RadRails
Encyclopedia
RadRails is a Rapid Application Development
IDE
for the Ruby on Rails
framework. The goal of RadRails is to provide Ruby on Rails developers with everything they need to develop, manage, test and deploy their applications. Features include source control, code assist, refactoring
, debugging
, WEBrick
servers, generator wizards
, syntax highlighting
, data tools, and much more.
The RadRails IDE
is built on the Eclipse
RCP
, and includes the RDT and Subclipse plug-in. The RadRails tools are also available as Eclipse +plug-ins.
At EclipseCon 2006 RadRails won the Community Award for Best Open-Source Eclipse-based tool.
at IBM Rational in Raleigh, NC. Development continued through 2006, including some contributions from Andy Gianfagna. Ryan Lowe joined the team in mid-2006 to deploy and maintain an automated build system for the project. In November 2006, Kyle Shank and Matt Kent began working on an idea for a startup company, which would eventually become Persai. By March 2007, Kyle and Matt were devoting most of their spare time to Persai and had little time left to maintain RadRails. Kyle met with Aptana founder Paul Colton at EclipseCon 2007, and it became clear that handing over the project would be in the best interests of the RadRails community. On March 8, 2007 Aptana
took over the project and renamed it to Aptana RadRails. Although RadRails is still an open source project, most work is now done by an Aptana employee: Christopher Williams, the lead developer of the RDT project that RadRails was built upon. RadRails 1.0 was released under an open source license on March 13, 2008 as a plug-in to Aptana Studio, an Eclipse-based IDE for Web and Ajax development that can run either standalone or within Eclipse.
.
This book covers all the features of the Community Edition 1.0.
Rapid application development
Rapid application development is a software development methodology that uses minimal planning in favor of rapid prototyping. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself...
IDE
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
for the Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
framework. The goal of RadRails is to provide Ruby on Rails developers with everything they need to develop, manage, test and deploy their applications. Features include source control, code assist, refactoring
Refactoring
Code refactoring is "disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior", undertaken in order to improve some of the nonfunctional attributes of the software....
, debugging
Debugging
Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware, thus making it behave as expected. Debugging tends to be harder when various subsystems are tightly coupled, as changes in one may cause bugs to emerge...
, WEBrick
WEBrick
WEBrick is a Ruby library providing simple HTTP web server services. WEBrick was primarily written by Masayoshi Takahashi and Yuuzou Gotou, with contributions from other developers via the open source model of software development...
servers, generator wizards
Wizard (software)
A software wizard or setup assistant is a user interface type that presents a user with a sequence of dialog boxes that lead the user through a series of well-defined steps. Tasks that are complex, infrequently performed, or unfamiliar may be easier to perform using a wizard...
, syntax highlighting
Syntax highlighting
Syntax highlighting is a feature of some text editors that display text—especially source code—in different colors and fonts according to the category of terms. This feature eases writing in a structured language such as a programming language or a markup language as both structures and...
, data tools, and much more.
The RadRails IDE
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
is built on the Eclipse
Eclipse (software)
Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment comprising an integrated development environment and an extensible plug-in system...
RCP
Rich Client Platform
A rich client platform is software consisting of the following components:* A core , lifecycle manager* A standard bundling framework* A portable widget toolkit* File buffers, text handling, text editors...
, and includes the RDT and Subclipse plug-in. The RadRails tools are also available as Eclipse +plug-ins.
At EclipseCon 2006 RadRails won the Community Award for Best Open-Source Eclipse-based tool.
Web features
- Free and open source; cross-platform, stand-alone IDE or Eclipse plug-in
- File- and project-based workflow with integrated FTP/SFTP
- Real-time, Wiki-based online help; IDE translated into multiple languages
- Scriptable using JavaScript (“Aptana Monkey”)
- Backed by full-time developers; nearing a million combined downloads
- Deep support (including cross-browser tips) for JavaScript, HTML, CSS
- Syntax highlighting, auto completion, code assist, error reporting, etc.
- Full support for JavaScript and CSS embedded within HTML; unified outlining
- Works with any JavaScript, incl. all Ajax libraries
- JavaScript debugger with live Firebug integration
Ruby on Rails features
- Unified, deep support for Ruby, Ruby on Rails, RHTML, JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
- Syntax highlighting, auto completion, code assist, error reporting, outlining, etc.
- Ruby code generation: constructors, overrides, templates, accessors
- Refactoring: local to instance variables, extract methods, inlining, renaming…
- Fast, integrated debugger
- Support for Ruby on Rails generators, Rake, plugins, and server management
- View unit tests and test results
- Integrated code analysis
- Embedded database navigator and query console
- Snippets and wizards
- Integrated help, including “Go to definition”, RDoc/RI, and code explorer
History
RadRails was started by Kyle Shank, Marc Baumbach, and Matt Kent in September 2005. During that time, the three developers worked as co-ops from the Rochester Institute of TechnologyRochester Institute of Technology
The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
at IBM Rational in Raleigh, NC. Development continued through 2006, including some contributions from Andy Gianfagna. Ryan Lowe joined the team in mid-2006 to deploy and maintain an automated build system for the project. In November 2006, Kyle Shank and Matt Kent began working on an idea for a startup company, which would eventually become Persai. By March 2007, Kyle and Matt were devoting most of their spare time to Persai and had little time left to maintain RadRails. Kyle met with Aptana founder Paul Colton at EclipseCon 2007, and it became clear that handing over the project would be in the best interests of the RadRails community. On March 8, 2007 Aptana
Aptana
Aptana, Inc. is a company making web application development tools for Web 2.0 and Ajax for use with programming languages such as JavaScript, Ruby, PHP and Python. Aptana's main products are Aptana Studio, Aptana Cloud and Aptana Jaxer...
took over the project and renamed it to Aptana RadRails. Although RadRails is still an open source project, most work is now done by an Aptana employee: Christopher Williams, the lead developer of the RDT project that RadRails was built upon. RadRails 1.0 was released under an open source license on March 13, 2008 as a plug-in to Aptana Studio, an Eclipse-based IDE for Web and Ajax development that can run either standalone or within Eclipse.
Books about Aptana RadRails
On May 2008, the book "Aptana RadRails: An IDE for Rails Development", written by Javier Ramírez, was published by Packt PublishingPackt
Packt, pronounced Packed, is a print on demand publishing company based in Birmingham, UK.-Company:Packt published its first book, Mastering phpMyAdmin for Effective MySQL Management, in April 2004, and continues to specialize in publishing focused books on specific technologies and solutions...
.
This book covers all the features of the Community Edition 1.0.