This book is for anyone who has gone beyond the basics of Rails and wants to learn higher-level Rails techniques. It is also useful for those experienced in other disciplines (such as Java and PHP) that want to learn Rails. If you are a web developer who has already realized the power of Ruby on Rails but wants to take your Rails knowledge further, this book will be invaluable to you. Practical Rails Projects assumes you know the basics of using the framework, concentrating instead on taking you through the creation of a multitude of practical real-world examples, including a blog, a personal organizer, a calendar, a PHP site retrofitted to Rails, and much more. Each example application follows best practices, gives a nod to style as well as functionality, and takes advantage of many Rails plug- ins, Rails engines, and Ruby Gems. There is also discussion of cutting-edge Rails functionality, such as the new REST implementation and Active Resource.
