Ruby on Rails is the revolutionary online programming tool that makes creating functional e-commerce web sites faster and easier than ever. With the intuitive, straightforward nature of Ruby and the development platform provided by Rails, you can put together full-fledged web applications quickly, even if you′re new to web programming. You will find a thorough introduction to both Ruby and Rails in this book. You′ll get the easy instructions for acquiring and installing both; understand the nature of conditionals, loops, methods, and blocks; and become familiar with Ruby′s classes and objects. You′ll learn to build Rails applications, connect to databases, perform necessary testing, and put the whole thing together to create real-world applications such as shopping carts and online catalogs--apps you can actually use right away. What you will learn from this book ∗ How to install and use Ruby and Rails ∗ Object-oriented programming with Ruby ∗ Rails fundamentals and how to create basic online applications ∗ How to work with HTML controls, use models in Rails applications, and work with sessions ∗ Details on working with databases and creating, editing, and deleting database records ∗ Methods for handling cookies and filters and for caching pages ∗ How to connect Rails with Ajax Who this book is for This book is for anyone who wants to develop online applications using Ruby and Rails. A basic understanding of programming is helpful; some knowledge of HTML is necessary. Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.