This book doesn’t need an introduction. Obie Fernandez has done an incredibly awesome work with this book, many of us already knew it. Generally, my reviews start with a tiny description of the reviewed book, then go on with considerations grouped by chapter and finish with a general consideration about what I liked and disliked most in the book. But… The Rails 3 way deserves an exception. This book should live on your desktop if you’re a Rails developer. Indeed, I could stop the review with the previous sentence. Really. I mean, only if you are Obie Fernandez or “put a name of a Rails core team member here” you can escape that rule. So if you are impatient, you could even not read this review. Buy the book and you’ll be happy :)
Well, as usual, my considerations grouped by chapter:
Rails Environments and configuration #
The book starts where a Rails application bootstraps. Nice thing. The author will guide you through all the configurations of Rails. Starting with bundler and finishing with logging, all the aspects of configuring a Rails app are well-explained and perfectly detailed.
Routing #
In my humble opinion, routing is one of the killer features of the Rails stack. It has an elegant, simple and powerful APIs. Obie explains in detail all the aspects of the routing API. Furthermore, you’ll find a good discussion about *path and_url version of a route helper, it’s a topic I enjoyed a lot.
REST, Resources and Rails #
The first part of the chapter will show you a great quality of the author, the one I liked most. His way of expression is clear and simple, he will guide you through one of the most interesting features of Rails and you will be very satisfied. I really liked the short description of each of the REST actions.
Working with controllers #
The chapter covers very well all the features of Rails related to this topic. I was very pleased while reading the good introduction to Rack. Obie just gives you the right amount of background about every topic he covers. Obviously, the chapter covers everything about controllers.
Working with ActiveRecord #
I think it’s fair to say that ActiveRecord is one of the main reasons why people approached Rails. So I was looking forward to reading how a good writer like Obie Fernandez introduced the topic. And, once again, I really liked the approach. The introduction to ActiveRecord is clean, linear and meaningful. He described all the stuff related to attributes, queries and options you have. I really enjoyed how the author chose to write about the ActiveRecord world, the separation in three chapters is a winning choice.
Active Record Migration #
The chapter is short but extremely informative. I found useful the description of all the Rails’ tasks and the columns mapping table.
ActiveRecord Associations #
“Here be the dragons” would say someone. By the way, let me say it straight away: if you are new to Rails this chapter will save you much time. If you aren’t new then you’ll enjoy a great presentation of all the associations ActiveRecord implements. If the book had only this chapter, it would be still worth buying.
Validations #
The chapter will give you all the required information about the topic. I really liked the considerations about how you can make your validations more DRY.
Advanced Active Record #
Although the word advanced could give the impression of covering difficult topics, the chapter will simply cover all the under-known aspects of ActiveRecord like callbacks, STI, polymorphic relationships and etc.. Furthermore it will give you a nice introduction about how to extend ActiveRecord.
Action View #
The chapter starts with a description of how Rails renders templates, that’s just the right starting point. Then, the author talks about decent_exposure, a very nice gem for declarative exposing of data to the layer view. I will not suggest adopting this way of preparing information for the view layer, but I can say I like opinionated people, so I liked this part of the chapter. In my opinion, the best part of the chapter is the one about partials. Obie Fernandez covers all the aspects in a very complete and simple way, you’ll enjoy it.
All About Helpers #
Helpers are helpers, there is no much to write about them. But once again the author made a great work. He presents all about helpers in a way you can only enjoy. There is just everything you need about helpers in this chapter.
Ajax on Rails #
In each book we read there’s always something you don’t like much, even in a great book like this. I have to confess I didn’t like this chapter a lot but, in a certain way, that’s not a problem of the book. I mean, a topic like Ajax on Rails deserves an entire book like this one, so my feelings could be justified by this lack. However, the chapter deserves attention because it covers nice stuff.
Session Management #
Session management is one of the controversial aspects of Rails. I really like the position of the author and how he explains the whole philosophy behind the “minimalistic” approach of Rails to session management. He also covers performance aspects.
Authentication #
The chapter covers the most notable solutions currently out there: authlogic and devise. I read this one hastily, it’s nice and covers very good solutions. By the way, I’m not that sure about the inclusion of this topic in a book called “The Rails way”.
Xml and activeresource #
The chapter covers aspects of Rails that aren’t well-covered and well-known. You’ll find very useful information, I’ve found out that to_xml is more powerful than I thought :)
Action Mailer #
I have a strong Java background and the very first time I successfully sent a mail with Rails I was happy beyond words. ActionMailer APIs have been a major change in Rails 3, so the chapter is very interesting. I really liked the approach of the author about all the APIs changes between Rails 2 and Rails 3. He never compares the APIs, he talks about Rails 3 as if Rails 2 didn’t even exist. You’ll appreciate that, it makes things very clear.
Caching and Performance #
The chapter covers all the techniques Rails provides for caching stuff. The topic is huge and this chapter can be considered a nice and simple introduction to it.
RSpec #
RSpec is a wonderful framework. It has a great, sexy and simple syntax and Obie Fenandez deserves another compliment for the very good introduction he has written to it. If you use RSpec on a daily basis you could skip it but I suggest you to read it in any way. If you aren’t familiar with RSpec you’ll enjoy it very much.
Extending Rails with plugins #
I think this topic is gaining great interest among the majority of us and, once again, I can say that the chapter is very well-written and covers the topic very well.
Background processing #
The chapter covers notable solutions for handling jobs as delayed_jobs and resque. As for the chapter about authentication, I’m not quite sure about the inclusion of this topic in a book called “The Rails way”. But it’s worth reading.
Generally speaking, I don’t like appendixes because I don’t like reading topics covered shallowly. However, the appendixes of Rails 3 are a very pleasing exception. They cover ActiveSupport and ActiveModel APIs, you’ll find them useful.
What I liked most #
If you have read the introduction to this review you already know what I think about this book. There are no excuses, if you are seriously interested in Rails you have to buy this book. No more to say.
What I disliked most #
This is nearly a perfect book in my opinion. If I have to be overcritical about it I’d say that, although I really liked the choice of haml, I would have preferred to read some sort of introduction to it. But… I’m not that critical, this book is wonderful. Buy it, do yourself a favour.