Rails 3.0 is Here: 9 Must-Have Links to Get Started
David Heinemeier Hansson and crew have finally flipped the switch on the final, stable version of Rails 3. This is great news for the Rails community, and for you when either building or upgrading your app to Rails 3. Here are nine of my favorite resources which can be used to get started with Rails 3:
#1: Edge Rails Guides
These are likely to be made into production soon. However, these guides are the best for quickly getting started with Rails. They highlight some of the distinct differences in Rails 3, as well.
#2: Rails 3 Unobtrusive Javascript for jQuery
Not currently bundled with Rails 3 from what I can see, the UJS Javascript file allows you to use the new Rails 3 unobtrusive Javascript which has been written into the Rails core, and replaces those pesky remote_form_for and link_to_remote methods which placed tons of unnecessary HTML and Javascript code into your app.
#3: The Rails 3 Upgrade Handbook
Jeremy McAnally (@jm) and the team at Intridea have developed a great 120-page book for the upgrade path to Rails 3. It includes clear step-by-step guides, how-tos and more. I’d recommend buying it. It’s $12 $9, and available now.
#4: New Bundler 1.0.0 Website
This site is the new, official documentation site for the bundler gem. It is the new way to require and package (“bundle”) your gems with your Rails 3 application. I have to admit that it used to be a pain to use, but now its nothing short of a delight. Read up!
#5: Getting Started With The New Routing DSL
There is a great how-to article written by Rizwan Reza (@rizwanreza) on the new Rails 3 routing DSL. I’d recommend reading it, as it gives a great overview of the changes and how to implement in your new or existing app.
#6: Ryan Bates Railscast on New ActionMailer API
Ryan Bates (@rbates) goes into detail on the transition from the old TMail to the new Mail gem, which is supposedly a lot easier to generate mail messages with. Attachments and content types are also a lot simpler to handle.
#7: ActiveModel
Another gem from Ryan is his Railcast on ActiveModel, which was created from the internals of ActiveRecord. ActiveModel is great to use when you want to build your own classes which aren’t database-driven, and Ryan goes into how this is done in episode 219 on Railscasts.
#8: Ruby 1.9.2 Released
Not really related to the Rails 3 release directly, but to get a huge performance gain out of your application, I’d recommend upgrading the 1.9.2 in tandem. There are a bunch of issues to watch out for, especially relating to encoding and outdated gems. However, there are currently two priceless resources for finding out whether your gems and plugins are compatible with Rails 3: isitruby19.com and RailsPlugins.org.
#9: Is It html_safe?
One of the huge problems with plugins and code in my own projects I upgraded to Rails 3 was ensuring my content was html_safe. Yehuda Katz (@wycats) thoroughly explains what the SafeBuffer is, why it is important, and how to keep your apps from breaking.
