Introduction to Ruby Programming
Learn
how to create an interactive Web blog that allows visitors to register and
post articles and comments. You'll see how to use the Ruby on Rails
framework environment to create a full-featured Web blog using the Ruby
programming language and the MySQL database server.
We'll walk through the development of a complete Web blog application.
During the course, you'll see step-by-step how to create all of the software
and database objects used in the application. We'll begin by looking at
exactly what the Ruby programming language is. Ruby has taken the Web world
by storm, providing an object-oriented approach to Web programming. Its
simplicity and user-friendliness make it ideal for beginning programmers to
use to dive into the world of dynamic Web sites.
After going through the basics of Ruby programming, we'll turn to the Ruby
on Rails framework environment. Ruby on Rails is a relatively new, but
already very popular, player in the world of dynamic Web sites. We'll go
through the steps of creating the Ruby on Rails framework and then modifying
that framework with Ruby programming to customize your Web site just the way
you want it. At the end of this course, you'll be able to use the techniques
you've learned to build and customize your own dynamic Web application.
To enroll in this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
Requirements:
A Ruby on Rails software development environment is required for this course. The first lesson walks through installing the InstantRails software package, which provides a complete Ruby on Rails development environment, including the Apache Web server and MySQL database server, for the Windows platform. InstantRails can be downloaded from instantrails.rubyforge.org; You must have a Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista workstation or server to install the InstantRails software. Please note that InstantRails does not work on Windows 95, Windows 98, nor Windows Me. Students using the Macintosh platform may be able to use the default Ruby environment included on Macintosh OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard). Please consult the Apple Web site for instructions on how to update the installed software to the latest version of Ruby on Rails; Prior HTML coding experience is helpful, but not required; Internet access, e-mail, and the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser.
Syllabus:
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end.
Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course.
You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must
complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each
month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to
space the start date for each course at least two months apart.
| Week One |
| Wednesday - Lesson 01 |
| The Ruby programming language uses simple,
easy-to-remember syntax, along with a host of special functions that
perform many time-consuming programming jobs for you. These features
make it an excellent choice for creating dynamic Web pages. We'll
start the course by examining what Ruby is all about, including Ruby
on Rails, which allows you to incorporate Ruby code directly in your
HTML code. Throughout the course, we'll use Ruby on Rails to develop
a full-blown blogging application called the Restaurant Review. Then
you'll be able to take what you learned and use it to develop other
dynamic applications. Today, you'll take the first step in creating
your own dynamic Web site by installing a Ruby on Rails server on
your computer. |
| Friday - Lesson 02 |
| In this lesson, we'll look at the basics of the
Ruby programming language. You'll learn how to store and manipulate
data in Ruby programs and how to use some of the built-in functions
Ruby provides. Data is crucial to any programming application, and
understanding how Ruby processes data will make it much easier to
complete our course project. |
| Week Two |
| Wednesday - Lesson 03 |
| Today we'll look at three features that are
crucial to the operation of just about every Ruby program you'll
ever create. First, we'll look at structured commands, which allow
you to alter the flow of a program based on values within the data,
such as a variable. Following that, we'll discuss using loops in
Ruby. Loops are a common way to process multiple data items with a
minimum amount of code. Finally, we'll see how Ruby can use arrays
to hold values of similar data and explore how to extract those
values from the arrays. |
| Friday - Lesson 04 |
| One of the main features of the Ruby programming
language is that it's object-oriented. We'll start this lesson by
looking at the general principles behind object-oriented programming
(OOP) and how it differs from the regular programming you may be
familiar with. Then we'll see how Ruby implements OOP features and
start playing with some object-oriented code. We'll finish by
digging a little deeper into Ruby coding as we explore how you can
customize pre-built objects. |
| Week Three |
| Wednesday - Lesson 05 |
| Today you'll find out about the Ruby on Rails
concept of scaffolding. The scaffolding process automatically
produces generic code for most of the common features contained in
Web applications. You'll generate the scaffolding code for your
Restaurant Review project and examine its features. |
| Friday - Lesson 06 |
| In this lesson, you'll learn exactly how to
modify the scaffolding code to customize your Web pages. We'll start
by looking at the database model code. We'll add some features that
make the code more meaningful for our application, and we'll see how
we can easily modify the database tables in the project. Finally,
we'll start actually rearranging code in the scaffolding files by
altering how the Web pages for the Restaurant Review display data. |
| Week Four |
| Wednesday - Lesson 07 |
| It's important to liven up your Web site using
common HTML features, as well as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Today
we'll walk through the steps necessary to modify the main
application Web page layout, and you'll see how to incorporate an
external CSS style sheet file to add color to the Restaurant Review
project. |
| Friday - Lesson 08 |
| In this lesson, we'll discuss how to add new
features to the generic ones that Ruby on Rails generated. You'll
see how to add new data tables to the project, as well as the Web
pages necessary to interact with them. We'll also look at how to
create the Ruby code necessary to incorporate the new data on every
page in the application by just creating a single file! |
| Week Five |
| Wednesday - Lesson 09 |
| Thanks to the popularity of Google and Yahoo!,
Web surfers expect every good Web site to provide data searching
features. Our Restaurant Review blog will be no different. Today
we'll examine common searching algorithms and see how they affect
the performance of the application. You'll find out how to use some
SQL tricks along with Ruby coding to incorporate searching in your
Web site. |
| Friday - Lesson 10 |
| Just saying the word security can send Web
application administrators into a frenzy. Any dynamic site that
allows visitors to post data needs to include some level of
security. In this lesson, we'll look at what we can do to protect
our Restaurant Review application from vandals and comment spammers.
You'll learn how to use Ruby on Rails to control who can post
reviews by creating a login system and tracking visitors. |
| Week Six |
| Wednesday - Lesson 11 |
| Testing your application is a crucial part of the
development process. You want to make sure that everything works as
it's supposed to before turning it loose on the Internet.
Fortunately, Ruby on Rails provides excellent features for
automatically testing applications. In this lesson, we'll look at
those features and how to use and customize them. You'll see how to
use testing to narrow down where a problem occurs so that it's easy
to find it and fix it. |
| Friday - Lesson 12 |
| Today we'll examine the servers required to host
your application on the Internet. We'll take a closer look at the
MySQL database server, the storage engine behind our Ruby on Rails
application. You'll learn how to interact with the server to
directly view and manage your data. We'll then look at the Apache
Web server and determine how to interface it with the Ruby on Rails
environment. With these two servers working together, you can host
your custom Restaurant Review blog on the Internet for everyone to
see and use. |
To enroll in this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
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