Jumping on the RoR Train

Moving into the Ruby-on-Rails section of our curriculum was a big deal for me. Over the years I had heard about the framework from both developers and friends who worked in the tech field. I also knew it was quite prevalent in the world of web-applications; companies such as airbnb and github utilize the framework for their sites. Moreover, the way it was discussed (phrases such as ‘oh, it just runs on rails’) gave me the impression it was fairly straightforward to learn.

Needless to say I was excited when we got the train rolling on our Rails mod (Dad joke achieved). The projects we were building started coming together very quickly. One reason for this was that we continued to use the same MVC (Model/View/Controller) design pattern that we had been using in our Sinatra projects. This was a reminder that a lot of what we are learning is not just technical, but conceptual. Having a firm grasp on using the MVC setup in our Sinatra phase directly translated to our current Rails labs and projects. This gave me a sense of confidence, knowing I’ll have a better understanding of frameworks I’m sure to encounter eventually while working in this field (frameworks such as React, Kendo, AngularJS, etc.).

On top of the familiar MVC design pattern, we now also had rails ‘generators’ on our side. Moving from the 'just an idea' phase (and maybe a simple diagram or two) to a fully functioning application was lightning fast. This became abundantly clear when it came time to work on our final projects: during our first 'project week', the area I live in was hit with a severe ice storm. This left me with no power (and subsequently no internet), no heat, and no running water for a week. Seeing as I was unable to get much actual coding done for Week 1, I focused on how my associations would interact with each other (and how my application would behave for a potential user). I gathered my thoughts and prepared some model diagrams and flow charts - once everything was laid out in front of me I knew I had a solid foundation to build on. When my power and internet came back on, I was able to quickly turn these diagrams into a functioning application. Utilizing Rails generators helped reduce quite a bit of the tedium involved in setting up all of my MVC files.

I know that even after my review for this phase is over, I'll continue to build out this Rails project (and start new ones). With Ruby in the back end, and the ease of setup, it's a lot of fun to use. It's also clearly a powerful tool in any web developer's tool belt.