What skills do you need for Ruby On Rails?

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi, I know that may have an obvious answer, but as far as running rails is concerned, what skillset would an experienced web application developer need to start using RoR? This assumes I understand OOP/D and MVC design patterns. I have used asp.net and j2ee (and python django).

My guess is just Ruby and that you can configure your server (tomcat, iis, etc.) to use the rails framework.

Thanks.

2

When you say running, if you're referring to deploying and maintaining apps, this is a bit of a point of contention at the moment within the RoR community. If you want to deploy within a Java-centric environment, check out JRuby and warbler (http://jruby.codehaus.org/, http://caldersphere.rubyforge.org/warbler/).

m0wfo

3

You need to learn Ruby, obviously, but you also need to learn the Rails framework, which for many people is actually the bigger undertaking.

You should be able to quickly pick up the bits of Ruby you need, if you have an OOP background, but it takes a while to become familiar with all the pieces of Rails and how to use them effectively. You'll also need to learn some of the Rails-specific deployment issues, if you're going to be responsible for a production server.

The screencasts at www.LearningRails.com, of which I'm coauthor, may be a little novice-oriented for you but will get you started.

Michael Slater www.BuildingWebApps.com

4

It'll be rails in websphere. I believe it will be using java and rails.

5

Sorry I didn't say this in my other response, but if I am going to be doing this in websphere in a java centric world. Would it do me any good to simply learn the first part, RoR? I'm sure that once ror is installed on websphere it the rest of j2ee will be available. But my thinking is that before my project starts I can at least be familiar enough with "regular" rails to use it when it is installed on websphere. The ror framework would change enough that it'd be a different product just because it's on the j2ee platform would it? Maybe just regular ror install for now would suffice? Thanks.