Aptana RadRails: An IDE for Rails Development: A comprehensive guide to using RadRails to develop your Ruby on Rails projects in a professional and productive manner [Paperback]

Javier Ramirez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 2008

Aptana RadRails is an Integrated Development Environment for Ruby on Rails projects. Built on top of the well-known Eclipse platform, RadRails provides all the tools you need to create a whole Rails application from a single interface, allowing you to focus on the creative part of the development as your IDE takes care of the mechanics. This book is for Ruby on Rails developers who want to make the most of the framework by using an Integrated Development Environment. Even though the book explains everything you need to follow the contents, the focus is on how to use the tool and not on the Rails framework itself, so previous working knowledge of Rails is highly advisable. Previous knowledge of Eclipse is not necessary.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

What you will Learn?
This book will show you how to use the tools RadRails provides to improve your productivity:

• Tools for writing code: Specialized Editors for Ruby, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; Code Assistance; Code Completion; Refactoring; Quick Code Navigation; Outline Views
• Tools for testing and debugging: Unit Testing; Graphical Debugger; Monitoring of Log Files
• Tools for project management: Specialized views for launching your Tasks and Generators; Management of your Gems and Plug-ins; Rails Servers Control

You will also learn how to use other Eclipse plug-ins for synchronizing your projects with Subversion and for managing your databases.

About the Author

Javier Ram¿rez has been developing Web Applications since before the term Web Application was coined. Born in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1974, he started programming as a hobby around the age of 11 assisted by his older sister. A few years later, he got his first modem and became a regular of BBSes and Newsgroups. His interest in developing server applications that can be accessed remotely comes from those times. He has learned -and forgotten- many programming languages, including Basic, dBase III, Cobol, Pascal, SQL, C, C++, ASP, TCL, JavaScript, PHP, and Java, the language on which he has focused for most of his career so far. He has held the positions of programmer, analyst, consultant, team leader, post-sales engineer, project manager, and software architect, totaling over 12 years in the IT business. Having developed projects mainly for banks and other big corporations in Spain, Italy and the US, he co-founded some years ago a small software development shop, which provided him with valuable experience about the difficulties and the joys of entrepreneurship. After two years, he left the company in pursuit of new professional challenges. For the last two years, he has been proudly working for ASPgems, where he discovered Ruby on Rails, which soon became his framework of choice for developing Web Applications. He is one of the organizers of the Spanish Rails Conference, also participating as a Speaker in the two events held so far. He has also been an instructor on Robotics, Java, FatWire Content Server, and Ruby on Rails, and a University Lecturer in the subjects of 'Software Engineering' and 'The Java Programming Language', which he currently teaches at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, in Madrid. Javier Ram¿rez holds a B.Sc. in Business Information Systems with First Class Honors and a degree in Ingenier¿a en Sistemas de Computaci¿n.

Product Details

• Paperback: 233 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (May 23, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847193986
• ISBN-13: 978-1847193988
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,425,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Since 1995 I've been earning my salt in software development, doing this and that in different places, industries and companies, including a small java-centric shop I co-founded --and then cowardly left-- some years ago.

Along these years I've delivered training on things like Robotics, Software Engineering, JAVA, PHP, the FatWire Content Server or Ruby on Rails. I have also participated in several workshops and conferences talking about Ruby on Rails, plug-in and games programming, XML processing, CSS frameworks, SEO or agile development.

Apart from the occasional freelancing or training gig, I'm the CTO of ASPgems, where I've been working since 2006 developing web projects with Ruby on Rails.

I'm also the author of the book "Aptana RadRails: An IDE for Rails Development" and an active member of the local Ruby scene, being a founding member of the Spanish Rails Conference, the Spanish Ruby Users Group (SRUG) and madrid-rb, the Ruby users group in Madrid. Lately I can be seen also on the Agile Madrid group activities.

The list of companies I've work for includes Fundación San Valero, Intersneter, Qarana Solutions, Genetsis Partners, Vector Software Factory, Intesys Integrated Services, Utende (I co-founded it), Fatwire and ASPgems. I'm proud to have helped clients ranging from small start ups to big banks and corporations in Spain, Italy, the US and the UK.

I have worked as a teacher for three Universities: Fundación San Valero, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria and Tracor/San Pablo CEU

I'm currently based in Madrid, but in the past I've been working in Zaragoza, Brescia, New York, Barcelona and -for a brief period- in London.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars well freshed out IDE, August 20, 2009

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aptana RadRails: An IDE for Rails Development: A comprehensive guide to using RadRails to develop your Ruby on Rails projects in a professional and productive manner (Paperback)

The RadRails IDE appears well fleshed out. It provides many useful aids to the Ruby on Rails programmer. The book shows numerous examples and screen captures.

Plus, there are also some accelerators. Like code templates. This lets you define snippets of generic code. Then via a few keys, a snippet can be inserted at a location inside the main code. Though, come to think of it, you should probably minimise usage of this feature. Because if overused it can lead to many code duplicates, which increases the size of the overall code, and makes maintenance harder, if you need to make the same change to all instances of a given snippet.

RadRails also provides support for a debugger. Making it easy to invoke. This feature is well worth careful reading.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst written book I have ever read!, September 25, 2010

By 

Ron E. Fugate "ReflectingJesus" (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aptana RadRails: An IDE for Rails Development: A comprehensive guide to using RadRails to develop your Ruby on Rails projects in a professional and productive manner (Paperback)

I do not believe this book was edited by a professional. If it were, it would never have been published.
Reading this book was like watching Fisher Stevens in the original "Short Circuit" movie (If you don't remember, he was the scientist; good guy, helpful and entertaining but constantly threw out one-liners that showed a limited command of the English language). Imagine an entire book written by his character and you have this book, Aptana RadRails.
Read the following statements with the Fisher Stevens accent and see what I mean: "If you still didn't, it's high time to start your Eclipse." or "Neat, uh?" or "Let's face it! We cannot help ourselves when a new gadget falls into our hands." And, yes, each of these statements is an actual quote from Aptana RadRails. Though they have potential entertainment value, they demonstrate the lack of quality in the writing of this book.
I am sure the author knows the material. He could probably do amazing things with Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Eclipse, or RadRails. However, technical writing is also a skill, just not one mastered by the "author" of this book.
Quality products like Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Eclipse, and RadRails deserve professional treatment.
Unfortunately, this book did not deliver.
BTW: My employer has a policy that I include a disclaimer on any commentary that I deliver on the web. Here it is: this review does not reflect the views or opinions of my employer.