# How can I develop a Web Application using ruby without rails **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [March 25, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-develop-a-web-application-using-ruby-without-rails/132873 "2008-03-25T14:09:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/deepkumarb)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-develop-a-web-application-using-ruby-without-rails/132873/1 "2008-03-25T14:09:41Z")
I have an idea about developing web application using Ruby on Rails. But I don’t know how to develop a web application using only ruby without rails. Is it possible? If possible how can I handle requests, actions, responses etc., Please clear my doubt as early as possible. Thanks Pradeep Kumar ---
**Author:** ![deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/deepkumarb)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-develop-a-web-application-using-ruby-without-rails/132873/2 "2008-03-25T14:18:49Z")
2008/3/25, Pradeep B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > I have an idea about developing web application using Ruby on Rails. > But I don’t know how to develop a web application using only ruby > without rails. Is it possible? If possible how can I handle requests, > actions, responses etc., Please clear my doubt as early as possible. You can use CGI and there is a class with the same name that helps you process requests and create responses. Then there are various other mechanisms like FastCGI etc. Kind regards robert ---
**Author:** ![deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/deepkumarb)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 2:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-develop-a-web-application-using-ruby-without-rails/132873/3 "2008-03-25T14:40:14Z")
Pradeep B. wrote: > I have an idea about developing web application using Ruby on Rails. > But I don’t know how to develop a web application using only ruby > without rails. Is it possible? If possible how can I handle requests, > actions, responses etc., Please clear my doubt as early as possible. > > Thanks > > Pradeep Kumar Iowa … Nitro … roll your own ---
**Author:** ![deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/deepkumarb)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 3:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-develop-a-web-application-using-ruby-without-rails/132873/4 "2008-03-25T15:00:49Z")
On Mar 25, 1:09 pm, Pradeep B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I have an idea about developing web application using Ruby on Rails. > But I don’t know how to develop a web application using only ruby > without rails. Is it possible? If possible how can I handle requests, > actions, responses etc., Please clear my doubt as early as possible. Look at Rack: [http://rack.rubyforge.org/](http://rack.rubyforge.org/) It gives you a thin web-server independent layer that also tie in nicely with a large number of frameworks, and at the same time is simple enough that you can trivially write an application without a framework if you prefer. The code I run my site and my blog on at [http://www.hokstad.com/](http://www.hokstad.com/) is built using only Rack and no framework, combined with various self contained libraries, for example so it’s absolutely doable. Vidar ---
**Author:** ![deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/deepkumarb)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-develop-a-web-application-using-ruby-without-rails/132873/5 "2008-03-25T16:08:11Z")
Take look at my framework named vintage (it’s on Rubyforge). That uses Rack to create a rather barebones web framework. It’d probably be a good starting point to learn from or use directly. –Jeremy On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 9:09 AM, Pradeep B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). – [http://jeremymcanally.com/](http://jeremymcanally.com/) [http://entp.com](http://entp.com) Read my books: Ruby in Practice ([Ruby in Practice](http://manning.com/mcanally/)) My free Ruby e-book ([http://humblelittlerubybook.com/](http://humblelittlerubybook.com/)) Or, my blogs: > **[Site not found · DreamHost](http://mrneighborly.com)** > > The owner of this domain has not yet uploaded their website. [http://rubyinpractice.com](http://rubyinpractice.com) ---
**Author:** ![deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/deepkumarb)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-develop-a-web-application-using-ruby-without-rails/132873/6 "2008-03-25T15:55:39Z")
Pradeep B. wrote: > I have an idea about developing web application using Ruby on Rails. > But I don’t know how to develop a web application using only ruby > without rails. Is it possible? If possible how can I handle requests, > actions, responses etc., Please clear my doubt as early as possible. > > Thanks > > Pradeep Kumar Hi, I am currently developing Ruby (not rails) web applications for mobile phones - so yes, you don’t need rails. To get some basic information about the cgi version, i recommend starting here: [http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/web.html](http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/web.html) You can get information about eruby and mod\_ruby (for apache) from this site: [http://modruby.org/en/](http://modruby.org/en/) These are not frameworks, they just execute ruby code. If you are using apache, it is fairly straightforward to set up the eruby executable to handle your requests for you and you just basically embed ruby inside html like this: This is HTML \<% print "this is ruby" %\> etc. A tutorial can be found here: http://www.hiveminds.co.uk/node/3094 With mod\_ruby or fastcgi, you can get even more control over the response, you can create a small ruby program that catches the request and generates the whole response. print “HTTP/1.1 200 OK\n” print “Content-Type: text/plain\n\n” print ‘Static text.’ is a very simple handler that just displays that static text. Of course, as Robert mentioned before, you can use CGI to help you, like: require ‘cgi’ c = CGI.new print c.header(‘type’=\>‘text/plain’) print ‘Static text.’ Hope this helps. Zaki ---
**Author:** ![deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@deepkumarb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/deepkumarb)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-develop-a-web-application-using-ruby-without-rails/132873/7 "2008-03-25T16:32:34Z")
Try merb. ``` http://merbivore.com/ ``` Also, here is an article that goes over 10 other ruby web frameworks besides rails. [10 Alternative Ruby Web Frameworks | Accidental Technologist (old)](http://rbazinet.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/10-alternative-ruby-web-frameworks/) Zoltan D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: Pradeep B. wrote: > I have an idea about developing web application using Ruby on Rails. > But I don’t know how to develop a web application using only ruby > without rails. Is it possible? If possible how can I handle requests, > actions, responses etc., Please clear my doubt as early as possible. > > Thanks > > Pradeep Kumar Hi, I am currently developing Ruby (not rails) web applications for mobile phones - so yes, you don’t need rails. To get some basic information about the cgi version, i recommend starting here: [http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/web.html](http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/web.html) You can get information about eruby and mod\_ruby (for apache) from this site: [http://modruby.org/en/](http://modruby.org/en/) These are not frameworks, they just execute ruby code. If you are using apache, it is fairly straightforward to set up the eruby executable to handle your requests for you and you just basically embed ruby inside html like this: This is HTML etc. A tutorial can be found here: [http://www.hiveminds.co.uk/node/3094](http://www.hiveminds.co.uk/node/3094) With mod\_ruby or fastcgi, you can get even more control over the response, you can create a small ruby program that catches the request and generates the whole response. print “HTTP/1.1 200 OK\n” print “Content-Type: text/plain\n\n” print ‘Static text.’ is a very simple handler that just displays that static text. Of course, as Robert mentioned before, you can use CGI to help you, like: require ‘cgi’ c = CGI.new print c.header(‘type’=\>‘text/plain’) print ‘Static text.’ Hope this helps. ## Zaki Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/).