Ruby on Rails is a development tool which gives web developers a framework, providing structure for all the code they write. It is widely used as a tool to build websites and applications, due to its ability to uncomplicate repetitive tasks. With its motto being ‘convention over configuration’, the programmer does not have to spend a lot of time configuring files in order to get setup. Over the last few years, Ruby on Rails (ROR) has gained a large and enthusiastic following, with it swiftly becoming a web developer’s first go-to option. It’s for sure that ROR is hot at the moment, but it just the next new thing or is it really worth its salt. We’ve listed 5 reasons why using ROR will put you on the right track.
- Fits like a glove– ROR is a mature and stable framework that many large companies are comfortable with introducing into their environments. The amazing thing about it is that you can get a working prototype up and running extremely quickly. Checking the feasibility of a project is made much easier because of this. In addition, cracks in the scope and direction of a web application can be fixed early on in the development cycle
- Time and money saving – We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it again. With ROR, the process of programming is much faster than with other frameworks and languages, partly because of the object-oriented nature of Ruby and the vast collection of open source code available within the community. Apart from allowing you to move from the planning stages to actual development very quickly, it is also easy to handle compared to other technologies. Ruby on Rails can cut significant chunks out of web project as the framework is 100% free and runs on Linux, which is also open-source.
- Plug and Play Apps– By far, the best feature about ROR is that you can create your own building blocks for plug-and-play functionality, which is usually not an option or extremely cumbersome with any other technology on the market today. ROR also allows your apps to be expandable and multi-purpose, which means that you can take elements of your current custom application and use it in your future projects, instead of having to build the entire thing from scratch.
- Huge open source community– The community is full of developers that are constantly trying to improve code and help other web developers with their projects. This means that if you need a given piece of functionality, there’s every chance that someone else has built something similar before or is willing to help you fix any issues you may have.
- Great functionality – Let’s say you build a fantastic website, everything is working perfectly but a few months down the line you decide to improve on functionality and you find that the company that built the original application no longer exists, or the developers that worked on the project are no longer part of the company. However, with ROR, you can be sure to avoid ridiculously inflated costs because it follows clean and easy coding conventions that make it simple to go from one developer to the next.
In conclusion, as an object oriented programming language, ROR is really quite an amazing language. There are a bevy of large companies offering varied and complex functionalities and services that currently use it. Companies like Twitter, Basecamp, Groupon, Hulu, LivingSocial, etc. You get the drift! Apart from larger companies, it is also perfect for start ups or local businesses as well. It enables your web application to break free from template solutions at a cost that won’t cripple you.
