Ruby on Rails: what the <hack> is this and why is it important for your product?

Whether you are new to coding or active in web development and want to learn more, Ruby and Rails can be an important topic to pin down. Even tho it is almost all the time mentioned alongside languages like HTML, CSS, Javascript, you’ll find out that Ruby on Rails is not a programming language.

So what is Ruby on Rails?

Making it as simple as it can get, Ruby and Rails is a web development framework providing Rails developers a time-saving method for writing code. Yet in a world of many other web frameworks, Rails is just one of them. These frameworks were built to give developers ready-made solutions to their repetitive tasks like building menus, tables or forms on a website. Because of this, web developers can now refer to a framework and find the code for current functions that they can plug into their websites for web apps they are building. In most cases, web frameworks are specific to a certain programming language. The Rails Framework, on the other hand, is simply a web framework built on top of the Ruby programming language.

Because of the two key tenets it is founded on, Rails is particularly notable for its easy maintenance and the fact that it lends itself to collaboration. DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself), and Convention over Configuration were made to help developers write code that is more maintainable and less buggy.

Here are two descriptions of the two tenants we found on the Rails Website:

• “Don’t Repeat Yourself: DRY is a principle of software development which states that “Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.” By not writing the same information over and over again, our code is more maintainable, more extensible, and less buggy.”
• “Convention Over Configuration: Rails has opinions about the best way to do many things in a web application, and defaults to this set of conventions, rather than require that you specify minutiae through endless configuration files.”

In other words, by using Rails developers not only cut down the time on repetitive tasks but they also keep their overall work cleaner and less prone to bugs. Moreover, because Rails subscribes to an overall method of best practices, it cuts the need for instructions for coding decisions. It is just like a shared common ground Rails developers work by.

So what makes Ruby on Rails great?

Rails two tenets + Rails Community of users + Great open source libraries (Rails is open-source, meaning its source code — the code that makes it work — is open to the public and the framework itself is free to use).

It is not something unknown that rails is commonly used for building web applications. Even some of the most popular sites that we know were built with Rails: Basecamp, GitHub, Airbnb, Shopify.

Why is Ruby on Rails great for your product?

We already know that Rails is a framework that lets Rails developers use the Ruby language for developing websites, but is it that one thing that sets Ruby and Rails apart from other programming languages and frameworks?

It’s fast

Rails cuts development time by 25 to 50 percent compared to other languages used to build web apps. This means it is a great choice when you need to deploy and send a product to the market really fast. This is all dues to the collection of open source code that is already developed by the community. So you have more time to focus on your business and your product to be desirable, marketable, delightful and lovable.

It’s object-oriented

Most of the languages out there function by giving a computer a list of tasks to execute. Ruby lets developers create virtual objects in their code, and each object can have its own specific attributes and can interact with other objects to perform actions. Just like building in the real world, objects can then be reused in future programs.

Is Ruby on Rails Scalable?

If you are currently developing an Instagram killer it is vital to take care of the number of requests your project is able to cope with. If you are questioning Ruby's scalability, you can take a look at famous companies that use Ruby, like Shopify. Shopify processes over 4 million requests every second. Ruby on Rails is modular, so it has really good scaling potential.

More on Ruby and Rails and it's scaling potential:

Inside the "Ruby and Rails: Where to?" Meetup

Here are some sites we love, built with Ruby on Rails.

1. Basecamp

Ruby on Rails is its "heart and soul". In fact, Ruby on Rails was born here! Rails were invented in 2003, by David Heinemeier Hansson, one of Basecamp's partners. Today, Rails is still the heart of Basecamp and many of the Rails latest innovations started as experiments inside Basecamp.

2. Airbnb

Here are some really cool Ruby and Rails web apps built by us:

3. Makerist

Makerist is a growing company from Berlin, with a presence in Germany and the United States. Their mission is to make crafting simple, by making traditional crafts more modern and accessible, thus inspiring more people to become makers and offering inspiration to the creative community. The Makerist web platform is a marketplace for crafting materials and patterns sold by independent designers.

We came in contact with the CEO of the company, Axel Heinz, as Makerist was searching for more Ruby on Rails development power. We started a successful collaboration focused on improving the existing platform and adding new functionalities and a new content management system.

4. Walking Transylvania

We also asked one of our developers, Robi, to tell us why he likes working with Ruby and Rails, and this was his answer:

“What I love about Rails is that you can build a prototype — web API or website — in 20 minutes, if you know what gems to use.” — Robi Kovacs, Full Stack Developer at Wolfpack Digital

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