Ruby on Rails, commonly referred to as Rails, is an open-source web development framework that is written in the Ruby programming language. It provides a set of conventions and tools for building database-driven web applications quickly and efficiently.
Rails is different from other web development frameworks in several ways:
- Convention over Configuration: Rails follows a "convention over configuration" approach, which means that developers don't have to spend time configuring every detail of their application. Instead, Rails provides a set of conventions that developers can follow to build their application quickly.
- Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY): Rails also emphasizes the "Don't Repeat Yourself" principle, which means that developers should avoid writing repetitive code. Rails provides a set of tools and conventions to help developers write reusable code.
- Model-View-Controller (MVC): Rails follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern, which separates the application into three interconnected parts: the Model (which represents the data and business logic), the View (which represents the user interface), and the Controller (which handles user input and coordinates the interaction between the Model and View).
- Rapid Development: Rails is designed to be a rapid development framework, which means that developers can quickly prototype and build web applications. Rails provides a set of built-in tools and libraries that make it easy to build common web application features like authentication, authorization, and database integration.
Overall, Rails is a powerful web development framework that emphasizes convention, reusability, and rapid development. It is a popular choice for building database-driven web applications and has a large and active community of developers.