This is the second edition of Agile Web Development with Rails. It covers Rails 1.2.

The Rails team recently released Rails 2. Some of the changes they made break Rails 1.2 applications, so we’re busy working on a brand new edition of this book. You can find details over here.

(If you’re looking for code or errata for the first edition of this book, you’ll find them here.)

Out of Print

This book is currently out of print.

About this Book

  • 719 pages
  • Published:
  • Release: P5.0 (2007-11-08)
  • ISBN: 978-0-9776-1663-3

See the third edition for more information.

About the Author

As one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto, Dave Thomas understands agility. As the author of Programming Ruby, he understands Ruby and how to describe writing Ruby applications. David Heinemeier Hansson is the creator of the Rails framework. Leon Breedt wrote the web services component of Rails. Mike Clark is an international Rails trainer and an expert on testing techniques. James Duncan Davidson manages a number of Rails applications and talks about Rails deployment around the world. Justin Gehtland trains developers on AJAX, Web 2.0, and Rails. Andreas Schwarz wrote the online Rails security Manual. The authors know Ruby, and they know Rails.

Upcoming Author Events

  • 2012-11-08: Dave Thomas
    I'll be giving a keynote on the way that features of the Ruby language make it both powerful and fun to use. (RubyWorld conference, Matsue, Japan)
  • 2013-02-20: Dave Thomas
    Full day Advanced Ruby tutorial (RubyConf Australia)
  • 2013-02-21: Dave Thomas
    Keynote (RubyConf Australia)
  • 2013-03-20: Dave Thomas
    Three days, two presenters, one objective—to get you up and running with Rails (Pragmatic Studio, Reston, VA)
  • 2013-10-25: Dave Thomas
    Talk (and possibly a tutorial) (Rakuten Technology Conference, Tokyo)

Comments and Reviews

  • As a direct result of reading Agile Web Development with Rails, we built our initial product prototype using RoR and are now building our product using the technology instead of with .NET as we had originally envisioned. We have not formally announced the product, but in general it is an “enterprise” level application targeted at municipal governments. Thanks to both Ruby and Rails, we have made tremendous progress in development with the smallest dev team I have ever had!

    —Keith Lancaster

  • I’d just like to add that the Agile Development with Rails book is possibly one of the finest programming books I have read (you may get sick of hearing that…) and has consolidated and strengthened my rather fragmented Ruby/Rails knowledge, enabling me to confidently take on 2 small projects. You have my eternal thanks.

    —Graham Arrowsmith