RapidRed has a numer of courses you can choose from. You can custom build a course, or have us make one for you. If you don’t find what you’re looking for below, just ask. We’ve used Rails to build end-to-end production applications, so chances are, we can find what you’re seeking.
Each topic is split between around 30 minutes of classroom time with around 60 minutes of lab. We’ll get through four to five topics in a day, depending on the experience of your team. These are the most commonly requested topics:
Basic Rails installation and configuration. You’ll have a working Rails installation when you complete this lab. We set up the Rails environment, databases, and svn with the Rails deployment tools, for advanced classes.
Rails Active Record basics. In this session, we learn Active Record through the Rails console. We create basic Active Record classes, and look at how each one is constructed. We also look at the behaviors Rails automatically adds to each Active Record class through a feature called metaprogramming. (This is the key to learning Active Record.)
Active Record relationships. Using Active Record means learning a few simple commands to express relationships. In this class, we use Active Record to establish relationships between components. We also look at how to tailor each class for different types of tables.
Rails model-view-controller. Model-view-controller in Rails is slightly different from other frameworks, for example, in the Java community. In this section, we’ll learn how requests flow into and out of Rails. We’ll also learn how data flows from the page, to the controller, into the models, and back again. We’ll also learn how Rails handles rendering.
Rails views. In this section, we’ll let Rails build some default applications, and we’ll learn how to make those views better for style sheets. We will also learn to handle simple relationships with helpers.
Rails layouts and partials. We work through some basic views, and learn how to build sites with a common layout. We also use techniques to share parts of a view across your application.
Rails Security. Learn how to use Rails security with a simple add-on called the Login generator. Also, learn where it comes up short, and where you might want to roll-your-own security.
Testing. Dynamic languages like Ruby make it much easier to make common mistakes that can lead to bugs in production. The good news is that Rails is much easier to test than most frameworks. In short courses, we spend 1 session on testing, with 2 in advanced courses. We cover the unit, functional, and integration frameworks.
Ajax. Rails makes it almost as easy to use Ajax as not to. Learn how to use built-in Rails libraries to make the interactive web applications your users have come to expect.
Deployment. Learn to deploy Rails with the tools the pros use.
If you don’t see a topic you need addressed here, let us know. Chances are we can do something for you, or even bring in guest lecturers for part of a class.