Learn to build real-time apps with Action Cable & Rails
Learn Enough Action Cable Application Development 04
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Add real-time interaction
With Action Cable
Tutorial
04
in the
Application Development
Series
With the foundations laid by the previous Learn Enough tutorials, you’re now ready to learn how to develop larger software systems, including dynamic web applications. You’ll start by learning either Python or Ruby (or both), using them for general-purpose programming and to make a simple web application. With Python, you’ll also learn key Python tools for the fast-growing field of data science. Learning Ruby, meanwhile, leads naturally into the Ruby on Rails Tutorial, the leading introduction to web development with Rails. In a final optional tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Action Cable to make real-time web apps that respond instantly to user input. By the time you finish these courses, you'll be ready to start work as a freelancer, get a job as a developer, or start a web-based company of your own.
Real-time apps done right
Bring the web to life
Learn Enough Action Cable to Be Dangerous teaches you how to use the WebSocket Protocol, a complement to the standard HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that creates a persistent connection between servers and clients, allowing two-way communication between them. The result is that WebSockets allow developers to create real-time applications such as chat apps and game servers that are far more interactive than ordinary web pages.
When using WebSockets, it’s nice to be able to have users log in, store their attributes in a database, render templates back to the browser, etc. In other words, it’s nice to have the power of a full-strength web framework like Ruby on Rails behind us. This is where Action Cable comes in. Action Cable gives us the best of both worlds: real-time communications with WebSockets combined with all the convenience and flexibility of Rails.
To be productive with Action Cable, you don’t have to know everything about it—you just have to learn enough to be dangerous.
Overview of Action Cable
Basics of two-way interaction
You’ll start with a brief overview of Action Cable, including a discussion of what WebSockets are and what they can do. The WebSocket Protocol is a complement to the standard HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that creates a persistent connection between servers and clients, allowing two-way communication between them. The result is that WebSockets allow you to create real-time applications such as chat apps and game servers that are far more interactive than ordinary web pages.
Make your app real-time
Put what you've learned into action
Then you’ll develop the base sample app, which is a pre-existing Rails chat app made using the standard REST architecture. You’ll then learn some aspects of JavaScript and related technologies needed to build real-time apps. Then the real fun begins as you upgrade the app to use Action Cable, allowing so called full-duplex communications that lets new messages appear instantly.
The tutorial ends by deploying the working chat app to production, where you can show it off and get bragging rights with all of your friends.
Happy people
saying nice things!
Jimmy Wales Founder, Wikipedia
Q: What is Jimmy Wales' favorite book?
A: It changes often. At the moment, it’s Ruby on Rails Tutorial by Michael Hartl. :)
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Hi, my name is Philip, and I’m a beginning learner of web development. I’ve dabbled in small ways in Ruby/Rails for about a year and a half. Occasionally, I write ruby scripts to solve problems at my job. I also dabble in learning: JavaScript, Ember, more Ruby/Rails, brief intro readings into Scala.
I’ve tried Codeschool, Codecademy, and I’ll stop there, so you don’t spend the next 3 hours reading all the different learning resources I’ve tried.
Ruby on Rails Tutorial (Rails 5) is undoubtedly, the most effective and educational resource I’ve ever come across when it comes to learning anything about web development or writing any code on any level.
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Thanks for such a great, educational guide in Ruby on Rails.
— Philip
About the Author
Michael Hartl
Michael Hartl is the creator of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial, one of the leading introductions to web development, and is cofounder and principal author at Learn Enough. Previously, he was a physics instructor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a graduate of Harvard College, has a Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech, and is an alumnus of the Y Combinator entrepreneur program.
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