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| -== Welcome to Rails |
| 1 | +# Ruby on Rails Tutorial: sample application |
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|
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| -Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create |
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| -database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern. |
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| - |
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| -This pattern splits the view (also called the presentation) into "dumb" |
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| -templates that are primarily responsible for inserting pre-built data in between |
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| -HTML tags. The model contains the "smart" domain objects (such as Account, |
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| -Product, Person, Post) that holds all the business logic and knows how to |
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| -persist themselves to a database. The controller handles the incoming requests |
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| -(such as Save New Account, Update Product, Show Post) by manipulating the model |
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| -and directing data to the view. |
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| - |
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| -In Rails, the model is handled by what's called an object-relational mapping |
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| -layer entitled Active Record. This layer allows you to present the data from |
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| -database rows as objects and embellish these data objects with business logic |
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| -methods. You can read more about Active Record in |
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| -link:files/vendor/rails/activerecord/README.html. |
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| - |
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| -The controller and view are handled by the Action Pack, which handles both |
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| -layers by its two parts: Action View and Action Controller. These two layers |
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| -are bundled in a single package due to their heavy interdependence. This is |
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| -unlike the relationship between the Active Record and Action Pack that is much |
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| -more separate. Each of these packages can be used independently outside of |
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| -Rails. You can read more about Action Pack in |
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| -link:files/vendor/rails/actionpack/README.html. |
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| - |
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| - |
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| -== Getting Started |
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| - |
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| -1. At the command prompt, create a new Rails application: |
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| - <tt>rails new myapp</tt> (where <tt>myapp</tt> is the application name) |
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| - |
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| -2. Change directory to <tt>myapp</tt> and start the web server: |
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| - <tt>cd myapp; rails server</tt> (run with --help for options) |
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| - |
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| -3. Go to http://localhost:3000/ and you'll see: |
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| - "Welcome aboard: You're riding Ruby on Rails!" |
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| - |
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| -4. Follow the guidelines to start developing your application. You can find |
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| -the following resources handy: |
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| - |
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| -* The Getting Started Guide: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html |
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| -* Ruby on Rails Tutorial Book: http://www.railstutorial.org/ |
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| - |
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| - |
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| -== Debugging Rails |
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| - |
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| -Sometimes your application goes wrong. Fortunately there are a lot of tools that |
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| -will help you debug it and get it back on the rails. |
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| - |
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| -First area to check is the application log files. Have "tail -f" commands |
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| -running on the server.log and development.log. Rails will automatically display |
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| -debugging and runtime information to these files. Debugging info will also be |
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| -shown in the browser on requests from 127.0.0.1. |
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| - |
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| -You can also log your own messages directly into the log file from your code |
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| -using the Ruby logger class from inside your controllers. Example: |
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| - |
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| - class WeblogController < ActionController::Base |
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| - def destroy |
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| - @weblog = Weblog.find(params[:id]) |
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| - @weblog.destroy |
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| - logger.info("#{Time.now} Destroyed Weblog ID ##{@weblog.id}!") |
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| - end |
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| - end |
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| - |
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| -The result will be a message in your log file along the lines of: |
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| - |
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| - Mon Oct 08 14:22:29 +1000 2007 Destroyed Weblog ID #1! |
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| - |
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| -More information on how to use the logger is at http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/ |
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| - |
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| -Also, Ruby documentation can be found at http://www.ruby-lang.org/. There are |
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| -several books available online as well: |
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| - |
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| -* Programming Ruby: http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/ (Pickaxe) |
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| -* Learn to Program: http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/ (a beginners guide) |
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| - |
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| -These two books will bring you up to speed on the Ruby language and also on |
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| -programming in general. |
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| - |
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| - |
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| -== Debugger |
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| - |
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| -Debugger support is available through the debugger command when you start your |
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| -Mongrel or WEBrick server with --debugger. This means that you can break out of |
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| -execution at any point in the code, investigate and change the model, and then, |
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| -resume execution! You need to install ruby-debug to run the server in debugging |
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| -mode. With gems, use <tt>sudo gem install ruby-debug</tt>. Example: |
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| - |
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| - class WeblogController < ActionController::Base |
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| - def index |
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| - @posts = Post.all |
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| - debugger |
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| - end |
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| - end |
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| - |
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| -So the controller will accept the action, run the first line, then present you |
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| -with a IRB prompt in the server window. Here you can do things like: |
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| - |
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| - >> @posts.inspect |
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| - => "[#<Post:0x14a6be8 |
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| - @attributes={"title"=>nil, "body"=>nil, "id"=>"1"}>, |
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| - #<Post:0x14a6620 |
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| - @attributes={"title"=>"Rails", "body"=>"Only ten..", "id"=>"2"}>]" |
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| - >> @posts.first.title = "hello from a debugger" |
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| - => "hello from a debugger" |
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| -
|
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| -...and even better, you can examine how your runtime objects actually work: |
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| - |
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| - >> f = @posts.first |
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| - => #<Post:0x13630c4 @attributes={"title"=>nil, "body"=>nil, "id"=>"1"}> |
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| - >> f. |
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| - Display all 152 possibilities? (y or n) |
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| - |
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| -Finally, when you're ready to resume execution, you can enter "cont". |
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| - |
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| - |
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| -== Console |
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| - |
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| -The console is a Ruby shell, which allows you to interact with your |
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| -application's domain model. Here you'll have all parts of the application |
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| -configured, just like it is when the application is running. You can inspect |
