What are the most common tasks for Rails applications? I mean, for example, for small and simple sites people usually choose PHP, because it's really easy to maintain and to deploy, most hosting platforms support all your needs. But I'm interested what people usually produce with Rails. What kind of applications?
ok, but how to make decision on which framework/language to develop app? For example i can do one small site on PHP and Merb(Rails). But im more interested developing in ruby rather than php. How to make a right choice ?
Dan Sosedoff
2009-06-23 20:14:58
Assuming your app doesn't have very unusual requirements -- if you like developing in Ruby and you have a place to host Ruby apps, then using Ruby to make your apps is the right choice. Then comes the question about whether to go for Rails, Merb, Ramaze, Sinatra etc. as your framework, but that's something you will have to experiment with to find out what best suits you and the app in question.
Lars Haugseth
2009-06-24 07:42:15
well, its true what u said. i actually already played with Rails, Merb and Sinatra. Since Merb ~ Rails, i found that Sinatra is a really useful for creating stand-along API`s, like extension for your website/app or whatever else.
Dan Sosedoff
2009-06-24 18:01:34
+2
A:
Mostly large applications, that benefit from the MVC pattern, and don't get drowned by the overhead of such a large framework.
www.basecamphq.com and www.github.com are good examples.
cloudhead
2009-06-23 20:09:57
+5
A:
Pretty much the deal is, if your app would benefit from object-oriented design, Rails would do well. If your app would not benefit from object-oriented design, Rails would not.
The framework revolves around a relational object model, storing items in a database (e.g. posts belong to users). For large apps that have that sort of structure, Rails makes the development process easy (relatively). Running anything else with Rails, though, would be far too much overhead to be worthwhile.
So, say you have a one-function website, e.g. take input and encrypt to MD5, SHA-1, and other forms of encryption. Using Rails would be pointless. You can still use other Ruby-based frameworks if you just like Ruby, but Rails would not be the right choice - and I'd probably recommend PHP, since it does well at simple scripts.
Matchu
2009-06-23 20:15:21
so, what do u say about site (for example: usedcars.com) Im developing similar site, and still thinking about which platform to use. ideas?
Dan Sosedoff
2009-06-23 20:31:21
I'd at least use some sort of framework, so Rails could do that job well. If you would feel more comfortable in PHP, however, there are plenty of PHP frameworks out there.
Matchu
2009-06-23 21:08:19
+2
A:
With the advent of phusion passenger I think using rails can be warranted in almost every case if you like developing with it. The deployment overhead has gotten very small and the development overhead does not exists if you are used to the framework.
nasmorn
2009-06-23 22:25:22
+1
A:
It sounds like you're asking "what framework/language should I use to make a website?" There's no one perfect answer to that, as a good answer will depend heavily on your knowledge, experience, place of employment, and the audience for which the site is designed.
That being said, Ruby on Rails is a good choice, and there are several benefits to using it:
- it has a large base of users, so that your questions can be answered on sites like StackOverflow.
- it's being actively developed, and there are many tools for it that are designed to help you be productive.
- it simplifies interactions between your web site and your database using an object model.
- it allows you to easily describe the dependencies between various aspects of your application.
- it's not PHP. :)
James Thompson
2009-06-24 07:35:48