The Power of Ruby on Rails: Key Features and Code Examples

5 min readOct 7, 2024

Ruby on Rails, often simply referred to as Rails, is a powerful web application framework written in Ruby. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture and has gained popularity for its simplicity, flexibility, and developer-friendly conventions. This blog will delve into the details of Ruby on Rails, covering its history, key features, architecture, and why it remains a top choice for web developers, along with some practical code examples.

History of Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails was created by David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) and released as an open-source project in 2004. Hansson extracted Rails from his work on the project management tool Basecamp. The framework quickly gained traction in the developer community due to its emphasis on convention over configuration and the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle.

Key Features of Ruby on Rails:

1. Convention over Configuration (CoC): Rails promotes a set of conventions to speed up development. By following these conventions, developers can avoid writing boilerplate code and focus on building the actual application.

2. Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY): Rails encourages code reuse and modularization, reducing redundancy and making the codebase more maintainable.

3. MVC Architecture: Rails follows the Model-View-Controller pattern, which separates the application logic into three interconnected components. This separation facilitates organized code, easier testing, and a clear division of responsibilities.

4. RESTful Design: Rails embraces RESTful design principles for building APIs, providing a standard way to structure routes and controllers for CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations.

5. Active Record: The Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) layer in Rails, Active Record, allows developers to interact with the database using Ruby objects. It simplifies database operations by abstracting SQL queries into Ruby methods.

6. Gems and Bundler: Rails leverages RubyGems, a package manager, and Bundler, a dependency manager, to extend the functionality of applications with reusable libraries (gems).

7. Scaffolding: Rails provides scaffolding tools to quickly generate boilerplate code for models, views, and controllers, enabling rapid prototyping and development.

8. Asset Pipeline: The asset pipeline in Rails manages and serves static assets like CSS, JavaScript, and images efficiently. It supports pre-processing, minification, and fingerprinting for optimized performance.

Architecture of Ruby on Rails

Rails is structured around the MVC architecture:

Model:

Represents the application’s data and business logic. In Rails, models are typically classes that inherit from `ActiveRecord::Base` and map to database tables.

View:

Handles the presentation layer of the application. Views are typically written in Embedded Ruby (ERB) and are responsible for generating HTML content.

Controller:

Manages the application’s flow and handles user input. Controllers receive requests, process them (often interacting with models), and render the appropriate view.

Rails also includes several other components, such as:

Router:

Maps incoming HTTP requests to the appropriate controller actions.

Mailer:

Manages the sending of emails using Action Mailer.

Active Job:

Provides a framework for declaring jobs and making them run on a variety of queuing backends.

Active Storage:

Manages file uploads to cloud storage services like Amazon S3.

Code Examples

1. Creating a New Rails Application

First, ensure you have Ruby and Rails installed. Then, create a new Rails application:

rails new blog_app
cd blog_app

2. Generating a Scaffold

Generate a scaffold for a simple blog post model:

rails generate scaffold Post title:string body:text
rails db:migrate

This command creates all the necessary files for the `Post` model, including the database migration, model, views, and controller.

3. Defining a Model

Here’s how the `Post` model (`app/models/post.rb`) might look:

class Post < ApplicationRecord
  validates :title, presence: true
  validates :body, presence: true
end

4. Writing a Controller

Here’s an example of a `PostsController` (`app/controllers/posts_controller.rb`):

class PostsController < ApplicationController
  before_action :set_post, only: %i[show edit update destroy]
  def index
    @posts = Post.all
  end

  def show; end

  def new
    @post = Post.new
  end

  def edit; end

  def create
    @post = Post.new(post_params)
    if @post.save
      redirect_to @post, notice: 'Post was successfully created.'
    else
      render :new
    end
  end

  def update
    if @post.update(post_params)
      redirect_to @post, notice: 'Post was successfully updated.'
    else
      render :edit
    end
  end

  def destroy
    @post.destroy
    redirect_to posts_url, notice: 'Post was successfully destroyed.'
  end

  private
  def set_post
    @post = Post.find(params[:id])
  end
  def post_params
    params.require(:post).permit(:title, :body)
  end
end

5. Creating Views

Rails uses Embedded Ruby (ERB) for templating. Here’s an example of an index view (`app/views/posts/index.html.erb`):

<h1>Listing Posts</h1>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Title</th>
<th>Body</th>
<th colspan="3"></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<% @posts.each do |post| %>
<tr>
<td><%= post.title %></td>
<td><%= post.body %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Show', post %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Edit', edit_post_path(post) %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Destroy', post, method: :delete, data: { confirm: 'Are you sure?' } %></td>
</tr>
<% end %>
</tbody>
</table>
<%= link_to 'New Post', new_post_path %>

6. Routing

Rails uses a routing file (`config/routes.rb`) to map URLs to controller actions. Here’s the routing for our posts resource:

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  resources :posts
  root 'postsindex'
end

This setup will create RESTful routes for the `Post` resource and set the root path to the posts index action.

Why Choose Ruby on Rails?

1. Productivity:

Rails’ conventions and built-in tools boost developer productivity, allowing for rapid application development and iteration.

2. Community and Ecosystem:

Rails has a large, active community and a rich ecosystem of gems and plugins, providing solutions for almost any feature or integration requirement.

3. Scalability:

Despite misconceptions, Rails can scale effectively with proper architecture and optimization practices. Many high-traffic websites and applications use Rails successfully.

4. Security:

Rails includes built-in security features and follows secure coding practices by default, helping to protect applications from common vulnerabilities.

5. Maintainability:

The DRY principle, modular structure, and clear conventions make Rails applications easier to maintain and extend over time.

Conclusion

Ruby on Rails continues to be a robust, developer-friendly framework for building modern web applications. Its emphasis on conventions, productivity, and maintainability, combined with a vibrant community and rich ecosystem, makes it an excellent choice for both startups and established businesses. Whether you’re building a simple blog or a complex web application, Rails provides the tools and flexibility needed to bring your ideas to life.