Ruby on Rails is the super-productive new way to develop full-featured web applications. With Ruby on Rails, powerful web applications that once took weeks or months to develop can now be produced in a matter of days. If it sounds too good to be true, it isn't.

If you're like a lot of web developers, you've probably considered kicking the tires on Rails - the framework of choice for the new generation of Web 2.0 developers. Ruby on Rails: Up and Running takes you out for a test drive and shows you just how fast Ruby on Rails can go.

This compact guide teaches you the basics of installing and using both the Ruby scripting language and the Rails framework for the quick development of web applications. Ruby on Rails: Up and Running covers just about everything you need - from making a simple database-backed application to adding elaborate Ajaxian features and all the juicy bits in between. While Rails is praised for its simplicity and speed of development, there are still a few steps to master on the way. More advanced material helps you map data to an imperfect table, traverse complex relationships, and build custom finders. A section on working with Ajax and REST shows you how to exploit the Rails service frameworks to send emails, implement web services, and create dynamic user-centric web pages. The book also explains the essentials of logging to find performance problems and delves into other performance-optimizing techniques.

As new web development frameworks go, Ruby on Rails is the talk of the town. And Ruby on Rails: Up and Running can make sure you're in on the discussion.

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Out of date,  June 23 2008
Submitted by spored   [Respond | View]

Sorry but I'm returning this book. It is not up to the standards that I have come to expect from O'Reilly books. It is out of date, and much of what is presented in Chapter 4 did not work, I did not bother to continue on to chapter 5 when the downloaded examples did not work. I understand that there were major changes to Rails since the book was released and on the forums there is much carping that little notice was given about the updates but there is a limit on how out of date a book can be, this book exceeds that limit.


wtf,  June 11 2008
Submitted by Allen Noren   [Respond | View]

Hello whereisthesean,

I'm sorry we disappointed you with this book. As with all our books, the Example files are available by clicking the "Examples" link beneath the book cover on the catalog page. For your convenience, the direct link for downloading the examples is http://examples.oreilly.com/rubyrails/ .

Also, I want to remind you that we have a 100% satisfaction guarantee policy and you can return your book for a full refund. http://oreilly.com/oreilly/cs/guarantee.csp

Thanks for taking the time to write us.

--Allen



wtf,  June 11 2008
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

Although the typos and misplaced figures forced me to figure out the code via common sense & patterns (a good learning process), I didn't buy the book to go through that process.

I was ok with it until, by following the steps in the book, I was routed to this url and told to download a zip that I couldn't find.
Bad Marketing: having a problem on a site that also provided easily writable reviews of said problem.


unexpectedly dissapointed,  May 24 2008
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

I caught a number of typos which caused command line directives to fail. I suspect that a lot of later problems are related to versioning. I failed to be able to decipher the problems around chapter 4 since the scaffolding doesn't work for me and the downloaded solutions fail too.



Re: Out Of Date,  May 12 2008
Submitted by Mike Loukides   [Respond | View]

We're aware that the book is out of date, and are working on a new edition.


Out Of Date,  May 10 2008
Submitted by Patrick   [Respond | View]

This book started out very strongly, but it's age starts to show after about 50 pages.
The book seems to be written for an earlier version of the framework and is in need of being refreshed.
Unless you feel comfortable discovering the example-spoiling changes on your own, avoid the first edition of this book.



drag & drop example not working for me?,  October 10 2007
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

I like this book because it is short, thin, and to the point. It gives me just enough information to get started. The examples worked fine until I tried the drag & drop one.

This is probably not the place to ask a question like this. But, please let me...

The error from drag & drop operation:

Processing SlideshowsController#add_photo (for 10.71.1.169 at 2007-10-10 14:44:43) [POST]
Session ID: 253902577ac03cf8a5c6393c3721dade
Parameters: {"action"=>"add_photo", "id"=>"photo_3", "controller"=>"slideshows"}
SQL (0.002208)  SELECT a.attname, format_type(a.atttypid, a.atttypmod), d.adsrc, a.attnotnull
FROM pg_attribute a LEFT JOIN pg_attrdef d
ON a.attrelid = d.adrelid AND a.attnum = d.adnum
WHERE a.attrelid = 'slides'::regclass
AND a.attnum > 0 AND NOT a.attisdropped
ORDER BY a.attnum

SQL (0.000436) BEGIN
Slide Load (0.000000) RuntimeError: ERROR C42804 Margument of WHERE must be type boolean, not type integer Fparse_coerce.c L818 Rcoerce_to_boolean: SELECT * FROM slides WHERE (slideshow_id) ORDER BY position DESC LIMIT 1
SQL (0.000429) ROLLBACK

ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid (RuntimeError: ERROR C42804 Margument of WHERE must be type boolean, not type integer Fparse_coerce.c L818 Rcoerce_to_boolean: SELECT * FROM slides WHERE (slideshow_id) ORDER BY position DESC LIMIT 1):
........

Based on the above error, the problem seems to be with the generated select statement.

