There are a lot of technologies used in modern web development. These include various CMS, programming languages, frameworks, etc. Ruby on Rails is one of the most powerful solutions.

What is Ruby on Rails? What are the benefits of using ROR in web development? The article will answer these questions.

What is Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is primarily a development environment that is great for building any type of web application: systems for managing websites and ecommerce platforms, collaboration tools and web services for communication, accounting, and ERP systems, statistical and analytical tools.

Ruby on Rails (ROR or Rails) is a multilevel MVC framework for building web applications that use relational and NoSQL databases (for example, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB). The framework is written in the Ruby programming language. ROR is suitable for the development of common websites, which must be really fast, fault-tolerant and work under high load, and for web applications with complex business logic and dynamic web-interfaces. Ruby on Rails is open source software and is distributed under the MIT license.

Professional Developers

It should be noted that the Ruby programming language is mostly run by professionals. The entry level is quite high, so Ruby programmers usually come to it after several years of work with other programming languages (most often from the PHP world). So even a beginning Ruby programmer is an experienced web developer with a lot of knowledge and experience. For the Ruby language, the most popular framework is Rails, more than 90% of web applications use this framework.

ROR Development

ROR development culture

The main principles of Rails development are:

  • Do not repeat yourself — the framework provides reusing code mechanisms. This allows not only to minimize the code duplication but also to increase the development speed.
  • Convention over configuration — by default, the framework uses numerous configuration agreements that are typical for most applications. This greatly simplifies the app creation, since explicit configuration specification is required only in non-standard cases.
  • Automated testing — the ROR includes tools for fully automatic modular, integration and functional testing, and the Ruby on Rails ideology involves the use of Test Driven Development. All this makes the developed applications very reliable.

Ruby on Rails framework scalability

Around Ruby on Rails, there is a large open source plugins ecosystem which implements the most popular functions. They are called gems. There is a variety of gems: from low-level ones, which are responsible for certain aspects of the internal app work, to high-level one, which represents a separate module for solving a whole range of business tasks. The use of the plugin system in many respects lead to the high popularity of the framework — the ability to selectively connect individual components and libraries greatly accelerate the development process, and the fact that the extensions used are well tested and debugged over the years ensures the reliability of solutions developed with this approach.

Myths about the Ruby language and the Ruby on Rails framework

1. “There are no developers.” Myth. There are a lot of developers. There are less of them than in PHP, but the average skill level is much higher — very many of those who call themselves a PHP programmer is actually just layout designers with superficial programming language knowledge that are not able to write even the simplest web application. If you compare Ruby with Java, then the number of developers is comparable, and in comparison with. NET, Python and Perl, there are more Ruby developers. So you will be able to hire Ruby on Rails developer to build a project of any complexity.

2. “Very Expensive.” Myth. Good web programmers generally are expensive, no matter what language and development platform they use. When you hire a Ruby on Rails developer, his salary and the PHP programmer salary are comparable, if the PHP programmer is able to write a program a bit more complex than “Hello, world!”, works with several frameworks, knows the OOP, the MVC paradigm, and has more than 3 years of experience in the field.

3. “Slow” and “Non-scalable”. Myths. GitHub, Groupon, Basecamp, Twitter, and many more projects with many thousands of visitors use Rails: they work fast even under high loads and are perfectly scalable.

Benefits of using Ruby on Rails

  • High development speed — Rails projects are developed faster than similar ones using PHP or Java. This is due to the framework technical features (for example, thoughtful agreements simplify the configuration) and development tools (console utilities and generators, pre-built libraries, extensions, and modules). The development time is the customer’s money, the longer the development takes, the more expensive it is.
  • Complex business logic is simpler and more transparently implemented — the writing code conventions based on Rails allows you to write a really understandable programming code, which can then be modified without any problems in an adequate time frame, and following these conventions makes the programming code able to be supported not only by the original developer, but by other specialists or any other teams. As there is no link to the original developer it’s a very important component of the project.
  • High reliability and accompanying solutions — Rails development usually uses the TDD approach, which makes the solutions more stable and supported. The framework functionality is also performed by automatic tests, which makes its use really reliable — there is a certainty that nothing fails. For business systems, this component is extremely important — app stability often depends on the efficiency of the business as a whole.
  • Scalability, performance, and high load — the framework can be a base for app development that requires high availability requirements: Rails applications are well deployed and work in server clusters or in clouds. For web services, this is a very important criterion, because they need serious uptime and good working speed.
  • Competent developers — there are many more good Ruby on Rails developers than PHP developers. When you hire Ruby on Rails programmer the more competent they are, the faster and cheaper the project will be developed, as well as being more thoughtful, scalable and reliable.

Conclusion

Ruby on Rails is really a great framework for web development. You can use it to build the complex websites, high-loaded web apps, and scalable enterprise solutions. Dedicated Developers offers  Ruby on Rails developers so you can get the most efficient solution for your business.

An Amazing idea deserves a world-class development company like Dedicated Developers, where you will find high-end technology, tech-expert developers, and development quality. For more information on our Mobile development Services, Healthcare App Development mail us at inquiry@DedicatedDevelopers.com