Whenever I go to a bookstore I am sure to check out the Rails/Ruby section (constantly increasing in size!) for any new titles I may not be aware of. I was pleasantly surprised to find a new large Rails book that almost went unnoticed: The Rails Way by Obie Fernandez. I say almost went unnoticed because the book cover looks almost identical to The Ruby Way, so it’s easy to gloss over if you don’t look carefully.
It is easy to see by the sheer size that this book, weighing in at 850 pages, that it is very in-depth. The author explicitly states in the introduction that this is not a book for Ruby on Rails beginners. It was intended on being primarily an information-packed reference book for professional developers working with Ruby on Rails. The most appealing characteristic of the book is that it covers Rails 2.0, the first book to my knowledge that does.
After reading the book (it’s a long read!) I can definately say that this is a very valuable book for Rails developers. Typically after reading the Agile book, Rails developers end up craving knowledge of more advanced Rails techniques and plugins, and this book certainly delivers in this respect. Sprinkled throughout the detailed description of the Rails API are useful plugins, tips, and techniques that the author has come across in his development experience. Also included are many snippets of code from the Rails source code that help explain how key things work in Rails.
A full chapter outline is available online so I won’t bother duplicating that work, but let me point out a few areas of Rails that this book covers:
- Rails Environment and Configuration – explains the Rails boot process and the automatic class loader, as well as other things behind the scenes that make Rails tick – very interesting.
- New Rails 2.0 RESTful Routes – Covers some changes and enhancements to the RESTful routing features of Rails 2.0.
- Advanced ActiveRecord – Really gives detailed information about ActiveRecord, even briefly explaining the AssociationProxy class that masquerades as an Array for those has_many associations.
- Prototype Reference
- Selenium Testing
- RSpec
- Using subversion with Rails and piston
- Rails deployment with Capistrano
- Common production configuration setups
- Background processing with BackgrounDRb
- ActiveSupport Reference
The last few topics in particularly were mostly until now the realm of random blog posts online with no solid resource in print.
In short, The Rails Way is a must-have for any developer working professionally with Ruby on Rails. Far from being a programming resource only, it helps you become an all-around better developer by arming you with techniques, new plugins, and tools to improve your productivity. Targeted towards the advanced user, this book is packed full of information that will greatly improve your facility with Rails. Buy it today!
