We will discuss the Benefits of ruby on rails for web application development. ROR extremely productive Web-application framework that is written in Ruby. It was mainly developed for developers who intend to develop database-backed web applications. Before exploring about Rails and what it actually is and what all its features it provides. Let us take a look at Ruby.
Ruby is basically a high level programming language. Originated from Japan it is an object oriented program very similar like Pearl, Python and JAVA.
Sample Code
# Welcome Class
class Welcome
def initialize( name )
@name = name.capitalize
end
def salute
puts “Welcome, this is a sample Ruby code #{@name}!”
end
end
# Create a new object
w = Welcome.new(“Ruby”)
w.salute
Now moving on, let us now jump into Rails, what all it has to offer and its most useful and important features.
Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.
Some of the most useful features it offers are as follows:
- An extremely productive web-application framework.
- As already mentioned it is written in Ruby by David Heinemeier Hansson.
- Moreover, you could develop a web application at least ten times faster with Rails than you could with a typical Java framework.
- One can configure their code with Database Schema.
- Evidently no compilation phase is required.
These were some of the objective features now let us look at some of the advantages that it has, in technical aspects over other tools:
Metaprogramming:
Where other frameworks use extensive code generation from scratch, Rail framework uses Metaprogramming techniques to write programs. Ruby is one of the best languages for Metaprogramming, and Rails uses this capability well. Rails also uses code generation but relies much more on Metaprogramming for the heavy lifting.
Active Record:
Rails introduces the Active Record framework, which saves objects into the database. The Rails version of the Active Record discovers the columns in a database schema and automatically attaches them to your domain objects using metaprogramming.
Convention over configuration:
Most web development frameworks for .NET or Java force you to write pages of configuration code. If you follow the suggested naming conventions, Rails doesn’t need much configuration.
Scaffolding:
You often create temporary code in the early stages of development to help get an application up quickly and see how major components work together. Rails automatically creates much of the scaffolding you’ll need.
Built-in testing:
Rails creates simple automated tests you can then extend. Rails also provides supporting code called harnesses and fixtures that make test cases easier to write and run. Ruby can then execute all your automated tests with the rake utility.
Three environments:
Rails gives you three default environments: development, testing, and production. Each behaves slightly differently, making your entire software development cycle easier. For example, Rails creates a fresh copy of the Test database for each test run.
Now after having seen all these, features and advantages let us finally combine these and summarize them so that you can decide whether you should go for Ruby on Rails or not.
Here are the major Benefits of ruby on rails for web application development:
Large Community:
Rails is more than a development tool; it is a large community of dedicated developers. Members share their work, often use the same tools, and support each other. The informal community provides a diversity of jobs, recruiters, meetups, conferences, examples of businesses building websites with Rails, and clients funding startups.
It is no surprise that Rails is popular on the social coding resource Github, which is a great source of support for beginners.
Availability of gems.
A “gem” is a software package that contains a Ruby app or library. Commonly it is used to extend or modify functionality in Ruby apps. Some “gems” provide command line utilities to help automate tasks and speed up the developer`s work. They are all publicly available at RubyGems.
Cost-effective.
The process of building functionality with Rails is fast because it has a collection of open source code available within the community as well as a set of existing conventions. Ruby on Rails also runs on a free operating system and works with most free databases and web servers. These features mean fewer development hours, faster development process, and a lower overall cost.
Code Quality.
Rails uses the Ruby programming language, which has a high level of readability. This aspect increases productivity and reduces the need to write separate documentation or comments, which makes it easier for other developers to pick up existing projects.
Testing.
Rails was developed with a focus on testing and has good built-in testing frameworks.
Diversity of tools.
Rails provides a tremendous variety of tools that help developers deliver more features in less time. For example, there are built-in templates for common functions and solutions.
Flexibility.
One of the biggest benefits of using Ruby on Rails is that it is highly flexible and interacts easily with technologies and frameworks like AngularJS. This factor offers developers the opportunity to separate layers of the app and use multiple technologies.
However it should also be noted that, it is not possible that a tool has only all good points, so subsequently it also has some drawbacks, you should also watch out for these points if you are going to start using Ruby on Rails:
Performance:
While Rails apps are often not as fast as Java or C apps, for the majority of them, Rails is fast enough. In general, Rails web apps slow down as a result of bloat, and a highly-skilled programmer can tune the code to improve performance. There is also the option of running the app under JRuby, which has the same performance characteristics as Java.
Hosting Issues:
Not all web hosts support Rails because it can be more resource intensive than PHP-based sites. However, there are a number of hosts (Virtual Private Servers) such as Amazon EC2, EngineYard, Linode or Rackspace, which will fulfill Rails developers’ needs.
Popularity:
The number of Rails developers is growing year by year as more people switch to it from other programming languages. Yet, Rails is still not as popular as Java and PHP, in all likelihood because the language is relatively difficult to learn, especially compared to PHP. However, one of the main differences between Rails and other languages is a large amount of open source code (“gems”) which is publicly available.
“Gems” are helpful for beginners as they simplify the process of web development.
Lack of documentation: Last but not the least, lack of documentation.
It can be hard to find good documentation for the less popular “gems”, and for libraries which make heavy use of mixins. Developers often end up finding the test suite playing the role of documentation and they have to rely on it to understand the behavior of the written code.
This aspect isn’t bad in its essence, as the test suite should be the most up-to-date representation of the system; however, it can still be frustrating having to dive into the code, when sometimes written documentation would have been much quicker. That’s why it is sometimes mentioned among disadvantages of Ruby on Rails.
So those were some of the disadvantages as well as Benefits of ruby on rails for web application development
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