Ruby on Rails is a web application framework written in Ruby. It is designed to make programming web applications easier by making assumptions about what every developer needs to get started. It allows you to write less code while accomplishing more than many other frameworks and libraries.
Ruby on Rails is a great choice for backend development for a number of reasons:
It is a full-stack framework, meaning it provides all the tools you need to create a complete web application. This includes everything from the routing to the database to the front-end.
It has a large and supportive community. Because Ruby on Rails is an open source project, there is a community of developers who are constantly improving the framework and creating helpful resources.
It is a convention-over-configuration framework, meaning that it relies on conventions to minimize the amount of configuration required. This makes development faster and easier.
It is a DRY framework, meaning that it emphasizes code reuse. This makes your code more maintainable and easier to scale.
Before you can start developing with Ruby on Rails, you will need to install it. The easiest way to do this is with the Ruby on Rails Installer. This will install Ruby, Rails, and all of the other dependencies you need to get started.
Once you have Ruby on Rails installed, you can create a new project with the rails new command:
$ rails new my_app
This will create a new directory called my_app with all of the files you need to get started.
Now that you have a new Ruby on Rails project, let's create a simple "Hello, World!" application.
First, you need to create a new controller. A controller is responsible for handling requests from the user and returning a response. In Ruby on Rails, controllers are stored in the app/controllers directory.
To create a new controller, you can use the rails generate command:
$ rails generate controller Welcome index
This will create a new file called app/controllers/welcome_controller.rb with the following contents:
class WelcomeController < ApplicationController
def index
end
end
Next, you need to create a view. A view is responsible for displaying the response from the controller. In Ruby on Rails, views are stored in the app/views directory.
To create a new view, you can create a new file called app/views/welcome/index.html.erb with the following contents:
<h1>Hello, World!</h1>
Now that you have a controller and a view, you need to tell Ruby on Rails how to route requests to your controller. This is done in the config/routes.rb file:
Rails.application.routes.draw do
get 'welcome/index'
end
This tells Ruby on Rails that any requests to the /welcome path should be handled by the WelcomeController controller.
Finally, you need to start the Ruby on Rails server:
$ rails server
You can now visit http://localhost:3000/welcome/index in your web browser to see your "Hello, World!" application.