SELECT * FROM slides WHERE (slideshow_id) ORDER BY position DESC LIMIT 1)

Instead, it should be:

SELECT * FROM slides WHERE (slideshow_id = 3) ORDER BY position DESC LIMIT 1)

I also tried the following:

>> slide = Slide.find 1
>> slideshow = slide.slideshow
>> slideshow.slides.first.move_to_bottom
ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid: RuntimeError: ERROR C42804 Margument of AND must be type boolean, not type integer Fparse_coerce.c L818 Rcoerce_to_boolean: UPDATE slides SET position = (position - 1) WHERE (slideshow_id AND position > 1)

Same kind of problem. The update statement should be like:

UPDATE slides SET position = (position - 1) WHERE (slideshow_id = 3 AND position > 1)

I am not sure how to correct this problem. Please help.


Disappointing,  August 14 2007
Submitted by Alex   [Respond | View]

I understand this was a light 'quick' start to Ruby on Rails, but this book was not worth my time or money. This is RoR, right? It's exciting & sexy. Everyone has seen David Hansson's "Creating a weblog in 15 minutes" presentation--this book made ASP look like fun.

I was hoping for a quick and exciting read for people who are used to web application programming with some sort of MVC framework. What I got was a choppy, boring, and mechanical 130 pages that walked through one example several times. It felt like this book was hastily written to cash in on the new wave of Ruby on Rails books.

...and then there are the numerous errors in the examples...


Helpful for beginners, leaves plenty of questions and some confusion,  August 10 2007
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

I read this as my first full pass through a RoR application. Certain chapters (actually just portions of text) were helpful, but the lack of coherency ended up causing some confusion. I am hungry for more information... I'll seek a different author / publisher, because this book is far from Definitive! It's the quality of a draft / WIP. The Testing chapter was the last one that I read, and for some strange reason, the PDF that I bought had extra text after the closing punchline of the chapter... how ironic.


disappointing,  July 17 2007
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

This book has promise in chapter one, but the lack of a glossary, along with too much "we'll get to this later" eliminates the possibility of it being a true starter guide. What's worse is that the code, for some reason, does not always work. So that means that a true beginner could not really just trust that everything will be revealed. Debugging is impossible.

It seems to introduce a lot of the basic concepts well enough, but all of the eggs are in the photo share application basket, which did not work for me. I am still very interested in learning rails, but I will be choosing another source after doing some more research this time.

I heard that someone else was offered a refund. I would love that, and it would increase the possibility of my buying an O'Reilly Book.


CRAP,  June 13 2007
Submitted by Jetson Davis   [Respond | View]

This book is piss-poor - it is impossible to follow step-by-step and is full of errors which render it useless. DON'T BUY IT!



Marred by inaccuracies and missing code,  May 13 2007
Submitted by rklaeboe   [Respond | View]

This could have been a good book. A revised edition that cleans up the example and provides more background on the working of the Javascript will be. The Photos example is a good test case for a Rails application and for showing off Javascript.

However, working throught the examples was hard work. Since the code for the final running application is not supplied, it is not always clear which code fragments have been kept and what has been left out. Some examples messes up the flow of going through the Photos example, and the double scaffolding messes up the rails project file structure by providing both a slideshows and a slideshow controller etc. Several of the code fragments are incomplete. The experience of getting the Photos project to work became quite frustrating.


Very poor,  April 02 2007
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

Very disappointing book to read. Having never owned or read an O'Reilly book before, I thought I might have been taking a risk.

Turns out my misgivings were fairly well founded. The book is well written in parts and is in a good understandable English style. But unfortunately the authors skip through far too quickly, only skimming over the details of what you are actually doing.

Most paragraphs end in "...do this for now without understanding what you've just done, and I'll tell you later what you've done.". The final explanation of what you have done never seems to materialise, but on the times that it does, you're so far ahead you can’t remember what is being explained anyway (never mind the fact that you now have another 3 promises for explanations to keep track of in your head).

I struggle to who this book is positioned at. Certainly not for beginners due to its fast and superficial pace, and too simple for advanced developers. SO its targeted at an intermediate developer then? Well, no. Why would an intermediate developer (who has presumably gone through easier beginner books to become an intermediate developer) need to get "Up and Running" as this books claims to do for you?

Disappointing book.


Great starter guide,  February 11 2007
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

The promise of rails, as a framework, is to give a significant lift to productivity. However, the most challenging thing about a novel framework is that it is a system of parts that you can't use effectively without an understanding of the components.

This guide does an excellent job of getting you oriented and effective in the framework of RoR. It's not the be-all end-all in ruby or rails, but it will get you at least being productive in a structured way so that you are efficient with your learning time and have a mental framework for moving on to bigger, better, more intense.


Leaves a lot unsaid,  December 14 2006
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

I love the fact that the book's target audience matches me to a "t". From the Preface: "Ruby on Rails: Up and Running is for experienced developers who are new to Rails and possibly to Ruby."

I've generally had good experiences with O'Reilly books so I felt confident that my high expectations of this book would be met. Unfortunately I found the author brushes over a lot of content which leaves many unanswered questions in the reader's mind. This book seems to be a draft more than a finished product. I would definitely take a look at a second edition of this book; what has been written was written well and hopefully a second edition will pad out the content and explanations a bit more.



