Pricing and Dates

$1395 Alumni and Groups of 5+
$1695 Early Bird!
$1995 Regular
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Take your Rails knowledge to the next level by learning advanced Rails techniques from two experienced Rails developers and authors in this 3-day, hands-on training course.

  • Build Rails applications with the confidence and efficiency that comes from deep knowledge of how things really work
  • Save time and frustration by learning how the experts have solved the tough problems using cutting-edge techniques
  • Gain a deeper understanding of the framework by focusing exclusively on Rails development for three days with experienced instructors and fellow students

You'll come away from this Studio feeling like a Rails Master. You'll not just know Rails in depth, you'll also understand why things are the way they are. You'll have moved beyond the basic toolbox of the average Rails developer—you'll be able to exploit the features and techniques the true pros use to make their web applications stand above the crowd!

“Both the instructors and, as importantly, fellow classmates make this one of the best Rails resources available. No, make that THE best. Worth every penny.”

—Alex Boster

Who Teaches the Studio?

Dave Thomas and Chad Fowler. This Studio is taught by programmers for programmers. Learn directly from two authors of the premier references for Rails who have developed and deployed several real-world Rails applications:

Dave Thomas is the co-author of The Pragmatic Programmer, Programming Ruby, and Agile Web Development with Rails. Along with Andy Hunt, they run The Pragmatic Programmers.

Chad Fowler is a well-known author and Ruby and Rails trainer and consultant. As a co-founder of Ruby Central, he is a leading contributor and frequent speaker in the Ruby community. Chad is the author of Rails Recipes and CTO of InfoEther.

What Will I Learn?

Advanced Techniques, Tips, and Tricks. Through a series of lecture, hands-on exercises, and discussion, you'll learn how and when to use advanced Rails features. Topics include:

  • REST and Routes: Better understand how the RESTful conventions work and how to create custom routes to make your URLs unique
  • Application Integration: How to use Active Resource, multiview, and respond_to formats to create APIs and talk to other applications.
  • Meta-Programming Rails: Learn how to extend Rails using Ruby meta-programming techniques
  • Rich Domain Models: :through associations, polymorphic associations, inheritance, scoping, association proxies, etc.
  • User Experiences: form builders, AJAX helpers, and RJS template best practices
  • Asynchronous Processing: background jobs, message queues, and other asynchronous processing techniques
  • Debugging: approaches, tools, and strategies
  • Performance and Scalability: caching, Active Record optimizations, and tools
  • Deployment: server configuration, security, monitoring, and automated deployment with Capistrano
  • And Much More!... practical tips, tricks, and techniques used by the experts to work efficiently and build full-featured Rails applications

In addition to the prepared topics, you'll have time to ask questions and spark discussions with other like-minded folks.

“Attending the Advanced Rails Studio has helped me more using Rails than any Rails specific training I have had.”

—Mark Ranallo

Who’s It For?

Experienced Rails Developers. This Studio will be a good fit for you if...

  • You've built at least one Rails application and you're working with Rails on a regular basis
  • You have a good working knowledge of the major Rails features, but want to learn advanced techniques, tips, and tricks
  • You're comfortable writing Ruby code

Am I Ready?

If you're not yet ready for this Studio, you might consider attending the Ruby on Rails Studio first.

What's a Studio Like?

Interactive Learning. You'll learn in a significantly different way in a Studio than by reading through the books. Attending a Studio complements what you may have read, but in a hands-on, collaborative environment where you'll:

  • get your questions answered by the experts and your peers
  • learn through hands-on programming exercises
  • discuss up-to-date topics, tips, and tricks
  • discover new techniques in live coding sessions
  • reinforce the concepts you've learned in the books

We think Studio offers the best developer training around. But don't take our word for it. Just ask our alumni. Check out their reviews and applications they've built! The Studio experience continues after the Studio with our private alumni mailing list.

“Certainly one of the best training experiences I've ever had...The materials are good, the guys are experts and the entire thing was fun—which is hard to say about any training program.”

—Hunter Hillegas

What Should I Bring?

Laptop

You and Your Laptop. It wouldn't be a hands-on course if you didn't walk away having written some code. You'll be most productive on the laptop you use regularly. (On average, 60% of attendees bring Mac OS X, 30% bring Windows, and 10% bring Linux.)

A few weeks before the Studio, we'll send out detailed instructions for installing everything you'll need. During the Studio, you'll get hands-on experience working through prepared exercises, and experimenting on your own, too.

Your Registration Includes

  • A continental breakfast, continuous beverages and snacks, and a hot lunch buffet each day
  • A binder with all the printed material
  • All the example source code to refer back to later
  • Internet connectivity and power during the Studio
  • An invitation to our alumni-only mailing list for help after the Studio
  • Discounts on books, screencasts, and future training
  • A stylish Pragmatic Studio t-shirt and more!

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