Rails Crash Course

Rails is a robust, flexible development platform that lets you build complex websites quickly. Major websites like GitHub, Hulu, and Twitter have run Rails under the hood, and if you know just enough HTML and CSS to be dangerous, Rails Crash Course will teach you to harness Rails for your own projects and create web applications that are fast, stable, and secure.

In Part I, you ll learn Ruby and Rails fundamentals and then dive straight into models, controllers, views, and deployment. As you work through the basics, you ll learn how to:
Craft persistent models with Active Record
Build view templates with Embedded Ruby
Use Git to roll back to previous versions of your code base
Deploy applications to Heroku

In Part II, you ll take your skills to the next level as you build a social networking app with more advanced Ruby tools, such as modules and metaprogramming, and advanced data modeling techniques within Rails s Active Record. You ll learn how to:
Implement an authentication system to identify authorized users
Write your own automated tests and refactor your code with confidence
Maximize performance with the asset pipeline and turbolinks
Secure your app against SQL injection and cross-site scripting
Set up a server and deploy applications with Capistrano

Each chapter is packed with hands-on examples and exercises to reinforce what you ve learned. Whether you re completely new to Ruby or you ve been mucking around for a bit, Rails Crash Course will take you from the basics to shipping your first Rails application, fast.