What is the best way to properly get to know the Rails framework? [closed]

Question

I have been doing two projects on Rails which have worked out quite nicely but have in the process reinvented the wheel, running (and hot) water and painkillers which are as I have learned subsequently already present in the framework.

So basically, what is the best way to properly get know all the clever parts in the framework that will save time instead of building functionality yourself that has already been implemented? Reading the docs from page 1 onwards? Is there a particular sample app that exposes everything? A particular open source project? All the railcasts? Or something completely different?

A number of people have suggested a series of books, but I might not have made myself clear enough in what I was looking for. I already have a number of Rails (and one Ruby) books that to different degrees explain the Rails framework but that's not really what I'm looking for. Example:

I coded my own function to pretty print numbers as currencies (actually I extended Object to do that for me) because I had no idea that number_to_currency existed. Now that's not a big deal in terms of time but I am sure that I have done my own methods many times simply because I didn't know a similar rails function existed.

So again, how do I find out that number_to_currency (and the myriad of other functions) exist?

Answer 1

This is a bit subjective. But if you haven't read Agile Web Development With Rails, I'd definitely recommend that, with the prior understanding that quite a bit of new stuff has been added since then, and the 3rd edition will be coming out very soon to reflect this. Also, Ruby for Rails is great if you weren't already familiar with Ruby.

Other than that, definitely pick a Rails blog and follow it (maybe Railscasts); go back and read the archives.

Last but not least, before you start inventing something, thoroughly google it and/or post on the Rails forum to make sure it isn't already around.

Answer 2

I second the recommendation for Agile Web Development With Rails, I have the 3rd edition in beta/PDF and it really helped. You find also many guides on this site. Don't forget things like Bort and its fork like this one.

Answer 3

Time.

Really.

Answer 4

The previous answers pretty much cover the best there is in terms of resources to learn Rails. But my personal favourite is Ryan Bates' excellent series of Railscasts. Also, Peepcode has some excellent Rails screencasts

He covers pretty much every little thing one is going to need in any Rails project.

As far as books go, Simply Rails 2 was very helpful