Rails for PHP Developers (Pragmatic Programmers) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

As a PHP developer, you have some great tools for developing web applications. Ruby on Rails is another key tool to add to your web development toolbox. Rails is a high-level web development framework that emphasizes high productivity and clean code. However, the Ruby language and Rails framework take a different approach from the way many PHP developers write applications.

Ruby lies at the foundation of Rails, and we'll teach you the Ruby language from the beginning by building on your existing foundation of PHP. We'll explore Ruby through parallel code examples that illustrate the differences between the languages, and help you understand the Ruby idioms and how they differ from popular PHP code and style.

You'll then learn the Rails framework by iteratively building a complete application, starting from the home page through to a finished product. Along the way, you'll build your skills as a Rails developer by learning the Rails fundamentals such as MVC structure, domain modeling, and testing.

In addition to serving as a guide to learning both Ruby and Rails from a PHP developer's perspective, this book includes two extensive reference chapters. They map the most common PHP tasks to their equivalents in the Ruby and Rails world, giving you at-a-glance information that you'll refer to often.

About the Author

Derek DeVries has an education in fine arts and a strong background as a web application developer. As vice president of design for Maintainable Software, Derek leads design, branding, and user experience for the company. He is also a Zend Certified PHP Engineer with over five years experience leading PHP development teams at Xerox, Amici LLC, and several startup companies. Derek has worked on a number of Ruby on Rails products in his current position and in his spare time develops SportSpyder.com, a Rails application for finding the best new sports articles on the web.

Mike Naberezny is the founder of Maintainable Software, a software development company in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has over ten years software engineering experience working with companies such as Flextronics and Instrumentation Engineering. Mike's PHP experience includes holding a senior position at Zend Technologies, and he sits on the Zend PHP Education Advisory Board. Mike heads engineering at Maintainable, where he has developed and deployed a number of Rails applications. He is a regular speaker at software conferences and contributes to several open source projects.

Product Details

• Paperback: 406 pages
• Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934356042
• ISBN-13: 978-1934356043
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #735,325 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for web development, May 27, 2008

By	Matthew Weier OPhinney "Software Architect" (Richmond, VT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars *The* Rails book to get if you're a PHP developer, May 15, 2008

By	Michael A. Alderete (San Francisco) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for PHP Developers, May 3, 2009

By	Cory D. Gagliardi (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!