Beginning Ruby on Rails E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional [Paperback]

Christian Hellsten (Author), Jarkko Laine (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590597362 | ISBN-13: 978-1590597361 | Publication Date: November 9, 2006 | Edition: 1

Ruby on Rails is the hottest new open source technology around. It offers developers the opportunity to create fully-featured web applications in double-quick time. Rails and e-commerce are a match made in heaven and Beginning Ruby on Rails E-Commerce is the first book to directly target this market.

This book explains to readers, via real-life scenarios, how to use Rails to create every aspect of an online store – from creating a product catalog, to building a shopping cart system, all the way through to adding cool features such as customer feedback forums. In addition, the book explains how to interface with vital third-party software applications, such as those provided by online payment systems. Because of this breadth of focus, Beginning Ruby on Rails E-Commerce is the book that all Rails developers are crying out for.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christian Hellsten is CTO of Sanda Interactive Ltd, provider of consulting services and custom Internet software development.

He has worked on large-scale e-business projects as a consultant for PriceWaterHouse Consulting and IBM Business Consulting Services. His background is in J2EE but he fell in love with Ruby on Rails at first sight, and has been using it professionally ever since to build web applications.

When he is not changing the diapers of his two young daughters at his home in Finland, Christian enjoys researching new technology.

Jarkko Laine is the owner and CEO of O’Design, a Rails-based Web design shop.

He has been using Ruby on Rails since 2004 and has contributed patches to the core developer team, as well as contributing to several Rails plugins.

He has provided Rails consultancy for a number of high-profile organizations, including a major mobile phone manufacturer, Starnet Systems, and Reforge Oy. He also teaches Rails at the Tampere University of Technology and provides lectures on Rails around the world.

He lives in Tampere, Finland with his girlfriend Maria and a growing list of pending household chores.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (November 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590597362
• ISBN-13: 978-1590597361
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,010,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Offers nothing, March 23, 2007

By 

Hans C Masing - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginning Ruby on Rails E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional (Paperback)

While I really hate to slam down the authors of the book, this text really offers nothing to readers that isn't in better form elsewhere. The text is ridden with buggy code, incomplete explanations, and the style of coding leaves much to be desired. The "Agile Web Development with Rails" text (also available on [...]) builds nearly the same application (an eCommerce site), but does so while explaining the rails framework as well as offering up a solid reference textbook style for later use.

I teach graduate level computer science, and switched my curriculum to Ruby on Rails this term for my "Complex Websites" course. I reviewed many books, and this one ended up at the bottom of the pile. Sorry.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good book ruined by sloppily coded examples, February 7, 2007

By 

Ronald H. Bingham "Geek VP" (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beginning Ruby on Rails E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional (Paperback)

It's too bad this wonderfully written book is so full of errors. Did the authors run out of time to check the sample code? I spent days and days trying to get the sample code given in the book to work. The book version of the code didn't match the downloaded version and both were loaded with errors. After chapter four I gave it up as a lost cause. My list of errata was so extensive that I didn't bother to send it to the publisher because I had invested far too much time in the book already. I'm guessing the rave revues this book received were from readers that simply read the book and didn't try the sample application code.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Full of errors and instructions are missing..., December 11, 2006

By 

uml_zepho_com (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginning Ruby on Rails E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional (Paperback)

Beginners must stay away from this book. It does not mention anywhere that you must install RedCloth to get the textilize method working. There are too many errors in the book to mention them all here. The code given in the book fails to run due to a bug in the Rails code, one of the problem is due to the assert_tag bug in Rails. The fix shown on the reviewer's website does not solve all the problems. Again the book does not even mention about the workaround. After many hours of frustration you have to find out from other developers on the Rails mailing list.

For a beginner, it is very frustrating when the book fails to mention when the fixtures need to be updated to make the code work. Even after copying all the code for the corresponding chapters from the downloaded source, it still gives errors.

Buyers be careful about the other reviews giving 5 stars for this book. For an objective view and to see the problems with this book, search the Ruby on Rails mailing list on the title of this book. You will see how many developers are having the same problem.

You can buy this book only after the publisher fixes all the errors. Otherwise you will end up with lot frustration and wasted time and energy.