski. Codeacademy has raised more than $47.5 million. It runs on Ruby on Rails along with 11 other different programming languages.
Heroku
It is one of the most popular cloud applications, and it is also written in Ruby on Rails with a tight tech stack. It gives developers a fast pace and straightway to get their products to market
Conclusion
Concluding this guide by stating, while adopting Ruby on Rails, you can focus more on logic and implementation methods and less on writing repetitive codes. It gives you tools like dynamic typing or bye bugging that will speed up the development process.
