The biggest problem with learning Rails is that the current version is not compatible with the book, Agile Web Development with Rails (AWDWR). The book is based on Rails 1.2.3, but not every book covers Rails 2.0 and later yet.
As far as I know, the following two books cover Rails 2.0.
I finished Rails for PHP Developers the other day, and learn something beyond introductory materials. I took a brief look at The Rails Way, but it sounded a bit advanced to me, and whatever I check, understanding AWDWR seems a prerequisite.
So, I decided to take some time to study AWDWR. There are many tutorials for Rails 2.0 and AWDWR. (Note: “depot” is the name of the application covered in the book.)
- Rails 2.0 - What’s a Newbie to Do?
- The First Rails 2.0 Screencast
- Getting Depot to Work in Rails 2.0
- Depot with Rails 2.0.2
- Rails 2 Upgrade Notes
- Preparing for Rails 2.0
- Rails 2.0 step by step
Above all, if you are trying to make depot work on Rails 2.0, check the screencasts (Registration is required. It’s worth. Really.).
If you are comfortable with reading Japanese, a new book, Ruby on RailsによるWebアプリケーション・スーパーサンプル (Web Applications Super Samples with Ruby on Rails), is coming out. I haven’t checked out the book yet, but I’m assuming the book covers rails 2.0.
However, I kind of got stressed out with browsing many resources only to follow AWDWR, and I finally decided just to downgrade my Rails installation to the version that is covered in AWDWR. Here is how I did following Mark Kirby’s blog post.
sudo gem uninstall -v 2.0.2 rails
sudo gem install rails -v 1.2.3 –include-dependencies
I just chose the version 1.2.3 instead of the version 1.2.6.