Ruby on Rails Tutorial

Michael Hartl created the legendary Ruby on Rails Tutorial that helped jumpstart thousands of web development careers. A cofounder and principal author at Learn Enough, Hartl previously earned a Ph.D. in physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is also an alumnus of Harvard University and the world-renowned Y Combinator entrepreneur program.

• Foreword xviiPreface xixAcknowledgments xxvAbout the Author xxviiChapter 1: From Zero to Deploy 11.1 Up and Running 51.2 The First Application 141.3 Version Control with Git 351.4 Deploying 521.5 Conclusion 611.6 Conventions Used in This Book 62Chapter 2: A Toy App 652.1 Planning the Application 662.2 The Users Resource 712.3 The Microposts Resource 872.4 Conclusion 104Chapter 3: Mostly Static Pages 1073.1 Sample App Setup 1073.2 Static Pages 1153.3 Getting Started with Testing 1263.4 Slightly Dynamic Pages 1353.5 Conclusion 1523.6 Advanced Testing Setup 153Chapter 4: Rails-Flavored Ruby 1594.1 Motivation 1594.2 Strings and Methods 1654.3 Other Data Structures 1774.4 Ruby Classes 1924.5 Conclusion 204Chapter 5: Filling in the Layout 2075.1 Adding Some Structure 2075.2 Sass and the Asset Pipeline 2325.3 Layout Links 2425.4 User Signup: A First Step 2555.5 Conclusion 260Chapter 6: Modeling Users 2636.1 User Model 2646.2 User Validations 2796.3 Adding a Secure Password 3036.4 Conclusion 313Chapter 7: Sign Up 3157.1 Showing Users 3167.2 Signup Form 3377.3 Unsuccessful Signups 3467.4 Successful Signups 3617.5 Professional-Grade Deployment 3747.6 Conclusion 380Chapter 8: Basic Login 3818.1 Sessions 3818.2 Logging In 3988.3 Logging Out 4378.4 Conclusion 443Chapter 9: Advanced Login 4459.1 Remember Me 4459.2 "Remember Me" Checkbox 4709.3 Remember Tests 4769.4 Conclusion 489Chapter 10: Updating, Showing, and Deleting Users 49310.1 Updating Users 49310.2 Authorization 50910.3 Showing All Users 52610.4 Deleting Users 54410.5 Conclusion 556Chapter 11: Account Activation 55911.1 Account Activations Resource 56011.2 Account Activation Emails 56811.3 Activating the Account 58511.4 Email in Production 61011.5 Conclusion 619Chapter 12: Password Reset 62112.1 Password Resets Resource 62312.2 Password Reset Emails 63412.3 Resetting the Password 64112.4 Email in Production (Take 2) 65812.5 Conclusion 65912.6 Proof of Expiration Comparison 661Chapter 13: User Microposts 66313.1 A Micropost Model 66313.2 Showing Microposts 67913.3 Manipulating Microposts 69313.4 Micropost Images 72613.5 Conclusion 752Chapter 14: Following Users 75514.1 The Relationship Model 75614.2 A Web Interface for Following Users 77414.3 The Status Feed 80514.4 Conclusion 821Index 825

Praise for Michael Hartl's Books and Videos on Ruby on Rails"My former company (CD Baby) was one of the first to loudly switch to Ruby on Rails, and then even more loudly switch back to PHP. (Google me to read about the drama.) This book by Michael Hartl came so highly recommended that I had to try it, and the Ruby on RailsTM Tutorial is what I used to switch back to Rails again."--From the Foreword by Derek Sivers (sivers.org)Formerly: founder of CD Baby; Currently: founder of Thoughts Ltd."I started working on a project but didn't quite understand some rails concepts. Needed a good tutorial and found lots of recommendations for @mhartl's rails tutorial . . . and man it's so good. The hype def matches the product."--Pratik Tamang, https://twitter.com/codingkrazy"The rails tutorial by @mhartl is the best web dev resource ever written."--Daniel Gamboa, Product Manager, Figment"My first programming book was the Ruby on Rails Tutorial from @mhartl. The best part was it taught me general skills to be an effective developer."--Jack Gray, staknine.com"Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial book is the #1 (and only, in my opinion) place to start when it comes to books about learning Rails. . . . It's an amazing piece of work and, unusually, walks you through building a Rails app from start to finish with testing. If you want to read just one book and feel like a Rails master by the end of it, pick the Ruby on RailsTM Tutorial."--Peter Cooper, editor, Ruby Inside"Michael Hartl's Ruby on RailsTM Tutorial seamlessly taught me about not only Ruby on Rails, but also the underlying Ruby language, HTML, CSS, a bit of JavaScript, and even some SQL--but most importantly it showed me how to build a web application (Twitter) in a short amount of time."--Mattan Griffel, cofounder & CEO of One Month"Although I'm a Python/Django developer by trade, I can't stress enough how much this book has helped me. As an undergraduate, completely detached from industry, this book showed me how to use version control, how to write tests, and, most importantly--despite the steep learning curve for setting up and getting stuff running--how the end result of perseverance is extremely gratifying. It made me fall in love with technology all over again. This is the book I direct all my friends to who want to start learning programming/building stuff. Thank you, Michael!"--Prakhar Srivastav, software engineer, Xcite.com, Kuwait"It has to be the best-written book of its type I've ever seen, and I can't recommend it enough."--Daniel Hollands, administrator of Birmingham.IO"For those wanting to learn Ruby on Rails, Hartl's Ruby on RailsTM Tutorial is (in my opinion) the best way to do it."--David Young, software developer and author at deepinthecode.com"This is a great tutorial for a lot of reasons, because aside from just teaching Rails, Hartl is also teaching good development practices."--Michael Denomy, full-stack web developer"Without a doubt, the best way I learned Ruby on Rails was by building an actual working app. I used Michael Hartl's Ruby on RailsTM Tutorial, which showed me how to get a very basic Twitter-like app up and running from scratch. I cannot recommend this tutorial enough; getting something up and going fast was key; it beats memorization by a mile."--James Fend, serial entrepreneur, JamesFend.com"The book gives you the theory and practice, while the videos focus on showing you in person how it's done. Highly recommended combo."--Antonio Cangiano, software engineer, IBM"The author is clearly an expert at the Ruby language and the Rails framework, but more than that, he is a working software engineer who introduces best practices throughout the text."--Gregory Charles, principal software developer at Fairway Technologies