-== Welcome to Rails
+Documentation
+=============
-Rails is a web-application and persistence framework that includes everything
-needed to create database-backed web-applications according to the
-Model-View-Control pattern of separation. This pattern splits the view (also
-called the presentation) into "dumb" templates that are primarily responsible
-for inserting pre-built data in between HTML tags. The model contains the
-"smart" domain objects (such as Account, Product, Person, Post) that holds all
-the business logic and knows how to persist themselves to a database. The
-controller handles the incoming requests (such as Save New Account, Update
-Product, Show Post) by manipulating the model and directing data to the view.
+Try `rake doc:app` and see /doc/
-In Rails, the model is handled by what's called an object-relational mapping
-layer entitled Active Record. This layer allows you to present the data from
-database rows as objects and embellish these data objects with business logic
-methods. You can read more about Active Record in
-link:files/vendor/rails/activerecord/README.html.
-
-The controller and view are handled by the Action Pack, which handles both
-layers by its two parts: Action View and Action Controller. These two layers
-are bundled in a single package due to their heavy interdependence. This is
-unlike the relationship between the Active Record and Action Pack that is much
-more separate. Each of these packages can be used independently outside of
-Rails. You can read more about Action Pack in
-link:files/vendor/rails/actionpack/README.html.
-
-
-== Getting started
-
-1. Start the web server: <tt>ruby script/server</tt> (run with --help for options)
-2. Go to http://localhost:3000/ and get "Welcome aboard: You’re riding the Rails!"
-3. Follow the guidelines to start developing your application
-
-
-== Web servers
-
-Rails uses the built-in web server in Ruby called WEBrick by default, so you don't
-have to install or configure anything to play around.
-
-If you have lighttpd installed, though, it'll be used instead when running script/server.
-It's considerably faster than WEBrick and suited for production use, but requires additional
-installation and currently only works well on OS X/Unix (Windows users are encouraged
-to start with WEBrick). We recommend version 1.4.11 and higher. You can download it from
-http://www.lighttpd.net.
-
-If you want something that's halfway between WEBrick and lighttpd, we heartily recommend
-Mongrel. It's a Ruby-based web server with a C-component (so it requires compilation) that
-also works very well with Windows. See more at http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/.
-
-But of course its also possible to run Rails with the premiere open source web server Apache.
-To get decent performance, though, you'll need to install FastCGI. For Apache 1.3, you want
-to use mod_fastcgi. For Apache 2.0+, you want to use mod_fcgid.
-
-See http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/FastCGI for more information on FastCGI.
-
-== Example for Apache conf
-
- <VirtualHost *:80>
- ServerName rails
- DocumentRoot /path/application/public/
- ErrorLog /path/application/log/server.log
-
- <Directory /path/application/public/>
- Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
- AllowOverride all
- Allow from all
- Order allow,deny
- </Directory>
- </VirtualHost>
-
-NOTE: Be sure that CGIs can be executed in that directory as well. So ExecCGI
-should be on and ".cgi" should respond. All requests from 127.0.0.1 go
-through CGI, so no Apache restart is necessary for changes. All other requests
-go through FCGI (or mod_ruby), which requires a restart to show changes.
-
-
-== Debugging Rails
-
-Have "tail -f" commands running on both the server.log, production.log, and
-test.log files. Rails will automatically display debugging and runtime
-information to these files. Debugging info will also be shown in the browser
-on requests from 127.0.0.1.
-
-
-== Breakpoints
-
-Breakpoint support is available through the script/breakpointer client. This
-means that you can break out of execution at any point in the code, investigate
-and change the model, AND then resume execution! Example:
-
- class WeblogController < ActionController::Base
- def index
- @posts = Post.find_all
- breakpoint "Breaking out from the list"
- end
- end
-
-So the controller will accept the action, run the first line, then present you
-with a IRB prompt in the breakpointer window. Here you can do things like:
-
-Executing breakpoint "Breaking out from the list" at .../webrick_server.rb:16 in 'breakpoint'
-
- >> @posts.inspect
- => "[#<Post:0x14a6be8 @attributes={\"title\"=>nil, \"body\"=>nil, \"id\"=>\"1\"}>,
- #<Post:0x14a6620 @attributes={\"title\"=>\"Rails you know!\", \"body\"=>\"Only ten..\", \"id\"=>\"2\"}>]"
- >> @posts.first.title = "hello from a breakpoint"
- => "hello from a breakpoint"
-
-...and even better is that you can examine how your runtime objects actually work:
-
- >> f = @posts.first
- => #<Post:0x13630c4 @attributes={"title"=>nil, "body"=>nil, "id"=>"1"}>
- >> f.
- Display all 152 possibilities? (y or n)
-
-Finally, when you're ready to resume execution, you press CTRL-D
-
-
-== Console
-
-You can interact with the domain model by starting the console through script/console.
-Here you'll have all parts of the application configured, just like it is when the
-application is running. You can inspect domain models, change values, and save to the
-database. Starting the script without arguments will launch it in the development environment.
-Passing an argument will specify a different environment, like <tt>script/console production</tt>.
-
-
-== Description of contents
-
-app
- Holds all the code that's specific to this particular application.
-
-app/controllers
- Holds controllers that should be named like weblog_controller.rb for
- automated URL mapping. All controllers should descend from
- ActionController::Base.
-
-app/models
- Holds models that should be named like post.rb.
- Most models will descend from ActiveRecord::Base.
-
-app/views
- Holds the template files for the view that should be named like
- weblog/index.rhtml for the WeblogController#index action. All views use eRuby
- syntax. This directory can also be used to keep stylesheets, images, and so on
- that can be symlinked to public.
-
-app/helpers
- Holds view helpers that should be named like weblog_helper.rb.
-
-app/apis
- Holds API classes for web services.
-
-config
- Configuration files for the Rails environment, the routing map, the database, and other dependencies.
-
-components
- Self-contained mini-applications that can bundle together controllers, models, and views.
-
-db
- Contains the database schema in schema.rb. db/migrate contains all
- the sequence of Migrations for your schema.
-
-lib
- Application specific libraries. Basically, any kind of custom code that doesn't
- belong under controllers, models, or helpers. This directory is in the load path.
-
-public
- The directory available for the web server. Contains subdirectories for images, stylesheets,
- and javascripts. Also contains the dispatchers and the default HTML files.
-
-script
- Helper scripts for automation and generation.
-
-test
- Unit and functional tests along with fixtures.
-
-vendor
- External libraries that the application depends on. Also includes the plugins subdirectory.
- This directory is in the load path.
projects / rails.git / blobdiff