One could ask when picking up this book: "Why another book on Rails?". In the last couple of years there have been a number of excellent books published, describing this new web development framework. There are books that introduce the framework and walk people through developing their first Rails applications. Other books describe how to add specific functionality to existing applications. References for the language and syntax also exist. So why do we need another book?

There are two answers to that question. The first is that there is a lack of material in the middle ground. That is, there is a wealth of material on how to get started with Rails, both in print and on the Internet. Then there are the latest books that address the needs of the experienced developer, who requires information to supplement the online source code documentation. What is less obvious is where a developer finds the information to move them from the beginner who has built his first application, to the experienced Rails aficionado who can get the most from the detailed advanced literature.

This book is aimed at developers who have just started out with Rails, have worked through the basic tutorials, and built their first applications. These developers, who feel pleased with the achievement of building their first Rails application, now ask the question, "What do I do next?"

However, there is another target audience; developers who are looking for more than just another book describing a 'web development tool'. These are the developers who recognize and want to exploit the unique attributes of Rails that make it the ideal tool to address a vital business requirement.

This book, therefore, is also aimed at developers who want to find out how to rapidly build small, easily deployable, easily supportable, business applications. They come to this book not because they necessarily want to write Rails applications, but because Rails is the ideal framework to build their business applications.