Jump Start Rails

Chapter 2Starting an App

The plan, by the end of the book, is for you to have built a fully functioning Rails application—and, in this chapter, we are going to start that process. We'll do it by building a smaller training app—something you can refer back to and experiment with as your knowledge of Rails grows. That way, you'll get a feel for how a Rails app hangs together. You'll also become familiar with the various files and directories that make up a standard Rails app.

Data First?

It's common when building an app for the data requirements to come first. In fact, we'll be doing exactly that when we start our main project for the book―planning the database schema and creating models are the first tasks.

Now this might feel a bit strange if ...