Ruby on Rails is the super-productive new way to develop full-featured
web applications. With Ruby on Rails, powerful web applications that
once took weeks or months to develop can now be produced in a matter of
days. If it sounds too good to be true, it isn't.

If you're like a lot of web developers, you've probably considered
kicking the tires on Rails - the framework of choice for the new
generation of Web 2.0 developers. Ruby on Rails: Up and Running from O'Reilly takes you out for a test drive and shows you just how fast
Ruby on Rails can go.

This compact guide teaches you the basics of installing and using both
the Ruby scripting language and the Rails framework for the quick
development of web applications. Ruby on Rails: Up and
Running covers just about everything you
need - from making a simple database-backed application to
adding elaborate Ajaxian features and all the juicy bits in between.
While Rails is praised for its simplicity and speed of development,
there are still a few steps to master on the way. More advanced
material helps you map data to an imperfect table, traverse complex
relationships, and build custom finders. A section on working with Ajax
and REST shows you how to exploit the Rails service frameworks to send
emails, implement web services, and create dynamic user-centric web
pages. The book also explains the essentials of logging to find
performance problems and delves into other performance optimizing
techniques.

As new web development frameworks go, Ruby on Rails is the talk of the
town. And Ruby on Rails: Up and Running can make
sure you're in on the discussion.