Week 7 - Introduction to Ruby on Rails, part 2

[Molly]

Greetings, coders!

I hope you're all enjoying your day off from school. Let's celebrate George Washington's birthday as he would've wanted: by learning more Ruby on Rails!

[I'm pretty sure that if computers had been invented in George Washington's day, he would've thought that coding is a powerful tool of the people. Don't you?]

This week, we'll continue with the Rails for Zombies series on Codeschool.com.

MVC (Model-View-Controller) Frameworks

As I explained in-person last Monday (Feb 9th), Rails is what's called a Model-View-Controller Framework, or MVC Framework. This MVC Framework is what the instructor for Rails for Zombies is talking about when they say "Application Stack":

MVC's manage web applications by breaking each project up into three (3) major areas:

• Models, which search and update the Database
• Views, which define how each page's content is displayed
• Controllers, which determine what happens when users perform a certain actions

In Week 6, we practiced using Models. This week, we'll get started on Views and Controllers. 

Intro to Rails - Rails for Zombies (Continued)

We're using CodeSchool.com's Rails for Zombies series to start learning Ruby on Rails. If you haven't completed  Level 1 & 2 of Rails for Zombies from Week 6, go back and do those first. Then come back and work on this week's tasks!

Be sure to download the Rails for Zombies Slides before you start the Challenges! 

They are a helpful reference for you to use while you practice your RoR

This week, we're working on Level 3 and Level 4 of the series, which discusses Views and Controllers (respectively):

• Level 3: The Views Ain't Always Pretty
• Useful Resources:
• HTML Tables (W3Schools)
• Looping in Ruby (Codecademy)
• Conditionals in Ruby (Codecademy)

• Level 4: Controllers Must Be Eaten
  
• As you watch this video, take notes on everything you find confusing. We'll discuss your questions when we meet in person next Monday (Feb. 23rd).

Note: You won't be able to proceed to the next Level until you've completed the challenges for the previous Level. For example: you can't move on to Level 3 until you complete Level 2's challenges, or proceed to Level 4 without completing Level 3's challenges, and so forth. 

XML? JSON? API? What's All That Stuff?!

Some of the terms used in this week's videos, especially Level 4, may be new to you. But don't worry! 

Every time they refer to a concept or term you don't understand, write it down. When you've finished completing this week's tasks, post your questions here on this thread! Or, you can ask your question when we meet in person next Monday, Feb. 23rd.

Happy Coding!