Two Day Workshop

Core Ruby on Rails

By Geoffrey Grosenbach

Ruby on Rails is a fresh way to build rich and interactive database-driven websites. We've lined up one of the world's leading Rails developers, Geoffrey Grosenbach, to lead a special two-day hands-on workshop.

Attendees at a workshop

This extended workshop will give you the opportunity to learn by actually building a Rails project from scratch. Once you've grasped the core concepts you'll work in small groups to flesh out the fundamentals of how Rails works with databases, Ajax, and Test Driven Development. After you've finished this two-day workshop you will have built your first Rails application!

A More Practical Approach

Geoff is going to walk you through "Why Rails?", "The Basics of Ruby", "Rails Concepts in Action", "Plugins", "Deployment and Maintenance" and other topics. Before letting you loose with the code.

Geoffrey Grosenbach is highly respected in the Rails community. "Geoffrey has been one of the most enthusiastic members of the Rails community for a long time," says David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Rails. "Between running the Rails Podcast and releasing great plugins like Gruff, Sparkline, and CSS Graphs, he's a big-time, valuable contributor."

What you'll need

A laptop
Rails 1.1 installed
An understanding of the basics of Rails. Tutorials provided

Once you sign up Geoff will assist you in installing Rails on your Windows, Mac or Linux laptop. He will also provide links to initial simple tutorials to bring you up to speed on the basics of Rails. Each attendee will also be invited to join a Basecamp project that will be used to post details of the live application that will be built on the day and to help you come to the workshop with a fully-functioning system so that you can jump right into the code.

If you have any questions or if you prefer to pay by cheque or require an invoice, just email .

What You'll Walk Away With

The Survival Kit: - Each attendee will receive this amazing kit, which is chock-full of practical examples of code that Geoff uses everyday. We'll also be placing valuable tools on the disc as well!
Years of Experience: - Best Practice Advice. The kit also includes Geoff's advice on best practice plus links to sites that are excellent examples of the use of Rails and the full presentation from the day.
Practical Knowledge: - We're not going to bore you with theory. You will receive practical Rails training that focuses on what you need to start using Rails immediately.
30% off Pearson Books: - Just go to our special discount bookstore

Who should attend?

Programmers wanting a practical and intensive introduction to Ruby on Rails

Past Reviews

"Took me a step forward from newbie to ruby" - Matthew Blest, Rolls-Royce

"A sharp and crisp insight into Ruby on Rails" - Romain Eude, Proges Ltd

"Inspired me to dive into Rails and put it all into practice" - Max Mitchell, LearnDirect

"I thoroughly enjoyed the Rails workshop and met some great people too" - Roman Marszalek, DoctorLogic

"This is what the whole training experience should be like" - James McCarthy, American Express

"A great day. I really learned a lot in a short period of time" - Laurent Maguire, Kyanmedia

"Super, smashing, great!" - Anthony Ramm, Open Advantage

"Wow!"- Phil Lindsay, Consider Creative

How large is the workshop?

We've limited the number of attendees to 40, so that you will be able to interact with the speaker and get your questions answered.

Schedule

DAY ONE

Registration & Coffee: 8:15 - 9:00am

The Basics of Ruby

Variables
Objects
Methods
Blocks

Coffee Break: 10:30 - 10:45

Rails Concepts in Action (A Simple Project)

Views and helpers
Controller Magic
Query and manipulate data with ActiveRecord
Scaffolding, generators, and templates

Lunch is provided: 12:30 - 13:30

Hands-On - Calendar Project

Starting from scratch
Configuration
Database migrations
Using the calendar plugin
Template refactoring with helpers and partials

Coffee Break: 15:30 - 15:45

Calendar Project cont...

Authentication
Test driven development and autotest
Custom test strategies
Model relationships and behaviors
Filters and callbacks

DAY TWO

Registration & Coffee: 8:15 - 9:00am

Finishing touches - Calendar Project

Adding functionality with RJS
Ajax and visual effects
Master URLs with routes
Magic database fields

Coffee Break: 10:30 - 10:45

Code Reuse with Rails Plugins

Adding functionality with mixins
Plugin capabilities
Generators
Write your own plugin

Lunch is provided: 12:30 - 13:30

Deployment

Using Capistrano
Live deployment
Debugging
Other recipes
Template refactoring with helpers and partials

Coffee Break: 15:30 - 15:45

Post Deployment

Automation with rake
Site maintenance
Using third-party code
Keeping up with Rails
Q&A

Who's speaking?

Geoffrey Grosenbach

Geoffrey Grosenbach has been designing and developing web applications since 1997. He is the host of the wildly popular Ruby on Rails Podcast and will be speaking at Canada on Rails and other upcoming Rails conferences around the world. His Gruff graphing library for Ruby is in use on many Rails-powered applications around the world.

He is writing two chapters for an upcoming book on Rails Deployment, to be published by the Pragmatic Programmers.

You can keep up on his current endeavors and Rails epiphanies or contact him via the Topfunky Corporation.

Partners

Questions?

E-mail us:

or give us a call on: +44 (0) 1225 313377