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- Revision:
- 63
- Log:
Initial import of RCVSweb 0.0.2 sources. RCVSweb is a Ruby On Rails
wrapper around CVSweb, to provide Rails-based HTML template facilities.
- Author:
- adh
- Date:
- Sun Aug 06 17:55:00 +0100 2006
- Size:
- 7264 Bytes
1 | == Welcome to Rails |
2 | |
3 | Rails is a web-application and persistence framework that includes everything |
4 | needed to create database-backed web-applications according to the |
5 | Model-View-Control pattern of separation. This pattern splits the view (also |
6 | called the presentation) into "dumb" templates that are primarily responsible |
7 | for inserting pre-built data in between HTML tags. The model contains the |
8 | "smart" domain objects (such as Account, Product, Person, Post) that holds all |
9 | the business logic and knows how to persist themselves to a database. The |
10 | controller handles the incoming requests (such as Save New Account, Update |
11 | Product, Show Post) by manipulating the model and directing data to the view. |
12 | |
13 | In Rails, the model is handled by what's called an object-relational mapping |
14 | layer entitled Active Record. This layer allows you to present the data from |
15 | database rows as objects and embellish these data objects with business logic |
16 | methods. You can read more about Active Record in |
17 | link:files/vendor/rails/activerecord/README.html. |
18 | |
19 | The controller and view are handled by the Action Pack, which handles both |
20 | layers by its two parts: Action View and Action Controller. These two layers |
21 | are bundled in a single package due to their heavy interdependence. This is |
22 | unlike the relationship between the Active Record and Action Pack that is much |
23 | more separate. Each of these packages can be used independently outside of |
24 | Rails. You can read more about Action Pack in |
25 | link:files/vendor/rails/actionpack/README.html. |
26 | |
27 | |
28 | == Getting started |
29 | |
30 | 1. Start the web server: <tt>ruby script/server</tt> (run with --help for options) |
31 | 2. Go to http://localhost:3000/ and get "Welcome aboard: You’re riding the Rails!" |
32 | 3. Follow the guidelines to start developing your application |
33 | |
34 | |
35 | == Web servers |
36 | |
37 | Rails uses the built-in web server in Ruby called WEBrick by default, so you don't |
38 | have to install or configure anything to play around. |
39 | |
40 | If you have lighttpd installed, though, it'll be used instead when running script/server. |
41 | It's considerably faster than WEBrick and suited for production use, but requires additional |
42 | installation and currently only works well on OS X/Unix (Windows users are encouraged |
43 | to start with WEBrick). We recommend version 1.4.11 and higher. You can download it from |
44 | http://www.lighttpd.net. |
45 | |
46 | If you want something that's halfway between WEBrick and lighttpd, we heartily recommend |
47 | Mongrel. It's a Ruby-based web server with a C-component (so it requires compilation) that |
48 | also works very well with Windows. See more at http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/. |
49 | |
50 | But of course its also possible to run Rails with the premiere open source web server Apache. |
51 | To get decent performance, though, you'll need to install FastCGI. For Apache 1.3, you want |
52 | to use mod_fastcgi. For Apache 2.0+, you want to use mod_fcgid. |
53 | |
54 | See http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/FastCGI for more information on FastCGI. |
55 | |
56 | == Example for Apache conf |
57 | |
58 | <VirtualHost *:80> |
59 | ServerName rails |
60 | DocumentRoot /path/application/public/ |
61 | ErrorLog /path/application/log/server.log |
62 | |
63 | <Directory /path/application/public/> |
64 | Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks |
65 | AllowOverride all |
66 | Allow from all |
67 | Order allow,deny |
68 | </Directory> |
69 | </VirtualHost> |
70 | |
71 | NOTE: Be sure that CGIs can be executed in that directory as well. So ExecCGI |
72 | should be on and ".cgi" should respond. All requests from 127.0.0.1 go |
73 | through CGI, so no Apache restart is necessary for changes. All other requests |
74 | go through FCGI (or mod_ruby), which requires a restart to show changes. |
75 | |
76 | |
