RailsSpace

Written in the dynamic Ruby programming language, Rails is fast displacing PHP, ASP, and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) as the development toolkit of discriminating web programmers, thanks to its elegant design and emphasis on practical results. Now, in RailsSpace, developers can learn to build large-scale, industrial-strength projects in Ruby on Rails by developing a real-world application: a social networking website à la MySpace, Facebook, or Friendster.

Inside, the authors walk you step by step from the virtually static front page, through user registration and authentication, and into a highly dynamic site complete with user profiles, image upload, simple blogs, full-text and geographical search, and a friendship request system. This large database-backed web application shows off the many facilities Rails has for controlling code complexity. You'll learn how the Model-Controller-View (MVC) architecture, abstraction layers, automated testing, and code refactoring allow Rails to scale up to a complex project--even with a small number of developers.

This essential reference provides

A tutorial approach that allows you to experience Rails as it is actually used A thorough foundation for creating any login-based website in Rails Coverage of more advanced Rails features such as migrations, form generators, RJS, and support for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) Deployment considerations

An extensive companion website provides the application source code, a tech blog, follow-up articles, a working version of the RailsSpace social network, and narrated screencast movies of the book's source code coming to life.