after reading/viewing few tutorials on ruby/ror, i'm about to start on
my first ror project (and oop for that matter as I come from a
procedural based language)
i'd like to do away from storing the data in a regular database, but
instead use xml to store the data.
if it were on a database, i will have a header-detail type link between
just two tables.
the xml file will be in the same location as the ror app, may be inside
/db. when the site is visited the first time, the application will load
the xml file and will display and format the data. It will also “lock”
the xml file to prevent other from making updates.
May I ask for tips, recommendations on how to best approach this
project? What classes/objects would you be defining in this scenario?
An XML file based application is not very close to what Rails was made
for. Yes, you can use Rails without a database, but that's a terrible
way to learn rails (and oop).
I would suggest doing things the normal way for your first rails
project, and then moving on to something more difficult after that.
You'll have one hell of a time finding resources to help you when you're
stuck if you're doing things so differently than everybody else.