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| -domain models, change values, and save to the database. Starting the script |
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| -without arguments will launch it in the development environment. |
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| - |
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| -To start the console, run <tt>rails console</tt> from the application |
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| -directory. |
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| - |
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| -Options: |
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| - |
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| -* Passing the <tt>-s, --sandbox</tt> argument will rollback any modifications |
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| - made to the database. |
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| -* Passing an environment name as an argument will load the corresponding |
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| - environment. Example: <tt>rails console production</tt>. |
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| - |
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| -To reload your controllers and models after launching the console run |
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| -<tt>reload!</tt> |
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| - |
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| -More information about irb can be found at: |
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| -link:http://www.rubycentral.org/pickaxe/irb.html |
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| - |
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| - |
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| -== dbconsole |
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| - |
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| -You can go to the command line of your database directly through <tt>rails |
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| -dbconsole</tt>. You would be connected to the database with the credentials |
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| -defined in database.yml. Starting the script without arguments will connect you |
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| -to the development database. Passing an argument will connect you to a different |
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| -database, like <tt>rails dbconsole production</tt>. Currently works for MySQL, |
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| -PostgreSQL and SQLite 3. |
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| - |
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| -== Description of Contents |
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| - |
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| -The default directory structure of a generated Ruby on Rails application: |
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| - |
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| - |-- app |
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| - | |-- assets |
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| - | |-- images |
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| - | |-- javascripts |
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| - | `-- stylesheets |
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| - | |-- controllers |
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| - | |-- helpers |
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| - | |-- mailers |
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| - | |-- models |
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| - | `-- views |
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| - | `-- layouts |
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| - |-- config |
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| - | |-- environments |
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| - | |-- initializers |
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| - | `-- locales |
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| - |-- db |
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| - |-- doc |
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| - |-- lib |
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| - | `-- tasks |
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| - |-- log |
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| - |-- public |
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| - |-- script |
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| - |-- test |
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| - | |-- fixtures |
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| - | |-- functional |
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| - | |-- integration |
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| - | |-- performance |
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| - | `-- unit |
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| - |-- tmp |
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| - | |-- cache |
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| - | |-- pids |
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| - | |-- sessions |
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| - | `-- sockets |
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| - `-- vendor |
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| - |-- assets |
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| - `-- stylesheets |
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| - `-- plugins |
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| - |
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| -app |
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| - Holds all the code that's specific to this particular application. |
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| - |
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| -app/assets |
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| - Contains subdirectories for images, stylesheets, and JavaScript files. |
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| - |
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| -app/controllers |
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| - Holds controllers that should be named like weblogs_controller.rb for |
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| - automated URL mapping. All controllers should descend from |
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| - ApplicationController which itself descends from ActionController::Base. |
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| - |
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| -app/models |
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| - Holds models that should be named like post.rb. Models descend from |
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| - ActiveRecord::Base by default. |
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| - |
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| -app/views |
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| - Holds the template files for the view that should be named like |
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| - weblogs/index.html.erb for the WeblogsController#index action. All views use |
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| - eRuby syntax by default. |
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| - |
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| -app/views/layouts |
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| - Holds the template files for layouts to be used with views. This models the |
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| - common header/footer method of wrapping views. In your views, define a layout |
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| - using the <tt>layout :default</tt> and create a file named default.html.erb. |
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| - Inside default.html.erb, call <% yield %> to render the view using this |
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| - layout. |
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| - |
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| -app/helpers |
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| - Holds view helpers that should be named like weblogs_helper.rb. These are |
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| - generated for you automatically when using generators for controllers. |
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| - Helpers can be used to wrap functionality for your views into methods. |
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| - |
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| -config |
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| - Configuration files for the Rails environment, the routing map, the database, |
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| - and other dependencies. |
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| - |
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| -db |
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| - Contains the database schema in schema.rb. db/migrate contains all the |
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| - sequence of Migrations for your schema. |
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| - |
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| -doc |
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| - This directory is where your application documentation will be stored when |
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| - generated using <tt>rake doc:app</tt> |
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| - |
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| -lib |
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| - Application specific libraries. Basically, any kind of custom code that |
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| - doesn't belong under controllers, models, or helpers. This directory is in |
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| - the load path. |
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| - |
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| -public |
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| - The directory available for the web server. Also contains the dispatchers and the |
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| - default HTML files. This should be set as the DOCUMENT_ROOT of your web |
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| - server. |
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| - |
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| -script |
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| - Helper scripts for automation and generation. |
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| - |
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| -test |
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| - Unit and functional tests along with fixtures. When using the rails generate |
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| - command, template test files will be generated for you and placed in this |
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| - directory. |
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| - |
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| -vendor |
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| - External libraries that the application depends on. Also includes the plugins |
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| - subdirectory. If the app has frozen rails, those gems also go here, under |
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| - vendor/rails/. This directory is in the load path. |
| 3 | +This is the sample application for |
| 4 | +[*Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example*](http://railstutorial.org/) |
| 5 | +by [Michael Hartl](http://michaelhartl.com/). |
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