RailsMN -- Rails for Beginners

Anatomy of a Rails application

March 5 · 6:30 PM
Coldwell Banker

Agenda

During this event we will pick a fairly beginner level Rails application and guide you through the following:

How to get the codebase from GitHub
How to set up the code so you can deploy it on your machine
How the Rails application is set up in terms of code structure, layout, dependencies, etc
How Rails loads a page from the frontend to the backend
How we can add a new feature to a Rails codebase
Free hack time on our new app

Logistics

Location:We heard your feedback regarding location and we will continually be searching out for more options. Long term we hope to find a larger, more accommodating space.

Food/Drink:Pizza and drinks will be provided!

Laptop: Recommended to have a laptop with a Ruby on Rails environment up and running. If you need assistance, shoot us an e-mail.

Resources:

Our GitHub account has has the source code in the 'anatomy of a Rails app' repo that we will go over this evening. Master 'branch' has the initial state, develop branch has the added feature.
Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby is a great resource for a beginner to understand the beauty and elegance of Ruby code. Highly recommended.

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Tamer Selim

Thanks again to Weston and Derek for a great meetup last night!

After I left, I remembered one question that I wanted to ask: What are your thoughts on Sinatra as an intermediate step to learning RoR? Is it better to just dive in to RoR or are there specific cases where Sinatra would suffice and/or be a better option?

0 · March 6
- Mo Omer
  
  Tamer, Sinatra & Rails both attempt to solve different problems; though, they both produce working websites & applications to an extent. If you're making a simple app, Sinatra might well be good for your use case; otherwise, the structured and built-in-tools environment of rails might be best. Check out this article for more info: http://rubysource.com...
  
  0 · March 6
Eric Cozzi

Totally excited about rails after tonight's meetup. Thank you Derek for your patience and great explanations. And, thank you Weston for your financial generosity tonight.

1 · March 5
- Derek Rockwell
  
  Thanks Eric! Glad to have been able to generate some excitement for Ruby and Rails :).
  
  0 · March 5
Pete Kane

Great starting point, Derek jumped right into the code and explained everything clearly.

0 · March 5
Chris

Will be about 15 minutes late.

0 · March 5
Chris

The weather is keeping me in. I look forward to the next meeting.

0 · March 5
Mathias

Could you throw out a link to how to get a Ruby on Rails environment up and running (what we should already have set up for tonight?)

New to it and want to know what I should have set up to hit the ground running!

0 · March 5
- View all 8 replies
- A former member
  
  \curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby
  
  0 · March 5
- A former member
  
  rvm install ruby
  
  0 · March 5
- A former member
  
  gem install rails
  
  0 · March 5
- Derek Rockwell
  
  for a more exhaustive guide that handles some of the 'gotchas': http://railsapps.gith...
  
  0 · March 5
- David Gustafson
  
  D & J, how does the codenvy.com IDE or action.io (waiting for my beta invite) compare to the local set up you helped everyone with last time? Will I be wasting good RoR Beginners' Meetup space if that's what I have to work with tonight?
  
  0 · March 5
- A former member
  
  You won't be wasting space.
  
  0 · March 5
- Derek Rockwell
  
  Definitely not wasting space! IDE configuration doesn't matter, whatever works best for you. As long as you can run Rails code, we're happy :).
  
  0 · March 5
- Weston Platter
  
  David - I don't think you're be wasting time if you setup your environment. We can help troubleshoot issues along the way. Plus, you get to meet some fantastic people are doing the same.
  
  0 · March 5
Dan M. Vega

It is too weathery for me.

0 · March 5
- Derek Rockwell
  
  Sorry to hear! Our group seems to have poor luck when it comes to weather. We'll still be there tonight if you change your mind :).
  
  0 · March 5
Derek Rockwell

There seems to be quite a bit of snow outside! Hopefully it stops soon and the roads will be cleared by this evening. Stay tuned to see if we need to make the unfortunate decision to reschedule.

0 · March 5
- Pete Kane
  
  Derek, don't make the unfortunate decision!
  
  0 · March 5
- Derek Rockwell
  
  Looks like the snow has ceased and so I'm going to put faith in our local snow removal services and say: game on!
  
  0 · March 5
Gypsy

I was sick for 3 days last week... I need to trim back my schedule some this week to try to catch up. Maybe next time.

0 · March 4
Ben Damman

Tentatively hoping to show up, check things out, and lend a hand.

2 · February 16
- Weston Platter
  
  Awesome.
  
  0 · February 17
Emily

Hi, I was wondering if someone needs general coding experience to attend?

0 · February 15
- Weston Platter
  
  It helps to have coding experience, but it's not required. We'll cover the concepts at a high level, and then we can address stuff that didn't make sense during the hack time. There are some really great rubyists who come just to help out people who are getting started.
  
  While the meetup with have some "presentation" time, the goal is to impart enough understanding for people to start building/hacking with the explained concepts.
  
  1 · February 15
Amanda Schwandt

Have plans that night - sorry I'll miss this!

0 · February 13