== Welcome to Rails
Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create
database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern.
This pattern splits the view (also called the presentation) into "dumb"
templates that are primarily responsible for inserting pre-built data in between
HTML tags. The model contains the "smart" domain objects (such as Account,
Product, Person, Post) that holds all the business logic and knows how to
persist themselves to a database. The controller handles the incoming requests
(such as Save New Account, Update Product, Show Post) by manipulating the model
and directing data to the view.
In Rails, the model is handled by what's called an object-relational mapping
layer entitled Active Record. This layer allows you to present the data from
database rows as objects and embellish these data objects with business logic
methods. You can read more about Active Record in its
{README}[link:files/activerecord/README_rdoc.html].
The controller and view are handled by the Action Pack, which handles both
layers by its two parts: Action View and Action Controller. 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 that is much
more separate. 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_rails.html] for guidelines about how
to proceed. {Join us}[http://contributors.rubyonrails.org]!
== License
Ruby on Rails is released under the MIT license.
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