Ruby on Rails: An Introduction JA-SIG Summer Conference 2007 Michael Irion The University of Tulsa What is Ruby on Rails (RoR)? • Ruby on Rails is an open-source, full-stack framework for developing database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern Overview of Ruby on Rails • Ruby is the programming language used to manipulate the framework • Rails is the framework that provides the necessary infrastructure • Rails is written in Ruby Ruby Features • Ruby is an interpreted language (No compile step necessary) • Ruby is an Object Oriented language. • Everything is an object (No primitives) • Ruby draws from Perl, Smalltalk, and Lisp Duck Typing in Ruby • Objects are dynamic, and their types are determined at runtime • The type of a Ruby object is much less important than it’s capabilities • If a Ruby object walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it can be treated as a duck Rails Philosophy • Convention over configuration (no XML) • Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) • Rails is opinionated Rails Architecture • Rails applications are implemented using the ModelView-Controller (MVC) • Model - ActiveRecord • View - ActionView • Controller - ActionController Starting the Bookmarks Application • Generate application > rails bookmarks Directory Layout • Rails applications have a common directory structure • /app - the MVC core /controllers /helpers - provides extra functionality for views /models /views/nameofcontroller - templates for controller actions Directory Layout /components - will be deprecated /config - database, route and environment configuration /db - database schema and migrations /lib - functions that don’t map to MVC /log /public - static web resources (html, css, javascript etc.) /script - rails utilities /test - tests and fixtures /tmp /vendor - 3rd party plugins Rails Environment Modes • Rails runs in different modes, depending on the parameters given to the server on startup. Each mode defaults to it’s own database schema • Development (verbose logging and error messages) • Test • Production Starting Rails • > cd /directorypath/bookmarks • Start the server > ruby script/server start • Default environment is development • Default port is 3000 • http://127.0.0.1:3000 Welcome Aboard - Now What? • Hello world seems appropriate >ruby script/generate controller hello exists app/controllers/ exists app/helpers/ create app/views/hello exists test/functional/ create app/controllers/hello_controller.rb create test/functional/hello_controller_test.rb create app/helpers/hello_helper.rb Mapping URLs to Controllers and Actions • http://127.0.0.1:3000/hello/sayit • http://127.0.0.1:3000 - address and port of the webserver • hello - name of the controller • sayit - name of the action (method in controller) Editing the Controller def sayit render :text => "<h2>Hello World!</h2>" end Now for an actual Bookmark • Edit config/database.yml development: adapter: mysql database: bookmarks_development username: username password: password host: localhost Create the Database • This step depends on the database and dba tool of your choice. Create a new schema/dbname for bookmarks_development, and assign rights for the user you listed in database.yml. Bookmark Model • Our bookmark model will (initially) need two properties • URL • Title Scaffolding for Bookmarks • Rails can generate all the basic CRUD operations for simple models via scaffolding. • Scaffolding is temporary way to get applications wired quickly. > ruby script/generate scaffold_resource bookmark url:string title:string Migrations • Rails uses migrations to version the database. • Rails tries to minimize SQL at every opportunity • Migrations are automatically created whenever you generate a new model • Migration files are located in db/migrations • The version number is stored in a table called schema_info Bookmarks Migration located in db/migrate/001_create_bookmarks.rb class CreateBookmarks < ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create_table :bookmarks do |t| t.column :url, :string t.column :title, :string end end def self.down drop_table :bookmarks end end Running the Migration • Rake is the general purpose build tool for rails, much like make, or ant. It has many functions, one of which is to control migrations. >rake db:migrate • Now the table has been created Bookmarks Table ID • Bookmarks table has the following fields - id, url, and title • Where did the id field come from? • Convention of configuration - Rails