What is Ruby on Rails?

Ruby on Rails is not a CMS. It is a web application framework. Ruby is a programming language that was designed to make programmers happy. Ruby on Rails is a web application framework written in Ruby to make building web applications a lot less painful. When you need a lot of custom business logic and relatively few content management or social networking features, Ruby on Rails is a fantastic choice!

What makes the Ruby on Rails framework special is that it is open source and has an open plug-in and engine system similar to the WordPress plug-ins and Drupal modules. Using these plug-ins and engines, you can reduce your development time considerably and get an application up in a fraction of the time it would take in other environments. Like the other successful open source platforms, it has a large community of developers that release new capabilities and features as the web changes. Even more exciting is the fact that it has taken care of some of the thorny problems that many of the alternatives haven’t solved yet like Test Driven Development, Database Migrations, and automating code updates and deployments. On the other hand, it lacks a system with the configuration options and ease of use available with WordPress or Drupal.  If you primarily need CMS features, using a system like Drupal will be a lot less expensive than building in  the the RubyOnRails CMS.  RubyOnRails is currently used on many well-known and successful platforms including Hulu, Twitter, and BaseCamp.  A Ruby-on-Rails project requires a full time administrator with a programming background.  Minimum budget should be $10,000 plus ongoing salary for this person; and there is no reason to go to this expense unless some requirement is anticipated where the other, less expensive options will not be scalable alternatives.

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