Introduction

In the previous chapter, we learned about advanced topics in Ruby, such as metaprogramming, how to open existing classes and add new methods to them, and how to monkey patch to create dynamic methods on the fly. We also learned about how to interact with external servers by making RESTful calls to them.

In this chapter, we will learn about Ruby on Rails, also known as Rails or ROR. It is a server-side web application framework distributed as a Ruby gem, written in Ruby and first released in 2005. With Ruby on Rails, we can build real-world web applications quickly. Rails is one of the most popular application frameworks for building web applications quickly. It has best practices of web development built into its architecture to create secure, robust, and scalable web apps. Some popular web applications built using Ruby on Rails are Basecamp, GitHub, Shopify, Airbnb, Twitch, SoundCloud, Hulu, Zendesk, and Square – the list goes on.

Ruby on Rails was originally...