# Recommendations/Tips on my first ROR project

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommendations-tips-on-my-first-ror-project/136443>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 2, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommendations-tips-on-my-first-ror-project/136443 "2008-05-02T06:22:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bench33](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b38774/32.png) [@bench33](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bench33)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommendations-tips-on-my-first-ror-project/136443/1 "2008-05-02T06:22:09Z")

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hi!

after reading/viewing few tutorials on ruby/ror, i’m about to start on  
my first ror project (and oop for that matter as I come from a  
procedural based language)

i’d like to do away from storing the data in a regular database, but  
instead use xml to store the data.

if it were on a database, i will have a header-detail type link between  
just two tables.

the xml file will be in the same location as the ror app, may be inside  
/db. when the site is visited the first time, the application will load  
the xml file and will display and format the data. It will also “lock”  
the xml file to prevent other from making updates.

May I ask for tips, recommendations on how to best approach this  
project? What classes/objects would you be defining in this scenario?

thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bench33](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b38774/32.png) [@bench33](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bench33)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommendations-tips-on-my-first-ror-project/136443/2 "2008-05-02T06:30:33Z")

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An XML file based application is not very close to what Rails was made  
for. Yes, you can use Rails without a database, but that’s a terrible  
way to learn rails (and oop).

I would suggest doing things the normal way for your first rails  
project, and then moving on to something more difficult after that.  
You’ll have one hell of a time finding resources to help you when you’re  
stuck if you’re doing things so differently than everybody else.

Just my 2 cents.

Mike

Bench Warmer wrote:

> hi!
> 
> after reading/viewing few tutorials on ruby/ror, i’m about to start on  
> my first ror project (and oop for that matter as I come from a  
> procedural based language)
> 
> i’d like to do away from storing the data in a regular database, but  
> instead use xml to store the data.
> 
> if it were on a database, i will have a header-detail type link between  
> just two tables.
> 
> the xml file will be in the same location as the ror app, may be inside  
> /db. when the site is visited the first time, the application will load  
> the xml file and will display and format the data. It will also “lock”  
> the xml file to prevent other from making updates.
> 
> May I ask for tips, recommendations on how to best approach this  
> project? What classes/objects would you be defining in this scenario?
> 
> thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bench33](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b38774/32.png) [@bench33](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bench33)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2008, 9:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommendations-tips-on-my-first-ror-project/136443/3 "2008-05-02T21:08:10Z")

</div>

Bench Warmer wrote:

> i’d like to do away from storing the data in a regular database, but  
> instead use xml to store the data.

this sounds like you should be playing with Datamapper and Merb

> **[ROM](https://rom-rb.org)**
>
> An open-source persistence and mapping toolkit for Ruby built for speed and simplicity.

[http://mtnwestrubyconf2008.confreaks.com/04katz.html](http://mtnwestrubyconf2008.confreaks.com/04katz.html)

it can work with SQL databases,  
it can work with YAML files,  
if you want to put the work in, you can make it so that it’ll work with  
XML files.