Ruby on Rails

Searchable API documents for Rails, as well as for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

A Rails API viewer using Ajax. Can also be downloaded to run locally.

The official API site for Ruby on Rails documentation.

AJAX-based viewer for Ruby API documentation.

Reference manual for RubyGems

The official API documentation for Active Record as implemented in Rails.

Merb is a new, light weight MVC framework optimized for simplicity and performance. From the site intro: “Like Ruby on Rails, Merb is an MVC framework. Unlike Rails, Merb is ORM-agnostic, JavaScript library agnostic, and template language agnostic, preferring plugins that add in support for a particular feature rather than trying to produce a monolithic library with everything in the core. In fact, this is a guiding principle of the project, which has led to third-party support for the ActiveRecord, DataMapper, and Sequel ORMs.”

Another viewer for Rails API documentation, with some unique features.

The first edition of the primary Ruby reference work is available for free online. The print version is in the second edition.

An extensive reference to Ruby on Rails, and a large set of links to other resources.

Very useful set of tutorially-oriented documentation for Rails.

Rathole is a fixtures oriented Ruby on Rails plugin that makes working with foreign key relationships much easier. It also removes the need for separate join table fixture files. Rathole is available for Rails 1.2.x and is now part of the official Rails 2.x distribution.

Walks through installing Ruby and Rails, as well as Postgres, via ports on Mac OS X Leopard. This is an alternative to using the default Leopard installation.

The Ruby language RDOCs.

Home page for the RubyCocoa project on SourceForge.

SpiderTest is an automated integration-testing script that iterates over every page in your application.

An ambitious effort to develop better documentation for Rails, including improvements to the API documentation, an open-source ebook for beginners, and minidocs on specific topics.

No-frills, full cheat-sheet for ruby-debug.

acts_as_ferret plugin enables simple integration of the Ferret search engine into a Ruby on Rails project.

From the README: BackgrounDRb is a ruby job server and scheduler. It main intent is to be used with Ruby on Rails applications for offloading long running tasks. Since a rails application blocks while servicing a request it is best to move long running tasks off into a background process that is divorced from the http request/response cycle.

Plugin for high performance caching. From the site description: “Interlock uses memcached to make your view fragments and associated controller blocks march along together. If a fragment is fresh, the controller behavior won‘t run. This eliminates duplicate effort from your request cycle. Your controller blocks run so infrequently that you can use regular ActiveRecord finders and not worry about object caching at all.”

Step by step instructions for installing a full Ruby and Rails stack (with Mongrel and MySQL) on a Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) system. These instructions have you compile almost all of the code and install a copy of the applications into /usr/local. This process does not disturb Apple installed software.

Introduces a new level of caching for Rails in which content that doesn’t include layouts is cached. Similar to action caching, but more granular.

Documentation for the SVN (latest) version of ruby-debug.

Instructions for installing RMagick on Mac OS X, including how to use MacPorts to get ImageMagick running. Part of the larger documentation set for RMagick.

Log4r is a comprehensive and flexible logging library written in Ruby for use in Ruby programs. It features a hierarchical logging system of any number of levels, custom level names, logger inheritance, multiple output destinations, execution tracing, custom formatting, thread safteyness, XML and YAML configuration, and more.

Official home page for the MacOS X Ruby on Rails default installation by Apple. Contains many pointers to useful articles using the environment, resource lists, FAQs, and information about related software (such as RubyCocoa).

Documentation site for Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and select Gems.

How to compile the mysql gem when using the Mac Ports install of MySQL and the native Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) Ruby and Rails (and gems) installs.

The cache test plugin adds assertions to Test::Units::TestCase to check for cached and expired pages, actions and fragments in your tests.

RSpec is a Behaviour Driven Development framework for Ruby. It provides two frameworks for writing and executing examples of how your Ruby application should behave: a Story Framework for describing behaviour at the application level; and a Spec Framework for describing behaviour at the object level.

Wiki with extensive set of information about Ruby.

Searchable Ruby on Rails documentation

Solr is an open source enterprise search server based on the Lucene Java search library. SolRuby is dedicated to information about integrating with Solr from Ruby.

test/spec layers an RSpec-inspired interface on top of Test::Unit, so you can mix TDD and BDD (Behavior-Driven Development).

Official RubyForge home page for project.

test/spec layers an RSpec-inspired interface on top of Test::Unit, so you can mix TDD and BDD (Behavior-Driven Development).

Watir is a simple open-source library for automating web browsers. It allows you to write tests that are easy to read and easy to maintain. It is optimized for simplicity and flexibility.

Documents the simple but obscure syntax to make a multiple-select select widget work properly with a HABTM association.

