sinmple introduction for rails

What is Rails

• An extremely productive web-application framework.
• Written in Ruby by David Heinemeier Hansson.
• You could develop a web application at least ten times faster with Rails than you could with a typical Java framework.
• An open source Ruby framework for developing database-backed web applications.
• Your code and database schema are the configuration!
• No compilation phase required.

Full Stack Framework

• Includes everything needed to create a database-driven web application using the Model-View-Controller pattern.
• Being a full-stack framework means that all layers are built to work seamlessly together Less Code.
• Requires fewer total lines of code than other frameworks spend setting up their XML configuration files.

Convention over Configuration

• Rails shuns configuration files in favor of conventions, reflection and dynamic run-time extensions. Your application code and your running database already contain everything that Rails needs to know!

Rails Strengths

• Easy to get started with, easy to get something done enough to launch
• Easy to re-factor and replace weak code with stronger
• Development speed and philosophy lend themselves to agile development methodologies.

Weakness

• Some confusion about scale and the "right" architecture for Rails apps
  • Lots of people using Rails for the "wrong" thing.
• Can be hard to debug memory and performance issues
• Speed of new features/fixes/best practices can make it hard to keep up, especially in a behemoth like AOL.
• Lots of FUD in other communities about Rails' weaknesses, can be hard to separate myth from reality and past from present.

When to use Rails,

• You need the power of MVC, but want to Get Things Done quickly
• You want unit tests, a sane and flexible environment and help to do the Right Thing
• You like being a part of a very active and passionate development community
• You can start with a clean slate database-wise

But When not use

• You don't need an MVC or framework, especially if you don't need a database
• You need to get lots of data from lots of different sources for each request
• You're constrained by a legacy database and can't change anything

To develop a web application using Ruby on Rails Framework, install the following software:

• Ruby
• The Rails framework
• A Web Server
• A Database System