Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development with Rails (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby)

“Ruby on Rails™ Tutorial by Michael Hartl has become a must-read for developers learning how to build Rails apps.”

—Peter Cooper, Editor of Ruby Inside

Using Rails, developers can build web applications of exceptional elegance and power. Although its remarkable capabilities have made Ruby on Rails one of the world’s most popular web development frameworks, it can be challenging to learn and use. Ruby on Rails™ Tutorial, Second Edition, is the solution. Best-selling author and leading Rails developer Michael Hartl teaches Rails by guiding you through the development of your own complete sample application using the latest techniques in Rails web development. The updates to this edition include all-new site design using Twitter’s Bootstrap; coverage of the new asset pipeline, including Sprockets and Sass; behavior-driven development (BDD) with Capybara and RSpec; better automated testing with Guard and Spork; roll your own authentication with has_secure_password; and an introduction to Gherkin and Cucumber.

You’ll find integrated tutorials not only for Rails, but also for the essential Ruby, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and SQL skills you’ll need when developing web applications. Hartl explains how each new technique solves a real-world problem, and he demonstrates this with bite-sized code that’s simple enough to understand, yet novel enough to be useful. Whatever your previous web development experience, this book will guide you to true Rails mastery.

This book will help you

• Install and set up your Rails development environment
• Go beyond generated code to truly understand how to build Rails applications from scratch
• Learn test-driven development (TDD) with RSpec
• Effectively use the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern
• Structure applications using the REST architecture
• Build static pages and transform them into dynamic ones
• Master the Ruby programming skills all Rails developers need
• Define high-quality site layouts and data models
• Implement registration and authentication systems, including validation and secure passwords
• Update, display, and delete users
• Add social features and microblogging, including an introduction to Ajax
• Record version changes with Git and share code at GitHub
• Simplify application deployment with Heroku

Ruby on Rails™ Tutorial LiveLessons, Second Edition, is your video source for quickly getting started with modern Rails web development!

Top Rails expert and author Michael Hartl gets you started with the Rails development process: installing and setting up Rails, designing Rails applications with MVC and REST, building static pages, coding effectively in Ruby, getting started with automated testing, and deploying to the live web.

Just watch and learn: You’ll find expert insight, modern best practices, and step-by-step instructions for solving real-world problems.  

• LiveLessons are video courses that are organized into short, self-contained lessons—you’ll learn key skills in under an hour
• Track your progress as you follow clearly defined learning objectives
• Follow along as your instructor shows exactly how to get great results in your real-world environment 

Product includes LiveLessons™ DVD with 6+ hours of video instruction and Michael Hartl’s Ruby on Rails™ Tutorial, Second Edition (

Michael Hartl is the author of the Ruby on Rails™ Tutorial, the leading introduction to web development with Ruby on Rails. His prior experience includes writing and developing RailsSpace, an extremely obsolete Rails tutorial book, and developing Insoshi, a once-popular and now-obsolete social networking platform in Ruby on Rails. In 2011, Michael received a Ruby Hero Award for his contributions to the Ruby community. He is a graduate of Harvard College, has a Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech, and is an alumnus of the Y Combinator entrepreneur program.

Chapter 2 A demo app

Chapter 3 Mostly static pages

Chapter 4 Rails-flavored Ruby

Chapter 5 Filling in the layout

Chapter 6 Modeling users

Chapter 7 Sign up

Chapter 8 Sign in, sign out

Chapter 9 Updating, showing, and deleting users

Chapter 10 User microposts

Chapter 11 Following users