Ruby on Rails has during the last ten years become an increasingly popular framework for web app development. The current shaky economy and rapidly changing tech environment requires the art of app building to be faster and more cost-effective. That's why becoming fluent in Rails might be a great way for developers to expand their knowledge, which can land them a number of great jobs or interesting projects, as well as grant access to a thriving community.
Let's start with the basics – what exactly is Ruby on Rails? It's a web application framework written in Ruby programming language that provides the structure for your code.
The most important benefit of Ruby on Rails is that it helps to abstract and simplify common repetitive tasks that tend to annoy developers. That's just one major advantage – here are other six good reasons for learning Rails right now.
1. Quicker Development Process
With Rails, launching a website can be done in a really short time frame – the word has it that with Rails six weeks can be enough. There are three main features that account for that. Rails involves fewer lines of redundant code, the existing components can be re-used rather than built from scratch, and the already existing plug-ins called Ruby Gems can also be re-used (instead of features that first need to be created).
2. It's Cost-Effective
It’s fair to say that saving up on time usually means saving up on money. Given its speed of development, Ruby on Rails is extremely cost effective – it's automated nature allows devs to cut out significant parts of the project, so they can concentrate on specific problems instead of trying to work out the framework itself.
3. It's Business-Friendly
Inside organizations, getting things done has always been a challenge. In order to launch a project, you first had to file a request, which would then be evaluated by many people before finally starting the development process. With Rails, a small group of developers inside a company can achieve the same, but quicker and cheaper. This way, Rails allows companies to fully benefit from a new market developments or trends.
4. It's Open-Source
Ruby on Rails, as well as the vast majority of its libraries is open-source. Rails runs on Linux, which is itself also open-source. What does that mean for the project? It simply won't involve any licensing costs.
5. It's Easy to Change Things
After our web app is finally launched, it's relatively easy to apply changes to it. Adding new features, changing the data model and making other modifications can all be done quickly and efficiently.
6. It's Productive
Ruby on Rails has a practical feature – it's self-documenting, making it easier for developers to pick up an existing project and have a clear idea about its previous development. The code is highly readable and also fosters the process of project re-assignment.
Are there any challenges of using Rails? Sure there are. Hosting can sometimes be difficult. That self-documentation feature can be problematic for all those Gems and other plug-ins – Rails is resource-rich and getting the hang of all of them might get a tad annoying. Finally, working with Rails is not as easy as it might seem – Ruby itself is a difficult language. Devs who work with Rails are often polyglots and know several other languages.
Despite these challenges, Rails is still worth the effort – it's a great solution for launching web apps within a short time frame and limited budget.
Monique Rivers is an Australian tech blogger who also loves good food and fashion. She works at ninefold.com. Ninefold is a powerful Ruby on Rails platform, that allows you to deploy Rails apps quickly and easily.
