What is Ruby on Rails?

Ruby on Rails is a web application framework that allows you to build modern and reliable applications and websites. It allows you to build everything from meal-kit delivery service to the backend server for an iOS app. 

It accomplishes this by generating all the boilerplate code you won't change, while at the same time making it incredibly simple to modify the parts of your application you intend to customize. This means you'll spend little-to-no time on things like connecting a database or choosing a server, and more time on things that make your app stand out.

Why Should You Learn Ruby on Rails?

Speed of Development

Ruby on Rails allows you to build many different kinds of applications and is celebrated for allowing many companies to quickly get an idea for how their application would work (called a "Minimum Viable Product").

Another one of Rails's strengths is building database-backed applications. If you're the type who doesn't dream in SQL – or you don't even know what SQL is – Rails is a great choice because you can still accomplish effective database-equipped applications thanks to one of its many built-in tools, ActiveRecord. ActiveRecord is like a bilingual translator that knows both Ruby and SQL. It takes your Ruby code and executes database queries on your behalf so you don't have to spend time learning the syntax of SQL while still having the benefits of persistent data.

Works Well with Other Libraries

Of course, this does not mean that Rails is only great for functionality. Because of the maturity of the framework, a lot of popular front-end libraries such as Angular, React, Vue, and jQuery all integrate well with it. This is what makes Rails stand out from other web application frameworks. It allows you to work on both functionality and design while enabling you to choose where you want to specialize. Of course, you can get just about any web framework to function with front-end libraries, but Rails is unique in that its core functionality allows you to set options (called flags) during setup that will build your application the additional files and folders you need based on the library you specify. This takes the guesswork out of connecting your tools which you can devote to – you guessed it – actually building your app!

Development Philosophy

While Rails is great for all the reasons mentioned above, one of the most overlooked benefits of the framework is that it teaches its users how to organize an application in a sensible way. Even if you don't know Rails very well, you probably know where in your code to find whatever it is you need. A "controller" file will be in the "controllers" folder, and a "model" in the "models" folder. And where would you find "views" – things related to what your app's users will actually see? These go in the views folder, of course!

In the Rails community, we call this mode of thinking "Convention over Configuration". We use this thinking because conventions for back-end programming tend to suffice when it comes to application design and they also make it easy for developers to help and collaborate with one another. It's a lot easier to get help when the file that contains the routes to your application is definitely called routes.rb and not whatever someone was feeling like on a Monday morning.

Therefore, even if you don't end up working with Ruby on Rails in your day-to-day, the lessons you learn from it will likely follow you for the rest of your career.

Ruby Reads Like English

Any Rails advocate would be remiss if they did not mention that Ruby (the language Rails is built on) is language well-known for being among the easiest to read and write. The creator of Ruby, Yukihiro Matsumoto, designed the language with developer happiness and productivity in mind. Ruby handles things like memory management and checking what data type a specific piece of information is for you. What does that mean? It means you have to write less code! I'll let the language speak for itself.

Say Hello to the city in Ruby:
puts "Hello New York City!"

And the same thing in Java:
class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("Hello New York City!")
    }
}

You might be thinking "Well, the Java version really isn't so bad!" If that's you, then there's something you should know: that code won't even run properly because I "forgot" to add a semi-colon at the end of the line that prints the statement. If you add the semi-colon, it works. But spare a moment to imagine how it might feel to spend your time reading through your own code, or having a demonstration go awry simply because you forgot to add that one thing. Because of differences like these, choosing Ruby over other languages often directly results in time saved in both the build phase and in the future when you have to read completed code.

The Ruby on Rails Course at Noble Desktop

Our Ruby on Rails course is 60 hours of learning back-end programming, front-end development, and source code management, all in manageable lessons that will take your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills to the next level.

We'll start with a brief introduction to the command line and introduce the fundamentals of the Ruby programming language itself. Once you're comfortable with Ruby, we'll move on to learning commands that are specific to Rails such as how to create a new project and how to streamline your workflow with scaffold generators. This will show you how a back-end programming language can greatly increase your productivity as a developer.

After witnessing the power of programming in web development, we'll revisit some Ruby before taking a dive into Model-View-Controller architecture, where we'll learn how to get information from our application's users, store that information, and control the flow of an application from one screen to another. Finally, we'll cover all the things you'd expect in a modern service such as dynamic web pages, complex HTML forms, and handling files uploaded by your users.

If you're ready to go beyond design and create beautiful and functioning applications with a framework designed to meet deadlines, then this part-time Ruby on Rails course is the one for you!

More Web Design & Development Classes

This Ruby on Rails Bootcamp assumes prior knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Those looking to meet those prerequisites and gain the skills to code the front-end of websites should attend our Full-Stack Web Development Certificate, which includes this Ruby on Rails Bootcamp.

We also offer extensive web development courses to meet the needs of developers, including front-end courses in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and back-end courses in PHP & MySQL, Python, and WordPress.

Designers should explore our classes and certificate programs in web design which cover laying out webpages, design theory and tools, optimizing images for web, and coding the front-end.