77 | == Debugging Rails |
78 | |
79 | Have "tail -f" commands running on both the server.log, production.log, and |
80 | test.log files. Rails will automatically display debugging and runtime |
81 | information to these files. Debugging info will also be shown in the browser |
82 | on requests from 127.0.0.1. |
83 | |
84 | |
85 | == Breakpoints |
86 | |
87 | Breakpoint support is available through the script/breakpointer client. This |
88 | means that you can break out of execution at any point in the code, investigate |
89 | and change the model, AND then resume execution! Example: |
90 | |
91 | class WeblogController < ActionController::Base |
92 | def index |
93 | @posts = Post.find_all |
94 | breakpoint "Breaking out from the list" |
95 | end |
96 | end |
97 | |
98 | So the controller will accept the action, run the first line, then present you |
99 | with a IRB prompt in the breakpointer window. Here you can do things like: |
100 | |
101 | Executing breakpoint "Breaking out from the list" at .../webrick_server.rb:16 in 'breakpoint' |
102 | |
103 | >> @posts.inspect |
104 | => "[#<Post:0x14a6be8 @attributes={\"title\"=>nil, \"body\"=>nil, \"id\"=>\"1\"}>, |
105 | #<Post:0x14a6620 @attributes={\"title\"=>\"Rails you know!\", \"body\"=>\"Only ten..\", \"id\"=>\"2\"}>]" |
106 | >> @posts.first.title = "hello from a breakpoint" |
107 | => "hello from a breakpoint" |
108 | |
109 | ...and even better is that you can examine how your runtime objects actually work: |
110 | |
111 | >> f = @posts.first |
112 | => #<Post:0x13630c4 @attributes={"title"=>nil, "body"=>nil, "id"=>"1"}> |
113 | >> f. |
114 | Display all 152 possibilities? (y or n) |
115 | |
116 | Finally, when you're ready to resume execution, you press CTRL-D |
117 | |
118 | |
119 | == Console |
120 | |
121 | You can interact with the domain model by starting the console through script/console. |
122 | Here you'll have all parts of the application configured, just like it is when the |
123 | application is running. You can inspect domain models, change values, and save to the |
124 | database. Starting the script without arguments will launch it in the development environment. |
125 | Passing an argument will specify a different environment, like <tt>script/console production</tt>. |
126 | |
127 | |
128 | == Description of contents |
129 | |
130 | app |
131 | Holds all the code that's specific to this particular application. |
132 | |
133 | app/controllers |
134 | Holds controllers that should be named like weblog_controller.rb for |
135 | automated URL mapping. All controllers should descend from |
136 | ActionController::Base. |
137 | |
138 | app/models |
139 | Holds models that should be named like post.rb. |
140 | Most models will descend from ActiveRecord::Base. |
141 | |
142 | app/views |
143 | Holds the template files for the view that should be named like |
144 | weblog/index.rhtml for the WeblogController#index action. All views use eRuby |
145 | syntax. This directory can also be used to keep stylesheets, images, and so on |
146 | that can be symlinked to public. |
147 | |
148 | app/helpers |
149 | Holds view helpers that should be named like weblog_helper.rb. |
150 | |
151 | app/apis |
152 | Holds API classes for web services. |
153 | |
154 | config |
155 | Configuration files for the Rails environment, the routing map, the database, and other dependencies. |
156 | |
157 | components |
158 | Self-contained mini-applications that can bundle together controllers, models, and views. |
159 | |
160 | db |
161 | Contains the database schema in schema.rb. db/migrate contains all |
162 | the sequence of Migrations for your schema. |
163 | |
164 | lib |
165 | Application specific libraries. Basically, any kind of custom code that doesn't |
166 | belong under controllers, models, or helpers. This directory is in the load path. |
167 | |
168 | public |
169 | The directory available for the web server. Contains subdirectories for images, stylesheets, |
170 | and javascripts. Also contains the dispatchers and the default HTML files. |
171 | |
172 | script |
173 | Helper scripts for automation and generation. |
174 | |
175 | test |
176 | Unit and functional tests along with fixtures. |
177 | |
178 | vendor |
179 | External libraries that the application depends on. Also includes the plugins subdirectory. |
180 | This directory is in the load path. |