Pro Active Record helps you take advantage of the full power of your database engine from within your Ruby programs and Rails applications. ActiveRecord, part of the magic that makes the Rails framework so powerful and easy to use, is the model element of Rails model/view/controller framework. Its an object-relational mapping library enabling you to interact with databases from both Ruby and Rails applications.
Because ActiveRecord is configured with default assumptions that mesh perfectly with the Rails framework, Rails developers often find they hardly need think about it at all. However, if you are developing in Ruby without Rails, or are deploying against legacy databases designed without Rails in mind, or you just want to take advantage of database-specific features such as large objects and stored procedures, you need the in-depth knowledge of ActiveRecord found in this book.
In Pro Active Record, authors Kevin Marshall, Chad Pytel, and Jon Yurek walk you through every step from the basics of getting and installing the ActiveRecord library to working with legacy schema to using features specific to each of todays most popular database engines, including Oracle, MS SQL, MySQL, and more! You’ll come to a deep understanding of ActiveRecord that will enable you to truly exploit all that Ruby, Rails, and your chosen database platform have to offer.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - A bit dry and repetitive...
Honestly, you may want to pass on this one! The pragmatic book's coverage on this as well as the online resources should be enough to get you by. There were no aha moments with this one, it is a bit of a dry read, with some repetition. I was hoping to dig deeper into the magic that allows ActiveRecord to learn your table names by introspection with some specific gotchas relating to feature support across the different DBMS. I feel like I have a reasonable resource book to allow me to search for ... Read More
Rating: - Great Book With Lots Of Examples
I was ecstatic when I heard a book dedicated strictly to Active Record was being written and signed up for a copy right away. As a Java developer with just a little bit of Hibernate experience, Active Record has been my biggest challenge learning ROR (in addition to some of the Ruby language idioms). I've read a lot of the other Rails books (e.g. Prag Programmer series) which also cover Active Record, but not in as much detail as this book. In particular, I found the numerous code examples very useful ... Read More
Rating: - Good, but not so "pro".
Visuals:
Font size and layout are good. Easy on the eyes. Large and frequent sub-headings make it easier to locate information.
Audience:
The book lists it's intended "User level" at "Intermediate-Advanced".
Practicality:
It really depends on what you are expecting. I've been using Rails and ActiveRecord for about 2 years, so I should fit into the target audience. After reading the book I still think it will be a great reference book to have within arm's reach ... Read More
Rating: - Disappointing and mis-titled
Right at the start of Pro Active Record the authors address a possible problem some may have with it: that there's not enough in Active Record to warrant a full book. They point out that the basics are well covered as sections elsewhere but that this is the first book to really dig into working with legacy schema and other `advanced' uses. That's fair enough, but after reading the book I am still left with the question of why, then, they dedicate the first half to covering ActiveRecord's most basic concepts? ... Read More
Rating: - Excellent intro and extremely useful for work with legacy databases
No fear of the legacy database!
Excellent book overall, but Chapter 7 is what takes the cake for me.
It's generally considered a pain to use ROR with legacy databases, but
K.Marshall et al, show that it is not only doable, but not bad at all.
Excellent examples and explanations, showing code in a step by step approach - starting at the very beginning (what active record is, configuring/installing it, etc...).
At the same time, the style is extremely laid back ... Read More
- A bit dry and repetitive...
- Great Book With Lots Of Examples
- Good, but not so "pro".
