== Welcome to Rails

Rails is a web-application and persistance framework that includes everything
needed to create database-backed web-applications according to the
Model-View-Control pattern of separation. This pattern splits the view (also
called the presentation) into "dumb" templates that are primarily responsible
for inserting pre-build data in between HTML tags. The model contains the
"smart" domain objects (such as Account, Product, Person, Post) that holds all
the business logic and knows how to persist themselves to a database. The
controller handles the incoming requests (such as Save New Account, Update
Product, Show Post) by manipulating the model and directing data to the view.

In Rails, the model is handled by what's called a object-relational mapping
layer entitled Active Record. This layer allows you to present the data from
database rows as objects and embellish these data objects with business logic
methods. You can read more about Active Record in 
link:files/vendor/activerecord/README.html.

The controller and view is handled by the Action Pack, which handles both
layers by its two parts: Action View and Action Controller. These two layers
are bundled in a single package due to their heavy interdependence. This is
unlike the relationship between the Active Record and Action Pack that is much
more separate. Each of these packages can be used independently outside of
Rails.  You can read more about Action Pack in 
link:files/vendor/actionpack/README.html.


== Requirements

* Database and driver (MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite)
* Rake[http://rake.rubyforge.org] for running tests and the generating documentation

== Optionals

* Apache 1.3.x or 2.x (or any FastCGI-capable webserver with a
  mod_rewrite-like module)
* FastCGI (or mod_ruby) for production performance (CGI is used for
  development)

== Getting started

1a. Setup Apache for the Rails application (see "Example for Apache conf")
1b. Run the WEBrick servlet: <tt>ruby public/dispatch.servlet --help</tt>
2. Go to http://rails/ (or whatever is your ServerName) and check
   that you get the "Congratulations, you're on Rails!" screen
3. Follow the guidelines on the "Congratulations, you're on Rails!" screen


== Example for Apache conf

  <VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName rails
    DocumentRoot /path/tapplication/public/
    ErrorLog /path/application/log/apache.log
  
    <Directory /path/application/public/>
      Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
      AllowOverride all
      Allow from all
      Order allow,deny
    </Directory>
  </VirtualHost>

NOTE: Be sure that CGIs can be executed in that directory as well. So ExecCGI
should be on and ".cgi" should respond. All requests from 127.0.0.1 goes
through CGI, so no Apache restart is necessary for changes. All other requests
goes through FCGI (or mod_ruby) that requires restart to show changes.


== Debugging Rails

Have "tail -f" commands running on both the apache.log, production.log, and
test.log files. Rails will automatically display debugging and runtime
information to these files. Debugging info will also be shown in the browser
on requests from 127.0.0.1.


== Description of contents

app
  Holds all the code that's specific to this particular application.

app/controllers
  Holds controllers that should be named like weblog_controller.rb for
  automated URL mapping. All controllers should descend from
  ActionController::Base.

app/models
  Holds models that should be named like post.rb.
  Most models will descent from ActiveRecord::Base.
  
app/views
  Holds the template files for the view that should be named like
  weblog/index.rhtml for the WeblogController#index action. All views uses eRuby
  syntax. This directory can also be used to keep stylesheets, images, and so on
  that can be symlinked to public.
  
app/helpers
  Holds view helpers that should be named like weblog_helper.rb.

config
  Configuration files for Apache, database, and other dependencies.

lib
  Application specific libraries. Basically, any kind of custom code that doesn't
  belong controllers, models, or helpers. This directory is in the load path.
    
public
  The directory available for Apache, which includes symbolic links to other
  parts of the structure that are to be made available. Refrain from placing
  actual files in here if you're using CVS and don't want to check in this
  directory.

script
  Helper scripts for automation and generation.

test
  Unit and functional tests along with fixtures.

vendor
  External libraries that the application depend on. This directory is in the load path.