What’s the future of Ruby on Rails in 2017?

Ruby on Rails (RoR) had gained much attention a decade back, as it had changed the way web products were made. It made it possible, to pack lot of expressions in just few lines of code. But over the past few years, with the rise of PHP, Java and Python, the future of RoR has been widely discussed on Reddit, LinkedIn and other tech-forums. Is Ruby really set for a bleak future? What does 2017 have in store for Ruby on Rails?

For those enterprises which are working on full-stack web applications, Ruby on Rails will remain an attractive option. However, there is no denying that the roads of front-end development and back-end development are diverging from each other. The full-stack single-app is becoming orthodoxy and is no longer the best practice. The emerging structure is to have an API/Gateway layer housed in the back-end framework (rails-api, node, elixir/phoenix) which will play the role of a dedicated foundation to your front-end app. This structure is placed in the context of developments like client-side javascript frameworks, microservices and mobile apps. Rails still works with rails-api. Though Node is well-established, it is not prominently recommended for the back-end stacks. Phoenix and Elixir are the new entrants and have pros which appeal to RoR developers looking for change.

6 reasons why RoR is a mature adult of our programming world?

The numerous Rails e-commerce frameworks (Piggybak, Spree, Substruct, RoR-e and others) allows building e-commerce stores quickly.

What makes RoR more attractive is its support for ActiveMerchant payment plugin, the modular approach and user-friendliness. Product descriptions and photo uploads can be customized using features such as custom pricing formulas and image resizing.

Culture and community

RoR is not just an open-source technology, but uses open-source code and most importantly, belongs to an open-source community. Long-drawn complex projects, new libraries and bug fixes among other things are highly benefited from the community of developers in Ruby-on-Rails.

Agile-first

Agile approach is akin to a holy method for RoR community. Building and releasing products through iterations has many advantages for business products. Here are some of them:

Quick response time to user’s feedback
Efforts are focused on specific regions through useful features
Budget is manageable with steady increase in ROI
Higher control on the development procedure since the progress is consistently evaluated.

Quicker development with smoother maintenance

RoR is the best solution for projects that needs innumerable features to be integrated within a certain deadline. Apart from having the specialist engineers and Ruby gems collection, Ruby can be altered without restrictions on the code. One of the main reasons why developers still flock to RoR is because, it has the power to swiftly develop new features and build libraries.

Perfect for Content Management Systems (CMS)

The perfect CMS has the following three features: it has an intuitive interface, easy navigation and a smooth platform to upload files, content and images. Ruby on Rails fulfills all these features.

For that matter, RoR can create systems which are ideal for content companies, since it adequately answers to demands of revision, reviews, storage and publications. To top this off, it has a fabulous SEO tools that assists you to enhance search engine rankings.

Small teams (upto 5 people) which are looking to assemble, manage, support and iterate a product will find Ruby on Rails to be an ideal partner. As the size of team grows and one of the determining factors becomes scalability or performance, it will be more pragmatic to divide up the front-end and back-end. Rail-api is the best option in case your team has low experience in non-RoR languages. Those who are looking to explore non-RoR should start with Phoenix/Elixir.

In short, Rails is here to stay. It will continue to develop with consistent improvisations. Though it might seem cliche, it is true when they say “Use the right stack for the job”. Check out Suyati’s journey with Ruby-on-Rails!