Ruby on Rails is the revolutionary online programming tool that makes creating functional e-commerce web sites faster and easier than ever. With the intuitive, straightforward nature of Ruby and the development platform provided by Rails, you can put together full-fledged web applications quickly, even if you"re new to web programming. You will find a thorough introduction to both Ruby and Rails in this book. You"ll get the easy instructions for acquiring and installing both; understand the nature of conditionals, loops, methods, and blocks; and become familiar with Ruby"s classes and objects. You"ll learn to build Rails applications, connect to databases, perform necessary testing, and put the whole thing together to create real-world applications such as shopping carts and online catalogs--apps you can actually use right away. What you will learn from this book * How to install and use Ruby and Rails * Object-oriented programming with Ruby * Rails fundamentals and how to create basic online applications * How to work with HTML controls, use models in Rails applications, and work with sessions * Details on working with databases and creating, editing, and deleting database records * Methods for handling cookies and filters and for caching pages * How to connect Rails with Ajax Who this book is for This book is for anyone who wants to develop online applications using Ruby and Rails. A basic understanding of programming is helpful; some knowledge of HTML is necessary. Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.