Development
There’s a wide range of tools and practices that come in handy when developing a Ruby on Rails application. We recommend Agile methods for planning and managing the development process. You’ll want to keep your software in a source-code-control system, use Capistrano to automate deployment, and use Rake to automate other administration tasks. And you’ll need some kind of bug and issue tracking system to keep track of what needs to be done.
Setting up Rails on Windows Vista
This guide walks you through setup instructions for preparing a Windows Vista development machine to be used for general Ruby on Rails coding. This baseline setup is what we use for our LearningRails online course and the in-person seminars we offer. continue...
Setting up Rails on Windows XP
This guide walks you through setup instructions for preparing a Windows XP development machine to be used for general Ruby on Rails coding. This baseline setup is what we use for our LearningRails online course and the in-person seminars we offer. continue...
New Articles
from around the Web
- git-svn is a gateway drug
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Patch your rubies
How to apply back-ported security patches to Ruby 1.8.6 p111 so Rails still works.
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Fixing Capistrano 2.3.0 and Git Deploy Problem
How to get Capistrano 2.3 deploying happily with Git (issues existed due to dependency on the presence of tags).
- Using git submodules to track vendor/rails
- Zero to a Fully Git Enabled Rails App in the time it takes to drink an espresso
- Using git submodules to track plugins
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Making capistrano not suffocate on cleanup
Workaround for Capistrano (2.3) if you run in to "sudo: no passwd entry for app!" errors. Seems to impact deploy:cleanup.
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Git from the bottom up
Detailed walkthrough of how git works and common commands.
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Git SVN Workflow
Using Git and Subversion together (maintaining linkage) and the commands you will need.
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Cleanly Migrate Your Subversion Repository To a GIT Repository
Cleanly import your Subversion repository into Git with history and users intact. This becomes a one-way import and doesn't rely on git-svn after you are done.
- Git's avalanche
Related Books
Links by Type
Documentation (11)
- Capistrano: Home
The Capistrano Home Page.
- Braid
Braid, formerly known as giston, is a simple tool to help track git and svn vendor branches in a git repository.
It’s similar to piston but it’s for git.
- Capistrano 2.3.0
Capistrano 2.3 announcement and new feature documentation.
- Git - Fast Version Control System
Main home for git.
- Mercurial
Official home page for Mercurial source code control system.
- NetBeans IDE - Ruby and Rails features
Summary of the Ruby support in the NetBeans IDE.
- Rake -- Ruby Make
RDoc documentation for Rake.
- Rake User Guide
- rdoc: Ruby Standard Library Documentation
Official read-me for Rdoc.
- Version Management with CVS
- Watir - Overview
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.
Software (17)
- Git - Fast Version Control System
Git is an open-source version control system that does not use a central repository, but rather has each developer maintain their own repository. It is currently used for Linux OS development (Git itself was originally written by Linus Torvalds) and is gaining ground among the Ruby on Rails community.
- NetBeans Home
Central site for the NetBeans IDE.
- Piston: Easy Vendor Branch Management
Allows you to keep a copy of an external project in your subversion repository, allowing you to make changes if needed, and merge in new versions from the external project.
- subversion.tigris.org
Subversion is the most widely used version control system in the Ruby on Rails world. It is an open-source project itself, and is used by many open source projects.
- ZenTest: Automated test scaffolding for Ruby
The ZenTest collection includes a full test coverage suite of tools (including the extremely useful autotest).
- 3rdRail CodeGear IDE
- ActiveState - Komodo IDE
- Aptana Studio
Aptana Studio is an IDE for web developers that includes support for Ruby on Rails, through integration with the RadRails plug-in. It is available in “community” (free) and pro versions.
- BlogFish: Webistrano - Capistrano deployment the easy way
A web-based interface to Capistrano. Open source.
- CollabNet Subversion
CollabNet provides commercial support and training for the open-source Subversion version control system. You can download the software from their site for free.
- CVS - Open Source Version Control
- eigenclass - FastRI: faster, smarter RI docs for Ruby, DRb-enabled
FastRI is an alternative to the “ri” documentation browser for Ruby, is faster, has better indexing, and uses different searching algorithms for extracting information from a documentation collection.
- Firefox Addon: SQLite Manager
Manages any SQLite database on your computer.
- fixx - bug tracking and issue tracking made simple and painless
A Java-based commercial bug tracking system.
- SQLite JDBC Driver
You need a JDBC driver for SQLite if you want to use the Netbeans IDE database service UI.
- the { buckblogs :here }: Capistrano: Multistage
The Capistrano multistage extension permits easy targeting of multiple, staged development environments (e.g. development, staging, production servers).
- TextMate — The Missing Editor for Mac OS X
FAQs & Resource Lists (2)
- Ruby
Resources for running Ruby on OS X.
- Capistrano in Ruby on Rails
Resource links for Capistrano on main Rails wiki.
Cheat Sheets (1)
Screencasts (9)
- Capistrano 2
- Capistrano Concepts
- Introduction to Subversion Screencast
- TextMate for Rails
- Agile Development Screencasts
- Custom Rake Tasks
- Git
Git is a distributed source-code control system that is gaining popularity as an alternative to Subversion.
- Railscasts - Subversion on Rails
- Using Git to Manage and Deploy your Rails Apps
e-Books (2)
- Version Control with Subversion
The official book about Subversion, available free online. You can also buy it as a printed book.
- Distributed revision control with Mercurial
Free reference manual for Mercurial.
Groups (3)
- NetBeans Ruby Mailing Lists
Ruby-specific mailing lists for NetBeans users and developers.
- Community — TextMate
Mailing lists for TextMate users and plug-in developers
- NetBeans Community Portal
Mailing lists, events, and news related to the NetBeans IDE.
Events (1)
- 2008 Web 2.0 & Technology Conference Calendar
An excellent list of web-related conferences.
Training (1)
Hosted services (6)
- Lighthouse
Hosted issue tracker from the creators of Mephisto. Integrates with email.
- Secure Git hosting and collaborative development — GitHub
GitHub is being used by Rails, Merb, RSpec, Prototype, and Scriptaculous, among many other projects.
- Unfuddle: Free Subversion Hosting, Bug and Issue Tracking
Hosted service for Subversion and bug/issue tracking. Free plans for single developers, paid plans for multiple developers and multiple projects.
- Wrike
Hosted project management service. Integrates with email.
- ProjectLocker
Commercial Subversion hosting.
- uTest - Software Testing Community
Low-cost software testing.
Top Blogs
- The Art of Software Security Assessment
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Exploration Through Example
Blog from the author of Everyday Scripting with Ruby, who consults mainly on Agile software development with a focus on testing.
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Tor Norbye's Weblog
Developer working at Sun on Ruby and Rails support in NetBeans.
