# What's your process? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [November 20, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whats-your-process/76750 "2006-11-20T21:46:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sarah)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whats-your-process/76750/1 "2006-11-20T21:46:13Z")
Hi everyone, By way of introduction, my name is Sarah and I’ve just found this group. I work for a video game developer in Nova Scotia and run a graphic design business on the side: [www.triggersandsparks.com](http://www.triggersandsparks.com). I build a lot of database-driven websites for my clients, making use of PHP/MySQL and simple CMS components, and am grappling with making the switch to Ruby on Rails in order to start building apps that are smarter and faster. I’m finding it a pretty steep learning curve, though, probably because I don’t have a proper grasp on Object-Oriented Programming principles or the concept of the MVC – if anyone can direct me to any resources that’ll really clarify this for me, I’d appreciate it, but I tend to learn as I do, anyway, and I’m a highly visual learner, so I’m hoping it’ll come to me as I fumble along. Anyway. My question, beyond “what resources do you recommend?”, is this: how do you go about approaching the development of an application? I’m trying to develop a series of steps to take when beginning the design of a web application (specifically how it’s done in ROR, which I’ve finally got running on my Mac using Locomotive) in order to maximize productivity and to do things right the first time around, rather than repeating a lot of steps or going back-and-forth more than is necessary. How do YOU approach your projects? What comes first, the frontend or the backend? How in-depth do you map out your data and schemas and such? Do you define your controllers based on the use paths, or is it more complex than this? Any tips, tricks, or insider secrets you cats can throw my way would make me a very happy girl. Thanks, and I look forward to making use of this group as I (toes crossed) progress further into RoR! sarah ---
**Author:** ![sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sarah)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whats-your-process/76750/2 "2006-11-20T21:57:10Z")
Firstly, if you don’t have a copy of Agile Web D. with Rails, get one now (I think edition 2 is about to ship; you can get the pdf now). The last app I built we used what I think is called user stories: we wrote down on pieces of cards ‘stories’ that take a user on a certain path though the system. Then we pretty much sat down and coded each story, i.e. taking things in vertical slices rather than splitting them into front & backend. When slices depended on bits of functionality we didn’t want to write yet (eg because they were best written in the context of another slice someone else was working on), using mock objects that present the same interface is a great help. Beyond that we didn’t really plan in advance the database structure etc. (although to be fair this project didn’t call for anything fancy). The slightly tricky bit is getting things going, once you’re up and running (even with a fairly minimal skeleton) it’s a lot easier to proceed in an iterative way. Fred ---
**Author:** ![sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sarah)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 10:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whats-your-process/76750/3 "2006-11-21T10:26:00Z")
On 20 Nov 2006, at 20:41, sarah wrote: > use paths, or is it more complex than this? > All other things being equal, I start with the front end because, as > far as your users are concerned, the interface is the application. One of the huge benefits of Rails is that it is easy and quick to make changes, whether to your model, view or controller. I came from a Java webapp background and it is so much faster in Rails to e.g. add a field to a model. So don’t worry too much about making decisions – you can change your mind and fix things up in a flash. You may also find Getting Real[1] helpful. It’s a book by 37signals on how they go about building web applications. Good luck! Andy S. [1] [https://gettingreal.37signals.com/](https://gettingreal.37signals.com/) ---
**Author:** ![sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sarah)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 11:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whats-your-process/76750/4 "2006-11-21T11:04:14Z")
As difficult as it might seem at first, try and not get to far down the track with Rails without learning something about testing. I know in my experience, trying to incorporate testing into an app at the same time I was learning RoR feels like a whole heap of extra material to digest, and then writing tests feels like twice the amount of work again. But my first couple of apps built without testing now feel precarious. Whereas an app built according to test-driven development feels solid and just ‘right’. It seems Rails leans on TDD to a large extent. Many plugins come with tests out of the box, and getting back to your question, TDD represents a ‘process’ that you can hang your hat on. Indeed, many RoR developers do so. I’ve just grabbed a copy of the Beginning RoR Ecommerce book from Apress and it is a great case study in implementing user stories via TDD. ---
**Author:** ![sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sarah)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whats-your-process/76750/5 "2006-11-22T21:31:48Z")
Thanks, Fred. I’ve been working my way through the Agile PDF & it’s definitely the best resource I’ve come across yet. Thanks for the info! ---
**Author:** ![sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@sarah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sarah)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whats-your-process/76750/6 "2006-11-22T14:40:49Z")
sarah wrote: > …how do you go about approaching the development of an > application? Only semi-facetiously, I’d say “however the client wants me to.” I would imagine it also depends a lot on whether you’re working alone or with a team – I mostly work alone. Some come with a precise idea what they want, and all the html they want used, and I do that whether it represents “best practices” or not. It’s my job to give them what they want, not to evangelize modern methods of software development. My overall strategy, as of today, is to define the database schema, write as much as possible, and get something up and running as quickly as I can. I rely heavily on TDD during this phase. Then I get a barrage of emails from the client to change this or that, and do so as quickly as possible. I also work on server configuration and capistrano deployment during this phase, and write whatever background tasks I need (database backup, session expiry, etc.). After each deployment, I watch the server and the logs like a hawk for some time, to make sure everything is actually working like I expect it to, and fix any problems as rapidly as possible. Even with a client who knows exactly what he wants, it doesn’t seem uncommon for me to do a couple of revisions a week for a while. I continuously refactor and try to catch up on tests, which by this point have fallen way behind due to time constraints – I tend to make the changes my client wants first, put them into production as quickly as possible, and write the formal tests for them when I have time to catch up. –Al Evans