Ruby on Rails Tutorial

🚀 Introduction

If you’re looking for a beginner-friendly Ruby on Rails tutorial, there’s no better way to learn than by building a simple CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) app. CRUD operations are the foundation of most applications — whether you’re managing users, blog posts, or tasks.

In this guide, we’ll build a basic blog app using Rails from scratch. It’s a practical, fast, and beginner-friendly way to understand how Rails handles data and views.

🧱 Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have:

  • Ruby (via RVM or rbenv)
  • Rails installed (gem install rails)
  • SQLite or PostgreSQL installed
  • Basic terminal & text editor knowledge

1️⃣ Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Create a New App

rails new blog_app --skip-javascript --database=sqlite3
cd blog_app

--skip-javascript is optional if you’re not integrating a JS framework yet.

2️⃣ Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Generate a Post Model

We’ll create a Post model with two fields: title and body.

rails generate scaffold Post title:string body:text

Now run:

rails db:migrate

This sets up your database table and adds the full CRUD structure.

3️⃣ Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Start the Development Server

rails server

Open http://localhost:3000/posts to see your working CRUD app!

4️⃣ Understanding CRUD in This Ruby on Rails Tutorial

Thanks to the scaffold, your app supports:

ActionRoutePurpose
GET /postsindexView all posts
GET /posts/newnewForm to create
POST /postscreateSave new post
GET /posts/:idshowView single post
GET /posts/:id/editeditEdit form
PATCH /posts/:idupdateUpdate post
DELETE /posts/:iddestroyDelete post

5️⃣ Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Customize the View

Let’s improve the post listing in app/views/posts/index.html.erb:

<h1>All Posts</h1>
<%= link_to 'Create New Post', new_post_path, class: "btn btn-primary" %>

<% @posts.each do |post| %>
  <div class="post-card">
    <h2><%= link_to post.title, post %></h2>
    <p><%= truncate(post.body, length: 150) %></p>
    <%= link_to 'Edit', edit_post_path(post) %> |
    <%= link_to 'Delete', post, method: :delete, data: { confirm: 'Are you sure?' } %>
  </div>
<% end %>

6️⃣ Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Add Model Validations

In app/models/post.rb, add:

class Post < ApplicationRecord
  validates :title, presence: true
  validates :body, presence: true, length: { minimum: 10 }
end

This prevents empty posts from being saved.

7️⃣ Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Improve App Navigation

Update app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:

<nav>
  <%= link_to 'Home', root_path %> |
  <%= link_to 'Posts', posts_path %>
</nav>

Make sure root is set in routes.rb:

root 'posts#index'

🔄 Final Touch:

Before you go further with more advanced features, it’s important to keep your app updated and secure.
👉 Read why upgrading Ruby on Rails is essential

🧠 Recap

You now have a fully working Rails CRUD app. Here’s what you’ve learned:

  • Scaffold generation in Rails
  • How routing, models, and views interact
  • Validations and basic layout edits

🚀 Next Steps