Head First Rails

Chapter 2. Beyond Scaffolding: Rails apps, made to order

So what’s really going on with Rails? You’ve seen how scaffolding generates heaps of code and helps you write web applications wicked fast, but what if you want something a little different? In this chapter you’ll see how to really seize control of your Rails development and take a look underneath the hood of the framework. You’ll learn how Rails decides which code to run, how data is read from the database, and how web pages are generated. By the end, you’ll be able to publish data the way you want.

MeBay, Inc. needs your help

MeBay, Inc. is a sales company that helps people sell their unwanted stuff online. They need a new version of their site, and they need you to help them out.

To place an ad on the site, the seller calls MeBay on their toll-free number, and gives their seller ID and the details of the item they want to sell. MeBay has their own data entry system, and your application is needed to publish the MeBay ads online.

MeBay will store their ads in a database

All of the ads contain the same types of information, and MeBay wants to store the ads in a database. They’ll insert the data into the tables you create when you build the app. They need something like this:

Sharpen your pencil

Suppose you were going to ...