Ruby On Rails Reference Guide

So you're jumping in, have a rails question or problem, and you want to take a look at some reference. I'd recommend the following plan of attack:

1. RubyGems Documentation

The best place to look for a solution for your Ruby on Rails questions and problems is in your local RubyGems Documentation.

To access this, you'll need to go to a prompt and run "gem_server". This will start up a webserver on port 8808 on your computer.

Then simply direct your browser to http://localhost:8808/

Here you'll find a list of your Ruby Gems and the associated "RDOC" files. You want to browse the RDOC files.

But first you'll need to select which Gem library to browse. Most likely it will be one of the following gems:

  • ActionPack - This is where all Controller/View related functions come from, including render, link_to, form generating tags, etc etc.

  • ActiveRecord - All model related code, database model functions can be found in this RDOC

2. Search the RoR Wiki

Off of the main Ruby on Rails webpage is a wiki which contains many howtos, tutorials, faqs, and all with a nice search.

http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails

3. Search the RoR Mailing list

Odds are someone has had your problem before and they posted it on the mailing list. Go to this forum version of the mailing list to search through:

http://www.ruby-forum.com/forum/3

4. Code Snippets

Another good resource is the Code Snippets website. There are currently over 91 different rails code snippets here.

http://www.bigbold.com/snippets/tag/rails

5. Google

If you still are having problems and haven't tried this yet, take the error you're getting and search for it on google. Someone has bound to have had it before.

http://www.google.com

6. Bug Gregg

If you're still having problems, or just would rather to talk to someone 1 on 1 about it, give Gregg an Instant Message / Email. He's always willing to help out, and he's had quite a bit of experience with Rails the past few months.

  • AIM: GreggTrogdor
  • ICQ: 205443
  • MSN: GreggTrogdor@hotmail.com
  • E-Mail: Gregg at PatchedSoftware dot com