# Beginning Ruby

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginning-ruby/73765>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 26, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginning-ruby/73765 "2006-10-26T22:30:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![phalcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@phalcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phalcos)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginning-ruby/73765/1 "2006-10-26T22:30:48Z")

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Hello Rubygroup,

Im quite new to Ruby (unexpected heh?) but is currently planning on  
building a website community with it just in order to see how powerful  
it accually can be. I usually use PHP when building webapplications but  
since ruby works great for that too, I was curious and thus I have some  
(yes, newbie-) questions. I have already Installed Ruby as a module for  
apache, so that part works perfect, I’ve also read some of the  
documents on [http://www.ruby-lang.org](http://www.ruby-lang.org)

1. How can I make sure the userinput only contains certain characters?  
Like if I only want my users to be able to give me [A-Za-z0-9], is  
regex the only alternative?

2. Is there any builtin method for converting html-characters into safe  
input, like what htmlspecialchars in PHP does?

3. Methods for SQL database storage?

4. Anything else I should think about?

If not, wish me luck. =)

Thanks,  
– phalcos

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phalcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@phalcos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phalcos)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beginning-ruby/73765/2 "2006-10-27T02:37:20Z")

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phalcos wrote:

> 1. How can I make sure the userinput only contains certain characters?  
> Like if I only want my users to be able to give me [A-Za-z0-9], is  
> regex the only alternative?
> 
> 2. Is there any builtin method for converting html-characters into safe  
> input, like what htmlspecialchars in PHP does?
> 
> 3. Methods for SQL database storage?
> 
> 4. Anything else I should think about?

You are encouraged to build your own Web tools; Ruby is quite good for  
that. However, you may want to consider one of the existing Ruby Web  
frameworks, such as IOWA, Nitro, Rails, Merb, Camping, or Cerise.

Each has a different opinion on Web development; perhaps one will suit  
you.

> If not, wish me luck. =)

Good luck!

Be sure to ask lots of questions here.

–  
James B.

“A principle or axiom is of no value without the rules for applying it.”

- Len Bullard