Kick your web development skills into high gear by learning to build effective database-driven websites with Rails 3. This handy book provides a concise yet thorough introduction to the framework, an overview of commands and configurations, and details on every Rails component -- all in an easy-to-use reference you can rely on every day.

Rails eliminates many of the problems common to other web application frameworks with its built-in components for data persistence, routing, templating, mailing, and more. Rails 3 in a Nutshell contains precisely what you need to know to build full-fledged applications that are light on code, highly scalable, and feature rich.

• Get started quickly by building example applications with Rails
• Create clean and maintainable applications with models, views, controllers, migrations, mail, and web services
• Jump-start your projects with built-in application generators
• Familiarize yourself with Rails components such as Active Record to connect business objects and database tables, and Active Resource for web services
• Write unit, functional, and integration tests, and use Rake to run them
• Learn about existing Rails plug-ins and find out how to write your own
• Take advantage of little-known and undocumented features