rails examples tutorials
Last updated 8 April 2014
A list of recommended Rails tutorials with example applications. Also starter applications that can be customized for your own project.
If you’re new to Rails, see What is Ruby on Rails?, the book Learn Ruby on Rails, and recommendations for a Rails tutorial.
This is an article from the RailsApps project. The RailsApps project provides example applications that developers use as starter apps. Hundreds of developers use the apps, report problems as they arise, and propose solutions. Rails changes frequently; each application is known to work and serves as your personal “reference implementation.” Each application is accompanied by a tutorial so there is no mystery code. Support for the project comes from subscribers. Please accept our invitation to join the RailsApps project.
These example applications are created using the Rails Composer tool.
| Example Applications for Rails 4.1 | Tutorial | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Learn Rails | Learn Ruby on Rails | introduction to Rails for beginners |
| Rails and Bootstrap | Tutorial | starter app for Rails and Bootstrap |
| Rails and Foundation | Tutorial | starter app for Rails and Zurb Foundation |
| OmniAuth and Rails | OmniAuth for authentication | |
| Devise and Rails | Devise for authentication | |
| Devise and Pundit and Rails | Pundit for authorization |
| Example Applications for Rails 3.2 | Tutorial | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Twitter Bootstrap, Devise, CanCan | Tutorial | Devise for authentication, CanCan for authorization, Twitter Bootstrap for CSS |
| Rails Membership Site with Stripe | Tutorial | Site with subscription billing using Stripe |
| Rails Membership Site with Recurly | Tutorial | Site with subscription billing using Recurly |
| Startup Prelaunch Signup App | Tutorial | For a startup prelaunch signup site |
| Devise, RSpec, Cucumber | Tutorial | Devise for authentication with ActiveRecord and SQLite for a database |
| Devise, Mongoid | Tutorial | Devise for authentication with a MongoDB datastore |
| OmniAuth, Mongoid | Tutorial | OmniAuth for authentication with a MongoDB datastore |
| Subdomains, Devise, Mongoid | Tutorial | Basecamp-style subdomains with Devise and MongoDB |
Clone these repositories and edit the files to create your own starter app. These are notable; there are many more!
| Author | Project | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Joe Johnston | rails4-starterkit | Rails 4.1, Bootstrap or Foundation, Devise, RailsAdmin, RSpec, etc. |
| Joshua Muheim | base | Rails 4, Slim, RSpec, Devise, Cancancan, Bootstrap, etc. |
| diowa | ruby2-rails4-bootstrap-heroku | Rails 4, Haml, RSpec, PostgreSQL, Bootstrap, etc. |
| Nilesh Trivedi | rails-starter-app | Rails 4, OmniAuth, RSpec, PostgreSQL, Twitter Bootstrap., etc. |
| Andi Altendorfer | Community Base Application | Devise, OmniAuth, Mongoid, CanCan, Paperclip, etc. |
| W.R. de Vos | rails_template | Devise, Oauth with Facebook and Google login, Mongoid, Cancan, Carrierwave, Rspec, Cucumber |
| Rendered Text | BaseApp | PostgreSQL, jQuery, RSpec, Cucumber, Devise, FB login, admin system |
| Stefan Wienert | Rails-3.1-BaseApp | |
| Ryan Weald | Base-Rails-3.1-App | |
| Kamil Wdowicz | Template3.1 | |
| Hugo Dias | RailStrap | Twitter Bootstrap, HTML5 Boilerplate |
| Brian Dear | Brian’s Basic Rails Starter Template | Haml, PostgreSQL |
| Adam Loving | Rails Bootstrap | Slim, Compass, Devise, Twitter Bootstrap, Omniauth |
There are many Rails application templates that generate starter apps. Application templates are Ruby scripts used with the "rails new myapp -m" command to generate a Rails app. See a list of notable Rails Application Templates.