Surprised,  December 08 2006
Submitted by Tunamaxx   [Respond | View]

A short while ago, I left a fairly unimpressed review about "Ruby on
Rails: Up and Running."

Much to my amazement, I was contacted by an O'Reilly representative within a few minutes or my posting. They let me know I could indeed get a refund if I was not satisfied.

I came back here to add a pleasantly surprised update about the way O'Reilly handled the situation.

Thanks for taking the time to respond Allen. It was much appreciated.



Frustrating,  December 07 2006
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

Trying to read and code-along with this book has been the most frustrating experience. The information is there, and it is presented at quick pace, but there are so many problems.

If the book was a free download, then I would expect to have to deal with the confusing layout and inconsistencies. However, this is a book I paid good money for and I feel cheated that such a slip-shod book made it to the shelves.

First and foremost, 'Up and Running' doesn't even follow it's own typographic conventions as outlined in the preface. Commands "that should be typed literally by the reader" should be in constant width bold. For examples of where this convention wasn't followed, see pages 21, 37, 38, 39, 46, 51, 55, etc. Not only does this make it difficult to follow along, the text blends in with the rest of the page, bringing me to my next complaint.

The book bounces around between the current project and sidebar examples. Not a big deal, but there is no distinction between what is 'good to know' info, and what is supposed to followed for the project.

Examples of code change without warning, and the change is not just the new code addition.

Migration files are referred to by the wrong names. For instance, 001_create_photos.rb is correctly identified, but create_slide.rb is not.

Figures are mislabeled too. 3-4 has a table labeled categories-photos when the text tells you it should be categories_photos.

The files available from this website sometimes don't match what the book says. See the 001_create_photos.rb migration in chapter 2 versus the text supplied in src-start-chapter-3. Yes, I realize they are different chapters, but nothing is changed in the book. Why is it different in the file?

Then there's the 'missing' SQL statements mentioned by another reviewer. Yeah, they are there, but they are included in the src-start-chapter-4 files, NOT the chapter 3 where you actually need them.

I could go on, but I have already wasted more time on this than I care to admit.

Maybe with another revision and a complete reformatting of the layout, this book could be the accelerated tutorial it should be. Until then, it is almost frustrating enough to drive people away from Ruby all together.

Can I get my money back?


Where is Appendix B online?,  December 02 2006
Submitted by Ram   [Respond | View]

I would agree that the material could have been slowed down a little more. But, where is Appendix B online? The book said it is available on this website under CC license.


Good!,  November 14 2006
Submitted by Jose Rogério   [Respond | View]

The book is a good start, but there are a lot os mistakes. I haven't found any place in http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rubyrails to download the zip files with the codes.


Looking for source code?,  November 12 2006
Submitted by Sam   [Respond | View]

If you are, try this URL: http://examples.oreilly.com/rubyrails/

The URL given in the book (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rubyrails/)
does not easily get you there. (At least not for me.)

You need to click on the "Examples" link in the "Post-purchase Benefits" section.






Great Book -- where is the sample code??,  October 31 2006
Submitted by JB   [Respond | View]

I have loved this book so far. however, I can't for the life of me find the sample code on the book's home page at http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rubyrails/

Getting to this sample code should be much easier, especially for safari subscribers!



Irritation,  September 27 2006
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

The book is small, which I often consider a good thing, but it ends up feeling really, really hurried. For how long it took to get to press, you'd think they'd check it better. The latest of many misprints I've encountered is the code at the bottom of page 46. I suspect you're supposed to create a new photo, rather than assign a filename to it, at the bottom of the page. But those kinds of mistakes are littered throughout the book, as if it was also written in a hurry.

I agree also with the other reviewer about the SQL. And frankly, I just think the authors could really have slowed down a bit and explored the topics just a tad more. The book is alright, and the example app you build is good enough, but you don't walk away from it feeling like you're getting much more than an overview of the subject.


Irritation,  September 10 2006
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT LAST REVIEW. I'm following up on my review. Please note that the SQL source files ARE available online, but they are included in the download for the chapter FOLLOWING the chapter in which you're working. Just wanted to add this note so that folks don't have to go through the same frustration I did until I figured that out. Cheers.


Irritation,  September 05 2006
Submitted by sparkybarkalot   [Respond | View]

I should probably finish the book before I comment, but I just came online to look for the SQL file that is described on page 39 of the book, only to find that it apparently isn't online! It's a 19 line SQL file and in this day and age that sort of thing should be availble either on CD with the book or online. This book is supposed to help readers get up and running, not make them put on the brakes to type in things that add nothing to one's knowledge of RoR. Sometimes examples are worth typing out yourself since you can learn a lot that way, this is NOT one of those times... this is just a long, repetitive SQL file. Please do future readers a favor and post this kind of stuff online.

Another small point: the Index doesn't seem to include the information that is found in Appendix B. Maybe this is common publishing practice. It is odd, though, that the section of Validation on page 34 makes no mention that there is more complete information about Validation in Appendix B, and the Index lists page 34 as the only place to find out info about Validation. Again, not a showstopper, but life is short and it never hurts to help out your readers a bit ;)

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