== Welcome to Rails

Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create
database-backed web applications according to the {Model-View-Controller (MVC)}[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller] pattern.

Understanding the MVC pattern is key to understanding Rails.  MVC divides your application
into three layers, each with a specific responsibility.

The View layer is composed of "templates" that are responsible for providing 
appropriate representations of your application's resources.  Templates
can come in a variety of formats, but most view templates are HTML with embedded Ruby 
code (.erb files). 

The Model layer represents your domain model (such as Account, Product, Person, Post) 
and encapsulates the business logic that is specific to your application. In Rails, 
database-backed model classes are derived from ActiveRecord::Base. ActiveRecord allows
you to present the data from database rows as objects and embellish these data objects 
with business logic methods. Although most Rails models are backed by a database, models 
can also be ordinary Ruby classes, or Ruby classes that implement a set of interfaces as
provided by the ActiveModel module. You can read more about Active Record in its
{README}[link:files/activerecord/README_rdoc.html].

The Controller layer is responsible for handling incoming HTTP requests and providing a 
suitable response.  Usually this means returning HTML, but Rails controllers can also 
generate XML, JSON, PDFs, mobile-specific views, and more. Controllers manipulate models 
and render view templates in order to generate the appropriate HTTP response.

In Rails, the Controller and View layers are handled together by Action Pack.
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 which are
independent. Each of these packages can be used independently outside of Rails. You 
can read more about Action Pack in its {README}[link:files/actionpack/README_rdoc.html].

== Getting Started

1. Install Rails at the command prompt if you haven't yet:

    gem install rails

2. At the command prompt, create a new Rails application:

    rails new myapp

   where "myapp" is the application name.

3. Change directory to +myapp+ and start the web server:

    cd myapp; rails server

   Run with <tt>--help</tt> for options.

4. Go to http://localhost:3000/ and you'll see:

    "Welcome aboard: You're riding Ruby on Rails!"

5. Follow the guidelines to start developing your application. You may find the following resources handy:

* The README file created within your application.
* The {Getting Started with Rails}[http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html].
* The {Ruby on Rails Tutorial}[http://railstutorial.org/book].
* The {Ruby on Rails Guides}[http://guides.rubyonrails.org].
* The {API Documentation}[http://api.rubyonrails.org].


== Contributing

We encourage you to contribute to Ruby on Rails! Please check out the {Contributing to Rails
guide}[http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/contributing_to_ruby_on_rails.html] for guidelines about how
to proceed. {Join us}[http://contributors.rubyonrails.org]!

== License

Ruby on Rails is released under the MIT license.