AWS News Blog

Precious – Ruby, Gems and AWS

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Ruby got a new face-lift with the new Rails framework. I was always fascinated with the Ruby language. 25 lines of Java code gets shrunk to 4 lines of equivalent Ruby code plus its more readable. And with Rails, it gets a new kick. It is always impressive to hear people say “I am a full-time Ruby on Rails Developer”.

There are plenty of resources for those who would like to get started on this technology:

There are lots of Amazon S3 libraries in Ruby: Some are full fledged libraries like AWS:S3 (Marcel Molina of 37signals talks about his library and why he chose Amazon S3 here – worth a read!), while some libraries are getting started types so that you can customize as per your needs. Some are command shell utilities like rSh3ll, while some are gems like S33r and ruby-s3 for easy installation.

Zachary Holt created a powerful library for Amazon SQS in Ruby. He has added some cool utility functions such as ability to forcibly delete a queue etc.

If you would like to get started with Ruby/Rails on Amazon EC2 instance, all you have to do is fire up an instance and type “yum install ruby” and you are all set!. To get Rails, follow two additional steps mentioned here.

Ruby on Rails reduces your development time and gets you up and running in minutes. There are several apps which have been built using Ruby and Rails framework. Some that caught my eye were:

  • All new! SmilePooling – SmilePooling connects Amazon’s “smily boxes” (read sidetrack below) and Amazon ECS’s WishLists with the car-pooling concept. It is a web application to order items from Amazon stores for you and your friends and colleagues, so that you can split the shipping costs and save. Nice idea, isn’t it ?
  • Competitio.us – simple handy tool to track your competition. Competitio.us is powered by the Alexa Web Information Service and the Alexa Thumbnail service. It gives all sorts of traffic data and other information for your competitor’s website.

Are there any other cool Ruby on Rails applications powered by AWS ?

–Jinesh

Logo_1 Sidetrack: Have you guys noticed the amazon.com logo and wondered what the arrow signifies? I did not know until now. The arrow means Amazon has everything from A to Z and it also represents the smile it brings to the customer’s face – Quite deep, isn’t it?

update: Also, one more  –  Ruby/AmazonAmazon ECS library in Ruby.

Modified 2/11/2021 – In an effort to ensure a great experience, expired links in this post have been updated or removed from the original post.
Jeff Barr

Jeff Barr

Jeff Barr is Chief Evangelist for AWS. He started this blog in 2004 and has been writing posts just about non-stop ever since.