Customer Reviews

Rails for PHP Developers

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This book is not only an excellent guide to Ruby and Rails for PHP developers, it is, quite simply, an excellent resource on professional web development. It offers insight into how to properly manage a product and customer expectations, from the planning stages to site delivery. I cannot recommend this book enough.

This is one of the first practical books to be published that is entirely Rails 2.0 focused, but its real strength is in the terrific, direct comparisons to how to accomplish the same tasks in PHP. By directly linking specific features, functions, and other programmatic process in PHP to Rails, this book lets you learn something new (Rails) by revealing the similarities (and differences) with something you already know (PHP).

The author is clearly an expert PHP programmer, and while you will certainly come away with an appreciation for the elegance and parsimony of Ruby the programming language and Rails the web application framework, the book is by no means "down on PHP." Indeed, I learned a couple of PHP tricks, that let me do a few (simple) Rails-like patterns in PHP.

In all, this is a terrific book, and if you're a PHP developer interested in learning about Rails, this book is *the* way to do it.

Coming from a PHP background, this book makes it very simple to understand the Rails mentality and idioms behind the framework and Ruby itself. I really enjoyed the author's style and the way he brings up techniques. The flaw I've found is that there are small editing oversights, such as a variable name mistyped in one spot, but not another. Overall a great book which I highly recommend!

All languages have goals. C - speed. Java - portability. PHP - easy web programming. The goal of Ruby is perfection and elegance (for the programmer), and Rails is a a great framework built upon Ruby. The things Ruby and Rails can do to save you time will constantly have you saying "wow".

I was a PHP programmer for 7 years before reading this book, and I could not be more happy that I read it. Rails is so different than PHP that someone so stuck in the PHP world needs a book like this.

The organization of this book is very nice: first a quick Rails site just so you can see it work. Second a side by side comparison of PHP versus Ruby commands to get you comfortable with the Ruby language. Then the majority of the book is a detailed guide on how to create a Rails site with accounts and meeting postings. The book ends with a what could be described as a PHP to Ruby translation directory.

It is straight forward and gives a side by side comparison of PHP vs. Ruby code any time it is relevant (easing out of showing you PHP as the book progresses). The authors of this book are such good PHP developers, the book will probably improve the way you write PHP (as it did for me). If you are web developer and your job (or hobby) gives you the option of using Rails, buy this book!

Pragmatic has truly become the #1 resource on the market today for great Rails reference books and with 'Rails for PHP Developers' that tradition continues. With ~400 pages of material spread over 13 chapters, you will learn to get Ruby working with PHP and you will find that it's one relationship that is a happy one!

Rails is one of the newest "hot" technologies in the marketplace and it's due to ease of use and rapid deployment. PHP has been a web technology long popular for dynamic content. If you are an existing PHP developer that is looking to add Rails support to your web app, this is a great resource to have by your side. Content is good, and the "all bells no whistles" design serves well for the reader.

Easy to recommend, great to learn from.

***** RECOMMENDED