Pricing and Dates

$1395 Alumni and Groups of 5+
$1695 Early Bird!
$1995 Regular
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Next course Spring 2009

The Advanced Rails Studio is an interactive workshop that takes your Rails knowledge to the next level. Mastery is the key to building killer Rails applications with confidence and efficiency. By learning how others have solved tough problems, and applying those lessons in context, you'll save time while building better Rails applications.

In three days, you'll learn the cutting-edge techniques used by the experts to build full-featured Rails applications quickly. The upshot is you'll get your web application online quicker and have it 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. Learn directly from the authors of the premier references for Rails: Agile Web Development with Rails, Programming Ruby, and Rails Recipes.

“The instructors and peers were highly knowledgeable and the atmosphere was friendly, relaxed, open, and highly interactive.”

—Brian Levine

Who’s It For?

Dreyfus-advrails

Experienced Rails Developers. This Studio is designed for web developers who have significant experience building Rails applications and who are proficient with Ruby.

This Studio is right 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 understand when and how experts use those features
  • You're comfortable with Ruby

If you already have master-level knowledge of Rails, then consider attending the Advanced Ruby Studio or explore new advanced topics at The Rails Edge.

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“I have been to a lot of technical training courses of this nature through the years and none of them even came close to what you guys do. Almost every aspect of the three days of class was applicable to me and my team.”

—Michael Holloway

What Will I Learn?

Group of Students

Advanced Techniques and Approaches. In this Studio you'll learn how to build Rails applications that sing and, more importantly,deliver more value to the good folks who use them. Some of the advanced topics we'll cover include:

  • Latest Rails Features: REST, Active Resource, multiview, caching, and the latest Rails 2.1 features
  • Meta-Programming Rails: How to write code like the Rails internals, extend Rails using meta-programming, etc.
  • 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, AR 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 sophisticated Rails apps fast
Outside Lunch

In addition to the prepared topics, we'll leave ample time for discussion and collaborative learning.

“All in all it was a whole lot of fun. If you want to go deeper into Rails development, or if you've had your head down and need to get updated on the latest Rails approaches...head on over to the Pragmatic Studio...”

—Michael Trier

What's a Studio Like?

Studio Experience

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 members-only alumni mailing list.

“The strictly guarded Alumni group is one of the best programming resources I have ever seen.”

What Should I Bring?

Prag Studio Attendees

You and Your Laptop. It wouldn't be a programming workshop 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 and full lunch each day
  • A binder with all the printed material
  • Internet connectivity and power during the Studio
  • Access to our alumni-only mailing list
  • Discounts on books, screencasts, and future training
  • A stylish t-shirt and other goodies!

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