Rails docs in Windows help file format. Unfortunately, as of this writing the version is rather behind.

Here’s where to find all the plugins that used to be in Rails but were pushed out for Rails 2, such as acts_as_list, acts_as_tree, and scaffolding. You’ll also find other plugins that were never in the framework but have come from the core team, such as exception_notification and ssl_requirement.

Central site for the Ruby programming language

The most widely used payment processing library for Ruby on Rails. Provides interfaces to more than 30 gateways with a single, abstracted API. Extracted from the Shopify hosted service.

ActiveScaffold is a plugin that dynamically generates Ajax-based scaffolds that understand model associations and are customizable via configuration statements.

Plugin that makes using Textile as simple as it can be. The specified model field is always interpreted as Textile when displayed, except when in a form (for editing).

Provides a rake tasks that adds comments to all your models listing the database columns.

Delivering email may take too long when you have to send hundreds of messages. ar_mailer allows you to store messages in the database for later delivery by a separate process, ar_sendmail.

This is a “one-click” installer for Ruby, Rails, and MySQL on Windows. It is the successor to the widely-used InstantRails installer, which is no longer being maintained.

Plugin that bundles multiple CSS and JavaScript files into a single pair of files to improve page rendering times.

Javascript function to add a tooltip when the user hovers over certain items. Uses Prototype and includes Rails helpers.

A “micro-CMS” (content management system) Rails plug-in.

Open-source continuous integration software for Ruby applications.

Plugin that provides a JavaScript widget for entering dates in a mini-calendar, and also parses many common text versions of dates—even things like “next Tuesday”.

A complete open-source Rails application that includes a forum, calendar, and files area.

Plugin for building location-based apps; provides geocoding, location finders, and distance calculation.

Goldberg is a Ruby on Rails generator that enables you to set up fully-featured websites within minutes. Goldberg provides security, site navigation and content management.

IBM® Sharable Code is a platform for building, sharing, and managing Web 2.0 API mashups

Open-source social networking application written in Ruby on Rails. From the author of RailsSpace, this application is derived from the sample application presented in that book.

A modified version of the in_place_editor plugin code so that it works with Rails 2.0

Open-source social network application in Ruby on Rails. Download the code and use it as the basis for your own social network site.

Apache 2 module that enables your application server to tell Apache when to send a static file. Use with Rails Xsendfile plugin.

Rails database adapter that supports replicated MySQL databases.

A high-quality, but not inexpensive, package that translates HTML/CSS files into PDF.

How to set a global display format, input and validate dates with user-friendly formats, and a lightweight JavaScript calendar control.

Facets is a huge collection of Ruby libraries. Before you write something that addresses a common problem, look here to see if it has already been done for you.

Plugin for validating email addresses using the existence of an MX record as the test.

Plugin that simplifies the use of Selenium for testing Rails applications.

Plugin lets you track visitors, referrers, robots, search terms and more.

Open-source e-commerce system for Rails applications, implemented as a Rails engine.

Rails plugin to support the X-Sendfile protocol, which enables you to use Rails to do authentication while having the web server deliver the file.

The ZenTest collection includes a full test coverage suite of tools (including the extremely useful autotest).

Add gmail-like keyword search (using keyword:value pairs) to your application.

Legacy Rails core plugins.

Auto-generates tags based on text content.

Rails plugin for accessing the FeedBurner API.

A plugin that replaces the view code produced by the standard Rails scaffold with a view that explicitly references each column, rather than iterating over all the columns, so it is much easier to customize.

Plugin for using the Dojo JavaScript libraries with Ruby on Rails applications.

This plug-in simplifies the use of the FCKeditor, an open-source, JavaScript, WYSIWYG HTML editor, in Rails applications.

The FeedFetcher plugin locates RSS feeds, given the URL of a site.

Comprehensive debugging and in-browser development tool for Firefox.

FlexMock is a simple, but flexible, mock object library for Ruby unit testing that integrates easily with Test::Unit.

A simple plugin that inserts the google analytics tracking code in your layout.

Plugin for integrating OpenSocial with Rails.

Listing of stress and load testing tools that are useful with Ruby on Rails (and other) web applications.

An alternative template engine for Rails applications.

Official Mocha Readme

Mole is a gem that instruments your application and stores usage and performance information in the database.

Tutorial on uploading multiple files to a Rails application using a Flash-based UI.

An open-source Rails implementation of an electronic medical records system.

Browser Debugging tool (like Firebug), but runs on any device that Opera runs on.

Rails plugin to implement the pretty accessible forms design from A List Apart.

Announcin preview releases of Net::SSH, Net::SFTP, and Net::SCP

Gem for analyzing Rails production logs to find the slow parts of your code.

