Rails Coach

This is a brief explanation of how Rails implements the MVC design pattern to create such an awesome framework for building websites.

In a nutshell, when a request comes to a Ruby on Rails website, it's handed the dispatcher. The dispatcher consults the routes provided in the application to determine which Controller and action to pass the request to. A Controller is a class which has methods called actions on it. The request is handled by a particular action on a controller.

The Controller may then respond by gathering data from the database through the Models. I can then convert the Models' data into text or pass it to a template called a View to return the response.

Most HTML responses (web pages) are returned by rendering Model data in a View.

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Some people wonder if they need to know Ruby to program Ruby on Rails. My answer is "kind of." Ultimately, when you program in Ruby on Rails, you program in Ruby.

That being said, you don't need to know the ins and outs to get started with Ruby on Rails. I didn't when I got started.

It does make a difference in understanding how Rails works once you get past the basics.

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