Like Ruby itself, Ruby in Practice will make you more productive. The book shows you practical techniques and strategies for small projects and large-scale environments. A cookbook-style reference, it gives you concrete examples of systems integration, messaging, web development, and databases, all in a clear problem/ solution format.

Part 1 of the book concentrates on the Ruby way of developing software, especially how to use Ruby as a tool for integration. Part 2 talks about REST, Web services, asynchronous messaging, and deployment. In the last part, you'll discover how to manage all forms of data—from manipulating structured documents to identity management. Along the way you'll learn how to use Ruby to build new applications, solve more problems with less effort, integrate with your existing applications, and give new life to your legacy systems.