15 Simple Steps to Creating a CRUD Web App with Ruby on Rails

If you are fairly new to Ruby on Rails (or forgot how to use it) and need a quick guide to creating a CRUD (create, read, update, destroy) web application, then you’ve come to the right place!

Below I have written some simple steps to creating a very simple application, linked to some documentation or a tutorial for each step, and included an example of what you might write for each step.

Here’s a nice, simple tutorial that gives some more context and explanation and walks you through these steps. This guide is also fairly easy to follow, much longer, and more detailed.

1. Create a new app

rails new pets-app

2. Launch a server and go to http://localhost:3000 in your browser to view your app

rails s

3. Create models

rails g model owner first_name last_name age:integer email
rails g model pet name species owner_id:integer owner:belongs_to

4. Set up associations

class Owner < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :pets
end

5. Add validations

class Owner < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :pets
  validates :name, presence: true
end

6. Run migrations

rails db:migrate

7. Check your schema by looking at the db/schema.rb file

8. Seed your database

Owner.create!(first_name:"Dan", last_name:"Weirdo", age: 18, email:"realemail@cool.com")
Pet.create!(name:"Snowball", species:"dog", owner_id:1)

9. Test associations

Owner.first.pets
Pet.first.owner

10. Test validations

owner = Owner.new(first_name: "")
owner.valid?
owner.errors.messages

11. Create controllers and views

rails g controller owners index show new create edit update destroy
rails g controller pets index show new create edit update destroy

12. Create routes using resources or manual routes

resources :pets
resources :owners

13. Make sure your routes are working correctly by running your server
(rails s) and looking at each path that you created (i.e. /pets)

14. Add/edit controller actions
Hint: scroll to the bottom for an example of standard controller actions

15. Add/edit view files
Hint: “find on page” “new.html”, “index.html”, etc. to see examples
Another hint: the form_for helper

That’s it! Make sure you test your code as you go, and commit often.

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