For this starter project, you will install Rails, create a scaffolded application and experiment with its various components. While no submission is required, completing this assignment will give you a good start on the first submitted project.
For this project, you will need to think of a simple application for development. Its data model should consist of entries, each with a list of properties (e.g. name, comment, price, rating, date). Your web application will then provide the means for creating, viewing and editing entries. Here are some possibilities:
With the idea for your application, specify the data model. This includes working out the needed attributes and their types. Common types include string, text, integer, float, decimal, datetime, time, date and boolean.
Before you begin development, you will need to install Ruby and Rails for your computer. The text provides detailed instructions for installing on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (see chapter 2). Ruby version 1.9.2 is recommended for a Windows installation. For Mac OS, Ruby version 1.8.7 is recommended for an easy installation.
As an alternative, you can use remote desktop to connect and use the CDM terminal (studentRDS.cdm.depaul.edu). If you do this, you do not need to install ruby and rails.
Using a simple name for your application, (e.g. "journal"), create
an application directory structure as explained in the book
(p. 22-23) using the rails command (e.g. rails
new journal).
You can work with whatever text editor you feel comfortable. I will probably use jEdit for class examples and it is available on all platforms.
To generate the scaffolded application, you may take an incremental approach as presented in chapter 3. However, you can skip to the last step, which generates the scaffold (p. 41). If you skip to the last step, don't include the option "--skip-migration" in the command. If the data model and the controller are not created yet, this last step will automatically create these components. However, you will still need to issue the rake command before you run the server.
We will go through this process with a similar example in class.
At this point, you should be able to run the server to see your application working.
Identify the view files and the CSS files. Edit these files to customize the visual display of your applicaton. You are also encouraged to add customizations to the model (e.g. validations) and the controller (e.g. options that order the records or filter the records).