Re: Rails Development Environment

[Pete Helgren <pete@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I don't do much .jsp OR PHP development (none lately).  My 
original Web stuff was Java servlets using Freemarker templates which 
was a very easy transition from the RPG 5250 model I was (and am) used 
to.  That has generally morphed into using jQuery and JSON with my Java 
servlets (and occasionally RPG) delivering the json to the client.  It 
is just so drop dead easy to develop using jQuery and associated 
plug-ins that I have pretty much abandoned my template based methods.

Ruby and Rails has it's own challenges.  My first foray into Rails was 
in search of the holy grail of CRUD apps - A couple of steps and, voila! 
a file maintenance app (yeah....right!)  Active Scaffold helped a lot 
but Rails 3 has changed the paradigm a bit and I have been struggling 
with new learning curve primarily because some of the "pieces" in Rails 
have been unbundled in Rails 3 so you have greater control but need to 
manually do more things.  I will be presenting again at Common and hope 
to have a useful demo app for both web and mobile using Rails on i.  DB 
access is the biggest wildcard.  If you want "native" I/O you need to 
use the DB2 Connector ($$) with the rails DB2 gem and it still isn't 
really "native".  You could use MySQL on i as an alternative.  I 
switched to using JRuby because I can use the JDBC adapter in the JT400 
toolkit.  It is 100% compatible with Ruby and 100% compatible with Java 
so you can include Java elements in your app if you want.  The Radiant 
CMS at http://www.roroni.com is a Rails app running on jRuby on i (using 
the Glassfish gem as the app server).  It is connected to the DB2 for i 
database using JDBC.  The DB is native and was created with the standard 
Rake migrate command common to all Rails apps.

Ruby on Rails is simple to use and install.  I love the gem command and 
there are hundreds of tools and plug ins that can deliver out of the box 
functionality for your web apps (it is much like PHP in this respect).  
Language syntax is VERY different and takes some mind bending turns for 
us procedural folks (even when we have quite a bit of OO experience).  
If you are an experienced i developer and comfortable with PHP, I don't 
think RoR brings all that much to the table (that is spoken by a 
relatively inexperienced PHP guy...).

My bread and butter apps are java servlet backends with jQuery and JSON 
but that is only because I have an application suite that runs on both i 
(using DB2 for i) and Windows (using MS SQL server).  When my first 
Linux customer appears, I'll be ready for that as well.  I plan to use 
Rails for updates to my company web sites and will probably use Refinery 
or Radiant as my CMS to manage the sites.  Hope to have it all ready by 
Common.

Pete Helgren
Value Added Software, Inc
www.asaap.com
www.opensource4i.com


On 1/31/2011 11:02 AM, Richard Schoen wrote:
> Thanks Pete,
>
> Just curious.  In your opinion how does Rails stack up against JSP or PHP for web dev ?
>
> Regards,
> Richard Schoen
> RJS Software Systems Inc.
> Where Information Meets Innovation
> Document Management, Workflow, Report Delivery, Forms and Business Intelligence
> Email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Web Site: http://www.rjssoftware.com
> Tel: (952) 736-5800
> Fax: (952) 736-5801
> Toll Free: (888) RJSSOFT
> ------------------------------
>
> message: 3
> date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:15:36 -0700
> from: Pete Helgren<pete@xxxxxxxxxx>
> subject: Re: [WEB400] Rails Development Environment
>
> Richard,
>
> Aptana Radrails 2 is what I use.
>
> Pete Helgren
> Value Added Software, Inc
> www.asaap.com
> www.opensource4i.com