Ruby on Rails facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Ruby on Rails

Original author(s)	David Heinemeier Hansson
Initial release	July 2004; 21 years ago (2004-07)
Stable release	8.0: 8.1.1 / 28 October 2025; 2 months ago (28 October 2025)
Written in	Ruby
Size	57.8 MB
Type	Web application framework
License	MIT License

Ruby on Rails, often just called Rails, is a tool used to build websites and web applications. It is written in the Ruby programming language. Think of it like a set of building blocks or a skeleton that helps computer programmers create websites much faster than starting from scratch.

Rails is very popular because it makes complex tasks easier. It follows a specific design called Model–view–controller (MVC). This design separates the data, the logic, and what the user sees on the screen into different parts.

Many famous websites were built using Ruby on Rails. Some of these include Airbnb, GitHub, Twitch, and Shopify.

History of Ruby on Rails

Who Created It?

Ruby on Rails was created by David Heinemeier Hansson. He originally wrote it to help build a project management tool called Basecamp. He realized the code could help other people too, so he released it to the public in July 2004.

Growth and Popularity

In the years following its release, Rails became very famous in the programming world. In 2006, Apple announced that it would include Ruby on Rails on its Mac computers. This helped many more people discover it.

Over time, many versions were released to make it better:

• Rails 1.0 came out in December 2005.
• Rails 3.0 (2010) merged with another project called Merb to become faster and better.
• Rails 5.0 (2016) added features to help apps work in real-time.
• Rails 7.0 (2021) changed how JavaScript (another coding language) is used in Rails.
• Rails 8.0 (2024) made it easier for a single person to run a whole app by themselves.
• Rails 8.1 was released in October 2025 with new improvements.

How Rails Works

Rails is designed to make programming happy and productive. It does this by following two main philosophies or "rules."

Important Philosophies

Convention over Configuration

This means that Rails makes good guesses about what a programmer wants to do.

For example, if a programmer creates a database table called "Sales," Rails automatically assumes the code to talk to that table will be called "Sale." Because Rails assumes this, the programmer does not have to write extra configuration files to link them together. This saves a lot of time.

Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY)

This rule encourages programmers to write code only once. If you need to use the same information in many places, you define it in one spot. The rest of the application looks at that one spot. This makes the code cleaner and easier to fix if there is a mistake.

The MVC Pattern

Rails uses the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern to organize code. Imagine a restaurant:

• The Model (The Chef): This part handles the data and the rules. It gets the ingredients (data) from the pantry (database).
• The View (The Plate): This is what the customer sees. It is the web page with HTML and CSS that shows the food (data) nicely.
• The Controller (The Waiter): This part takes the order from the customer (the web browser), tells the Chef (Model) what to get, and then brings the finished dish (View) to the customer.

Technical Details

Web Servers

Rails runs on a web server to show pages to people on the internet. In the beginning, a server called Mongrel was popular. Later, a server called Phusion Passenger became the standard. Rails can also work with popular web servers like Nginx and Apache.

Databases

Rails needs a place to store information, like user names or product lists. It usually connects to a database system. The most common ones used with Rails are MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Gems

In the Ruby world, software packages are called "gems." Rails itself is a gem. Programmers can add other gems to their Rails application to add new features quickly, like a login system or a payment processor.

Version History

Ruby on Rails is updated regularly to add new features and fix bugs.

See also

• Computer programming
• Web application
• List of rich web application frameworks