Biodegradable Geek

Most of these Ruby on Rails related links are right out of my bookmarks. I checked for 404s and added more recent entries, but this list is far from complete. New blogs, sites, tutorials and tools are released on a daily basis. Just leave a comment or contact me if you want your link(s) or anything related added, or have spotted any broken links.

(Updated 02/22/2008. Keep the suggestions coming!)

Installation Guides

These are to help you get Ruby and Rails installed and configured, ready for Hello World.

• GettingStartedWithRails – A page on the official Wiki
• Fear of Fish – Getting Started with Ruby on Rails
• Installing Ruby on Rails with Lighttpd and MySQL on Fedora Core 4
• Building Ruby, Rails, LightTPD, and MySQL on Tiger
• HowtosInstallation – A page on installation, from the official Wiki

Freeware and Commercial Ruby on Rails IDEs and Editors

• Freeware IDEs
• NetBeans IDE (Windows/Linux/Mac OS X/Solaris)
• Aptana Studio (Community Edition)
• Mondrian IDE (Windows/Linux)
• RAD Rails (now part of Aptana Studio Suite, still free)
• RoRED (Windows only at the moment)
• FreeRIDE – IDE for Ruby
• Commercial IDEs
• Aptana Studio (Professional Edition)
• Komodo IDE (Windows/Mac/Linux)
• Arachno Ruby (Windows/Linux, OS X release pending)
• TextMate (OS X only)
• Editors
• JEdit – Programmer’s Text Editor
• GEdit (Official Gnome text editor)
• Textmate-like Gedit in few steps
• SciTE – A free source code editor for Win32 and X
• Using Vim as a Complete Ruby on Rails IDE (Shameless plug)
• rails.vim – Ruby on Rails IDE
• Ruby on Rails on Emacs (video)
• How To Use Emacs With Rails
• Extensions and everything else
• Ruby Development Tool (RDT) Requires Eclipse
• Rubyweaver – Dreamweaver extension (Compatible with MX through CS3)
• Rails.vim (Plugin for vi/vim/gvim/cream)
• snippetsEmuAn attempt to emulate TextMate’s snippet expansion
• intellij IDEA Ruby Plugn Plugin for the intellijIDEA Java IDE

Hello World!

• Getting Your Feet Wet with Ruby on Rails
• Fast Track Your Apps with Ruby on Rails – IBM
• Rolling with Ruby on Rails, Part 1
• Rolling with Ruby on Rails, Part 2
• Beginners Guide: Setting up Ruby on Rails in Windows
• Beginners Guide: Starting With The Model
• Super-quick hello world app
• Amy Hoy – Really Getting Started In Rails
• So You Wanna Begin Programming With Ruby on Rails?

More In-depth Rails Tutorials

• Starting Ruby on Rails: What I Wish I Knew
• Top 12 Ruby on Rails Tutorials
• AJAX on Rails
• Beginning Relationships
• ActiveRecord tutorial
• Rails Caching Tutorial
• Rails tutorials on Tutorialized
• RAils tutorials at BuildingWebApps
• Great Ruby on Rails REST resources
• Distributing Rails Application
• Rails Validations
• The Complete Guide to Rails Plugins: Part I
• The Complete Guide to Rails Plugins: Part II
• Understanding Basic Database Relationships in Rails
• Has_many_and_belongs_to_many tutorial (PDF)

Rails Screencasts

• Railscasts
• San Diego Ruby Users Group
• Coderpath screencasts
• Rails Tumblecast
• Peepcode
• Ruby on Rails @ Best Tech Videos
• 10 Great New Ruby / Rails Screencasts from July 2007

Code Examples and Snippets

• How to build a wiki in 20 minutes (well I did not time it)
• Make a todo list program with Ruby on Rails
• How to make a simple image page counter / spyer in 20 minutes with Rails?
• Creating a weblog in 15 minutes (screencast)
• Beast: An open source Rails forum in under 500 lines of code
• AJAX Powered chat in 3 minutes in Ruby on Rails
• Working With Rails Projects
• Working With Rails Code
• Text Snippets
• Snippets at Rubyforge
• DZone Rails snippets

Ruby / Rails Blogs

These are blogs dedicated primarily to Ruby and/or Rails.

• Rails Envy
• nor – Nuby on Rails
• Ruby Inside
• Same Shirt Everyday
• Rubynoob
• Zen and the Art of Ruby Programming
• Ruby on Rails security
• Reality Forge
• Gluttonous
• Thinking Rails
• SEO On Rails
• Not So Stupid
• Mike Mondragon
• Akita on Rails
• Railsjitsu
• Jay Fields Thoughts
• Aidanf
• Rails on Wave
• Rails on the Run
• Popular People on Working With Rails (WWR)
• Schrade.Blog – Tech and Business Ramblings by Kurt Schrader
• Grasp Ruby on Rails
• Ruby Railways
• OnRails.og – Ruby On Rails and related matters.
• Softies On Rails
• Notebook

Communities / Wikis / Forums / Mailing lists / IRC

• Official Rails community page
• Rails Forum
• Ruby on Rails Wiki
• #RubyOnRails on the Freenode IRC network
• Ruby-forum

Gems / Plugins / Tools

These are some miscellaneous Rails stuff I had bookmarked. I know there are hundreds of great things I’m missing here. Don’t hesitate to recommend your favorites.

• Railsify (directory of plugins)
• ActiveScaffold
• #Haml
• LoginGenerator
• ZenTest – Testing on steroids
• Plugins (official RoR wiki page)
• The Complete Guide to Rails Plugins: Part I
• The Complete Guide to Rails Plugins: Part II

Rails 2.0

• Rolling with Rails 2.0 – The First Full Tutorial
• Rails 2.0: taking the plunge (with script that checks if your apps are rails2 compliant)
• Getting Started with Ruby on Rails 2: Making a Link Manager (Part 1)
• Rails 2.0 deprecations
• Upgrading your views to Rails 2.0
• How to upgrade Ruby on Rails Restful routes to 2.0
• Rails 2.0.2 with few changes
• Rails 2.0.2 released, so what’s new?
• Talking Rails 2.0 with David Heinemeier Hansson
• Rails 2.0: It’s done!

Free Ruby / Rails Books

These are books that you can read online or download for free.

• Why’s (poignant) guide to ruby
• Ruby Programming (Wikibooks.org)
• (PDF) Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications by Patrick Lenz (provided by Sitepoint.com)
• Four days on Rails
• Rubyonrails.com shelf (helpful manuals)

References / Cheatsheets

Handy references and cheat sheets to bookmark or print out.

• RailsAPI.org – PHP.net style documentation for Rails
• Noobkit (great Rails doc)
• Ruby on Rails Cheatsheet
• Rails Security Cheatsheet
• Rails Migration Cheat Sheet
• REST Cheatsheet (PDF)
• Ruby on Rails reference
• Ruby on Rails quick reference
• Rails Test Assertions (PDF)
• Railshandbook, another big collection of links

Why not subscribe to the feed?. If you’re on a mobile device I suggest Viigo