JRuby on Rails

Web development have changed. In the Java world, web application development have been defined by overhead. Lots of XML configuration to write - even the simplest Servlet you can deploy still requires more XML than you would expect, all because there are no reasonable defaults. But things have changed and Ruby on Rails is the power behind this change. It is fair to say that the Rails way of doing things have effected change in basically all current web frameworks - from the libraries that are adopting the Rails way, to totally new frameworks that try to bring the agility and speed of development of Rails to the Java platform.

But why use a copy when you can use the real deal? JRuby on Rails is a reality. It is the original Ruby on Rails framework, running on top of the Java platform. JRuby is an implementation of the Ruby language which runs all valid Ruby programs, and Rails is just one of them.

This session will take you all the way from an introduction to Ruby and Rails (and a description on how they have managed to change the world) to showing you exactly how you can go about creating your own first JRuby on Rails web application. After this session, you will know how to get started and how to proceed, and you will have gotten a taste of the future of web development that will leave you craving for more.

Ola Bini has proven to be one of the most valuable community contributors to JRuby, and he's shown that he's dedicated to making Ruby on the JVM a reality. He's the sole creator of the RbYAML and JvYAML projects that have enabled high-performance YAML support in JRuby, he single-handedly implemented Enumerable in Java, he has been the primary developer behind our Zlib support, and he's contributed numerous patches and fixes over the past 8 months.
Ola Bini is also the author of Practical JRuby on Rails.

Charles Nutter has been a Java developer since 1996, recently working as the senior Java architect at Ventera Corp and in September moved to Sun to work full-time on JRuby! He led the open-source LiteStep project in the late 90s and came to Ruby in the fall of 2004. Since then he has been a member of the JRuby team, helping to make it a true alternative Ruby platform. Charles presented JRuby at RubyConf 2005 and co-presented at JavaOne 2006 with Thomas Enebo. He hopes to co-write a JRuby book this fall with Thomas to follow up a planned JRuby 1.0 release. Charles currently works on a Ventera contract for the USDAs Food and Nutrition Service at their office in Minneapolis.