Advanced Rails--New from O'Reilly Media

For Immediate Release
For more information, a review copy, cover art, or interview with the
author, contact:
Kathryn Barrett (707) 827-7314 or kathrynb@oreilly.com

Advanced Rails - New from O'Reilly
Building Complex Web Applications in Record Time

Sebastopol, CA--Brad Ediger started working with Ruby and Rails in late
2004 when there was scarcely any documentation on the Rails framework.
Since then, we've seen an explosion of books, blogs, and articles on
creating web applications with Rails. According to Ediger, all of these
seem to follow a common pattern: create a blog in 15 minutes or whip out a
to-do list application. Many books devote an entire chapter to installing
Ruby and Rails. In short, we have no lack of resources for the beginning
and intermediate web developer.

Rails, however, is capable of much more. The 37signals applications
(Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, and Campfire) are built with Rails and many
of the Internet's high-traffic sites such as Twitter, Penny Arcade, and
Yellowpages.com use it.  In his new book, "Advanced Rails" (O'Reilly, US
$34.99), Ediger shows experienced Rails developers how they can build
large applications such as these, providing key information that
previously they would have to glean for themselves by scouring dozens of
developers' blogs. 

"Development and deployment of complex web projects is a multidisciplinary
task, and it will always remain so," says Ediger. "In this book, I seek to
weave together several different topics relevant to Rails development,
from the most basic foundations of the Ruby programming language to the
development of large Rails applications."

"Advanced Rails" aims to collect and distill the best practices and
knowledge embodied by the community of Rails developers and then present
everything in an easy-to-understand, compact format for experienced
programmers. "In addition, I seek to present facets of web development
that are often undertreated or dismissed by the Rails community," says
Ediger.  His book covers:

* Metaprogramming 
* When to use the Active Support library for generic, reusable functions 
* How to install, write, and test Rails plug-ins 
* Different database management systems 
* Advanced database features, including triggers, rules, and stored
procedures 
* How to connect to multiple databases and LDAP 
* Security principles for web application design, and security issues
endemic to the Web 
* Optimizing performance 
* RESTful architectures
* Why version control and issue tracking systems are key to any large or
long-lived Rails project 

"Advanced Rails" also explores how to extend Rails, use individual Rails
components in other Ruby code, internationalize your application, and
more. In addition, each chapter includes resources for further reading.
Readers should have an understanding of the architecture of the Web, a
good command of Ruby 1.8, and experience building web applications with
Ruby on Rails. 

Brad Ediger is a freelance programmer, specializing in Rails, who has used
the framework since its release in 2004. He and his wife Kristen (a web
designer) own Madriska Media Group, a web development firm.

For more information about the book, including table of contents, index,
author bio, and samples, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510329/

Advanced Rails
Brad Ediger
ISBN: 0-596-51032-2 $34.99 US 
order@oreilly.com
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