automatically creates an id field for each new table and uses it as the primary key Bookmarks Controller The /app/controllers/bookmarks.rb default action: def index @bookmarks = Bookmark.find(:all) respond_to do |format| format.html # index.rhtml format.xml { render :xml => @bookmarks.to_xml } end End Mapping URLs to Controllers and Actions • http://127.0.0.1:3000/bookmarks/ • http://127.0.0.1:3000 - address and port of the webserver • hello - name of the controller • / - name of the action (blank maps to the index action) Bookmarks Model - Don’t Repeat Yourself • No getters/setters. Rails uses information from the database. class Bookmark < ActiveRecord::Base end Bookmarks View Located in views/bookmarks/index.rhtml <% for bookmark in @bookmarks %> <tr> <td><%=h bookmark.url %></td> <td><%=h bookmark.title %></td> <td><%=h bookmark.description %></td> <td><%= link_to 'Show', bookmark_path(bookmark) %></td> <td><%= link_to 'Edit', edit_bookmark_path(bookmark) %></td> <td><%= link_to 'Destroy', bookmark_path(bookmark), :confirm => 'Are you sure?', :method => :delete %></td> </tr> <% end %> Convention over Configuration • Bookmark model automatically looks for a table in the database with a plural form of it’s name. (bookmarks) • The Bookmarks controller automatically renders the template located in views according to the controller name and the action (views/bookmarks/index.rhtml) Ajax Helpers • Rails allows you to program many AJAX calls in ruby, instead of writing javascript directly • Script.aculo.us and Prototype libraries are included • A quick example. Autocomplete for text boxes AJAX Autocomplete Add to Bookmarks controller auto_complete_for :bookmarks, :url Add to views/bookmarks/edit.rhtml <%= text_field_with_auto_complete :bookmark, :url %> In views/layouts/bookmarks.rhtml, add <%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %> Validations • Rails has a number of validation helpers that can be added to the model. class Bookmark < ActiveRecord::Base validates_presence_of :url, :title end Validations • • • • • • • • • • validates_presence_of validates_length_of validates_acceptance_of validates_confirmation_of validates_uniqueness_of validates_format_of validates_numericality_of validates_inclusion_in validates_exclusion_of validates_associated :relation Associations - Adding Categories to Bookmarks • The bookmarks are working great, but it would be nice if we could group them by category • Rails uses associations to build relationships between tables • Associations are independent of database foreign key constraints Types of Associations • • • • • has_one belongs_to has_many has_and_belongs_to_many has_many :model1, :through => :model2 Changes to the Database • A new categories table needs to be created • A category_id field needs to be added to the bookmarks table > ruby script/generate scaffold_resource category name:string • This creates the all the scaffolding and the migration db/migrate/002_create_categories.rb • Note the category table is pluralized as categories. >ruby script/generate migration alter_bookmarks_add_category_id • This creates db/migrate/003_alter_bookmarks_add_category_id.rb Alter Bookmarks Migration def self.up add_column :bookmarks, :category_id, :integer end def self.down remove_column :bookmarks, :category_id end >rake db:migrate Types of Associations • • • • • has_one belongs_to has_many has_and_belongs_to_many has_many :model1, :through => :model2 Database Relationships • Parent (or Master) models that have collections of other models use the has_many relationship • Child (or Detail) models contain the id field of their parent record and they use the belongs_to relationship Associations Model Code class Bookmark < ActiveRecord::Base validates_presence_of :url, :title belongs_to :category end class Category < ActiveRecord::Base has_many :bookmarks end Associations Controller code def edit @bookmark = Bookmark.find(params[:id]) @categories = Category.find(:all) end Associations View Code <p> <b>Category</b><br /> <%= collection_select('bookmark', 'category_id', @categories, 'id', 'name') %> </p> Tools • Textmate (Mac OS X) • RadRails (Eclipse plugin) www.radrails.org • Other commercial and opensource IDEs are being made available Resources • Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide - Second Edition • Agile Web Development with Rails—Second Edition • Rails main site http://www.rubyonrails.com • My email: [email protected]
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