Into the New Year

I think, I'm finely hitting my stride with Ruby on Rails development. Want to thank some websites and definitely thanks to The Pragmatic Bookshelf for helping me along the way.

• RailsCasts (free screencasts)
• TekPub : Rails 3 ($28)
• Peepcode : Meet Rails 3 Part 1 ($12)
• Peepcode : Meet Rails 3 Part 2 ($12)
• Agile Web Development with Rails (4th edition)

I have developed a couple of websites, that use Ruby on Rails. Please take a look. More to come in 2011, I have a relaunch scheduled for Dylabel Designs website.

• TheBrokenForge - e commerce
• Dylabel Designs - e commerce
• Firebase Delta - Podcast
• HobbyTalkHQ - Podcast Network
• WhiteBoardHQ - Rails Rumble Project & SAAS

One last thanks to the Rails community, All of you rock.

Launching New Design for the BrokenForge.com

We launched the new design back in September, plus we added a couple of backend improvements. One really big improvement was the mass product uploader. Making updating and loading in new products easy breezy. The site was redesigned using Ruby on Rails version 3 with a mysql database backend. We are still tweaking it a little bit. Developing with a framework like rails makes my job as a programmer pretty easy. "Rails just make sense." Really I should say "Ruby just make sense."

Please check out the website at http://www.thebrokenforge.com. Please let us know if you like the new design.

Long Time Coming

So you can see what I have not posted anything in a long time. There are a couple of good reason why. After finishing the http://thebrokenforge.com/ web site which is doing well in sales.

I started podcasting at http://hobbytalkhq.com with a couple of friends. But its time to start writing application in Ruby on Rails. I need an application what I can talk viewers through, so I'm going to start programming a blog application for http://www.rayonrails.com.

See you in the New Year. I have a lot of prep work to do. I hope you all have a Happy Holiday Season.

Ray

Launching My First Rails Application

I have launched a couple of websites in my professional career. Most of them using PHP/MYSQL even Cold Fusion back in the day. About 2 years ago the company I work for wanted to redesign the company's web site. There were long debates on who was going to take on the redesign, myself or outsource it to a web design company. It was a little blow to my ego at first, but now winner, winner, chicken dinner for me. We hired a firm Trabian Technology - check them out at www.trabian.com. They designed a nice looking web site for us.

When talking with the project manager for the redesign. I asked him what types of technologies they use for developing the web site. He said "RUBY ON RAILS". I never heard of Ruby on Rails but something came over me; I had to learn everything I could about this technology.

Where to go when you need answers? Google I say. A simple search "Ruby on Rails" and I'm feeling lucky. Hello www.rubyonrails.org, I watched the video how to create a web blog in 15 minutes. First thought, NO WAY "F"in way! Fifteen minutes later, I was hooked.

The next time I talked with Doug, I ask what book would be the best one to start with? He only had one answer "Agile Web Development with Rails" From Pragmatic Bookshelf. Check them out http://www.pragprog.com. I think hands down they are the best. As with any new technology I jumped right in, creating the example application from the book.

I would say it’s not the easiest programming language to learn but once you grasp with whole "MVC" Model - View - Controller style, it really opens up, for me at least. And I'm still learning the language, sometimes I think I should know more than I do but then I remember Rome wasn't built in one day.

With that said, I have designed, developed, and launched my first rails application. TheBrokenForge.com. First tip; when you do a project for a close friend, make sure you layout everything. Thank God for BaseCamp. Second Tip; use Base Camp for project management. It is easy to use and it's free for one project to manage.

I have learned so much in the last four months about "really" launching a web site. So over the next couple of weeks, I'll try and bring to you the highs and lows of the making of the theBrokenForge.com. Also I'll bring you step-by-step video (I hope) tutorials on making theBrokenForge.com. I will start with finding a hosting company and end with deployment. So please stop back.

Thank you