Practical JRuby on Rails Web 2.0 Projects: Bringing Ruby on Rails to Java (Expert's Voice in Java) (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: admin layout, rhtml file, administrative user interface, Big Brother, Summary We've, Ruby Array (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Discover how JRuby on Rails can be used to create web applications faster and more efficiently while still taking advantage of the vast power of the Java platform.

Ruby on Rails is proving itself to be one of the most efficient and powerful agile web development application frameworks available and has had a profound influence on the Java community. The JRuby project offers Java developers the best of two worlds: the flexibility of Ruby on Rails coupled with the enterprise-level power and maturity of the Java platform.

JRuby core developer Ola Bini covers everything you need to know to take full advantage of what JRuby has to offer, including

• Full coverage on how to use JRuby to create web applications faster and more efficiently, while continuing to take advantage of the vast power of the Java platform
• Several real-world projects that illustrate the crucial specifics you need to know about the interaction of Java and Ruby
• Helpful, practical instruction and discussion on how web applications can be deployed using a variety of popular servers such as Apache and Mongrel

What youll learn

• Create a Rails application that uses JDBC to talk to legacy databases.
• Use Java Management Extensions (JMX) to more effectively manage your application.
• Deploy a Rails application within a Java Enterprise web container (Tomcat).
• Create interoperable applications involving EJBs and Rails-driven web services.
• Securely integrate XML processing into your Ruby applications.
• Build cutting-edge Web 2.0 web sites using Rails, Prototype, and script.aculo.us to provide a pleasing user experience.
• Build four important projects: Store, CMS, Admin tool, and a web library project.

Who is this book for?

Youll get the most from this book if you have medium-to-advanced skills in Java web development, with a little Ruby experience, and are interested in taking Web development to the next level, both in terms of speed and features and in interoperability with existing infrastructure.

About the Apress Practical Series

The Practical series from Apress is your best choice for getting the job done, period. From professional to expert, this series lets you apply project-motivated templates (or frameworks) step by step in a very direct, practical, and efficient manner toward current real-world projects that may be sitting on your desk. So whatever your career goal, Apress can be your trusted guide to take you where you want to go on your IT career empowerment path.

Related Titles from Apress

• Beginning POJOs: Lightweight Java Web Development Using Plain Old Java Objects in Spring, Hibernate, and Tapestry
• Beginning Ruby on Rails: From Novice to Professional
• The Definitive Guide to Grails

About the Author

Ola Bini is a longtime developer from Sweden who started at an age of 9 years with Basic, on an Apple IIc; from there on he learned C, C++, Assembler, Lisp, Java, Ruby, and various other languages. He has no formal education except for a few Sun Java certifications. He has worked with system development at Karolinska Institutet since 2001 and runs his own consulting company (OLogix Consulting) in his spare time. He has contributed to various open source projects and is one of the three core developers of the JRuby project.

Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: Apress (September 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590598814
• ISBN-13: 978-1590598818
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #383,493 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Java developers wanting to get started with JRuby, November 15, 2007

By	James Stewart (Grand Rapids, MI, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am not in this book's target audience. Whereas the book is aimed at experienced java developers who are just getting started with rails and want to take advantage of JRuby, I've rarely touched Java but have lots of ruby and rails experience and am interested in JRuby mainly to see where I might be able to take advantage of java libraries, or ship my ruby apps into new contexts. In that respect, the book was helpful but there's probably space for a companion volume for people like me.

The book takes a measured pace, introducing Rails early on and then building in different components from the Java world as it works through four different projects. Use of JDBC within a rails app, calling ruby code from Java, deployment strategies, packaging a Rails app as a .jar that can be dropped into an application server, and making use of java for interfacing with SOAP web services are all covered.

Readers will probably need to spend some time experimenting with each feature to really get comfortable with them, but the book works well to get you started and point in the right direction. The introduction to Ruby and Rails is a case in point, as Ola dives right in to his examples after a brief lead-in. That may work well for experienced developers who will enjoy exploring the accompanying code, but it is worth being aware of.

It did feel like there were some missed opportunities later in the book, particularly in the final project, to introduce more of Rails' "RESTful" features since that example really invited that style of design, and it would have been interesting to have some discussion of the pros and cons of treating the libraries built to interface with external services as models within a rails app, making the interface more transparent.

I'm also not quite sure where the "Web 2.0 Projects" line in the title comes from. The final project interfaces with amazon web services, which I suppose might get thrown onto the "web 2.0" bandwagon, but don't go into the book expecting a series of stereotypical "web 2.0" projects. It's an introduction to JRuby on Rails for Java developers, whatever approach to the web they may be taking.

JRuby is a really exciting technology that promises to help developers take another step towards picking technology based on their projects, not just the platforms their organisations may have standardised on over the past decades. If you're a java developer wanting to learn how to make use of JRuby and looking for some help to get up and running, this book is likely to give you just that.

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for review by the publisher.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Huge Timesaver, November 11, 2007

By	Aaron Blondeau "mountaindude" (Sheridan, WY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Over the past several months I have spent a lot of time searching the internet for information on JRuby, specifically looking for ways to have Ruby on Rails host Ruby powered applets. I thought I been fairly successful at gathering information until I read this book, and realized how much information I had missed. If you are working on building a production quality application or just want to learn what you can do with the current state of JRuby on Rails, try this book. It will help get you on track right away while avoiding many of the 'gotchas' that come with using Rails on JRuby.

You will need to have a good understanding of Ruby, and prior experience with Rails would be very good too. I did encounter a few issues where a few commands listed in the book did not work, but JRuby and Rails being actively under development make problems like that unavoidable.

This book would make a good companion for the Pragmatic Programmer's Pickaxe book as well as their Agile Development with Rails book. The projects in this book are definitely more fun than the store in the Agile Rails book.
Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd Edition
Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition

Finally, remember that one of the best ways to support open source projects like JRuby is to buy the book (written by a core developer of the project).

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RUBY RED RAILS!!, March 1, 2008

By	John R. Vacca "Tech Write Independent Reviewer" (Pomeroy, Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Have you had any experience with Ruby or Rails? If you have, then this book is definitely for you. Author Ola Bini, has done an outstanding job of writing a book about four technologies: Ruby, Rails, JRuby and Java.

Bini, begins by giving you information about the technologies covered, why they should interest you, and an overview of the book. Then, the author shows you how to install everything you need for the rest of the book, including all RubyGems you'll be using. Next, he describes what parts it contains and things that are good to know when doing Rails development. The author also introduces many of the more practical details of Rails in the process. He continues by looking at the databases that JRuby on Rails supports. Then, the author focuses exclusively on the syntax and usage of JRuby's Java integration features. Next, he shows you how create most of the Rails code needed for the CMS application, but stubs out all rendering functionality. The author continues by showing you how to complete the CMS application by adding all the rendering functionality and also taking a look at a few alternative approaches. Then, he shows you how to use JRuby from inside a J2EE Enterprise Bean, implementing the functionality of this bean in Ruby. Next, the author also details deployment options for a JRuby on Rails application, how regular Rails deployment usually works, and how to make the situation much better with JRuby. The author also looks at the options available to consume web services with JRuby, and implements a library to search for books at [...]. He continues by showing you how to create two different libraries for JMS interaction. Finally, the author shows you how to contribute to JRuby or its surrounding projects.

This most excellent book can offer you many possibilities if you use JRuby on Rails. It will help you create your first application with JRuby on Rails, and get it into production.