Plugin for Flexigrid JavaScript library, which enables grids with “click on header” sorting, pagination, and more.

Plugin that provides a cleaner interface to the PDF::Writer gem.

An open-source content management system written in Rails, developed in Japan.

If you want to access the ActiveRecord source code independently of Rails, you’ll find it here. (And yes, you can use ActiveRecord in non-Rails projects.)

Enterprise support for Ruby applications from ThoughtWorks.

Rails software bundle for creating recurring billing using the Braintree gateway. This is commercial software, not open source.

Spree is distributed as both a Rails plugin as well as a Ruby gem (requires Rails 2.0.2). You use the gem to create your application which automatically installs the plugin in your project. The newly created project is actually a fully functional store. All that remains is for the developer to customize and style to taste.

Plugin that shows a simple toolbar over Textile text-entry areas, so you can, for example, click a Word-like “B” icon for bold and it will wrap the selected text in asterisks. (Display is still not wysiwyg, however.)

Plugin to provide a validation for email address formats.

Plugin for integrating the WYM editor into Rails.

Open-source CRM and ERP system written in Rails.

Plugin for using Yahoo maps in Rails applications.

Doesn’t appear to have been updated in a while, but still lots of logging/analysis tools to check out.

Great list of tools for analyzing and optimizing your site’s search engine rankings, and for learning more about how search engines see your site and how people search for it.

An extensive reference to Ruby on Rails, and a large set of links to other resources.

Nice list of Ruby and Rails tutorials and other resources. Rated by how many users have added a given item to their “toolbox.”

Discusses the default installation of Ruby on Mac OS X, particularly Leopard’s default environment, how to override, etc.

Wiki with extensive set of information about Ruby.

A wiki for web developers to share information.

RJS cheat sheet

Excellent screencasts on many aspects of Rails development (and some other topics as well). They cost $9 each but are well worth it. Come with sample code and other notes.

A large collection of short, focused, and free screencasts on Rails techniques.

Walks through Mike’s reasons for building his own online store, the Rails code he developed, and the alternatives for online payments.

Are you accepting sensitive user data? Passwords, credit card numbers, etc. By default, Rails stores all submitted parameters in plain text in the logs. This episode will show you how to filter this sensitive input so it doesn’t show up in the log file.

A listing of screencasts on Ruby on Rails (and other topics)

Interviews with members of the Rails community.

DHH’s talk at RailsConf 2007.

Excellent, detailed presentation on the finer points of sending and receiving email from Rails applications

Presentation from the Silicon Valley Ruby Conference 2007. A great overview of ActiveRecord

Talk from RailsConf Europe 2007 on scaling Rails applications, based on the Twitter experience.

An extensive set of slides from a five-day Ruby on Rails course.

These are videos of the presenters, unfortunately without the slides.

A $9 e-book from the publishers of the PeepCode screencasts, written by one of the ActiveMerchant developers.

Extensive description of how to use the Active Merchant payment gateway.

An assortment of “best practices” for designing Rails applications.

A good overview of the new features in Rails 2.0.

Includes a complete sample application that shows how to integrate PayPal’s Direct Payment API and PayPal Express Checkout. The Direct Payment API, when used with a PayPal account approved for Website Payments Pro, allows you to capture credit card information at your site rather than redirecting your users to the PayPal site. Integrating the API for PayPal Express Checkout allows you to immediately get transaction details when sending users to the PayPal site to complete payment.

E-book on building e-commerce sites with Rails.

An open-source e-book for developers who are new to Rails.

Extensive directory of Rails developers from all over the world. Also includes lists of sites, projects, and groups.

Large and frequently updated directory of sites developed with Rails.

Perhaps the largest Rails-specific community site. Includes directories of developers, companies, and sites, as well as forums and a job board.

A list of open-source applications built with Ruby on Rails that you can use as a starting point for your own sites.

Primary discussion group for users of the Ruby language. Very high traffic.

Both a set of tutorial and a discussion forum.

Discussion group for issues surrounding the business of Rails, including consulting, hosting, and project management.

The primary discussion group for users of Ruby on Rails. Very high traffic, lots of noise, but a good place to look for advice and to search for tips.

Discussion group for freelance Rails developers. Focuses on client and business issues.

Group for discussion of Rails application deployment.

Discussion group for the Rails core team. This is not a place to ask questions about Rails, but rather for those working on the framework itself to discuss ongoing work.

Announcement-only list for issues relating to Rails security.

Forum for discussion of Prototype, Scriptaculous, and other Rails spinoffs.

The primary U.S. conference for the Rails community.

An excellent list of web-related conferences.

Ruby on Rails training

Rails-specific job board.