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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing and mis-titled, October 24, 2007
This review is from: Pro Active Record: Databases with Ruby and Rails (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)
Right at the start of Pro Active Record the authors address a possible problem some may have with it: that there's not enough in Active Record to warrant a full book. They point out that the basics are well covered as sections elsewhere but that this is the first book to really dig into working with legacy schema and other `advanced' uses. That's fair enough, but after reading the book I am still left with the question of why, then, they dedicate the first half to covering ActiveRecord's most basic concepts?
Judging from postings on the rails email list, there's certainly a lot of confusion about ActiveRecord, associations, observers, how to work with legacy table names and primary keys, and so on. But in a book with a title prefix of "Pro" I was expecting to jump straight into the nitty gritty of topics like compound/composite primary keys and performance tuning, probably with some real world examples, and maybe with a serious exploration of AR's internals. As it is, such topics only get a quick treatment in the final chapter (the compound/composite primary keys section is a paragraph referring users to a plugin).
It's almost always instructive reading other developers' code and it would be unfair to claim that I didn't spot a couple of tips that may prove useful, but they were passing things. And sometimes I found myself wondering what happened to the tech review process, particularly in the coverage of the has_one association, where not only is the variable naming confusing, but they seem to be calling the each method on a single ActiveRecord instance.
I'm left wondering what the audience is for this book. The title and blurbs suggest it's pitched at people who want to go deeper into ActiveRecord than they have before, but the content is better suited for someone with some database experience who wants to pick up ActiveRecord to write some scripts. As it is, if you've worked with ActiveRecord before your time will be better spent writing plugins and exploring the internals for yourself, and if you've not you'll get most of the same material from a decent Rails book and some time exploring.
Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for review by the publisher.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not so "pro"., November 12, 2007
This review is from: Pro Active Record: Databases with Ruby and Rails (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)
Visuals:
Font size and layout are good. Easy on the eyes. Large and frequent sub-headings make it easier to locate information.
Audience:
The book lists it's intended "User level" at "Intermediate-Advanced".
Practicality:
It really depends on what you are expecting. I've been using Rails and ActiveRecord for about 2 years, so I should fit into the target audience. After reading the book I still think it will be a great reference book to have within arm's reach while working with ActiveRecord. To me it will serve as an API to AR. So it will be practical in that sense.
On the other hand, while reading it I never experienced any "aha!" moments where I felt like I learned something new or exciting, which I had hoped for from a "Pro" book.
If you are a beginner (never having used AR) it will definitely save you time (and eye strain) hunting down tutorials on blogs.
Overall:
It's a good Active Record reference & usage tutorial(s). I would have appreciated this book even more when I was first starting to use the Ruby on Rails framework. So if you are a beginner, don't let the "Intermediate - Advanced" user level scare you off. If you are using Rails, even as a beginner, you will probably be using Active Record too. In fact I think this book would probably be better named "Beginning Active Record" instead of "Pro Active Record".
I was kind of surprised when I read the Introduction to the book that it starts off with:
"Is there really enough to talk about in Active Record to fill a whole book?"
"Our answer, then and now, is, "Yes and no""
As an "Intermediate - Advanced" user, that's kind of how I felt at the end of this "Pro" book.
I give the book 4 stars, with the assumption that you go into it with the expectation of "Beginning Active Record".
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The missing link in Rails Training, September 21, 2007
This review is from: Pro Active Record: Databases with Ruby and Rails (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)
ProActive Record fills a void in RoR texts. From some of the descriptions I was worried that the book would be too focused on using ActiveRecord without rails. My assumptions were unfounded.
By having basically unrestricted space to focus on one part of the MVC framework, the book is able to go into much deeper discussion about many of the topics on ActiveRecord covered only partially in previous Rails texts.
This book focuses on the practical instead of the abstract to its credit.
One chapter is devoted entirely to real world issues in a Q and A style that most every Rails developer will eventually face. It is more like participating in a lab rather than being preached to in a classroom.
Note while this book does not target total beginners it is extremely useful for someone who is past the newbie stage.
Highly recommended for the RoR professional.
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