Review

Topics Covered: What the Internet is; how web servers and clients work; what Rails is

Exercises

Good news: not much coding for this lecture! We want to make sure you have an accurate picture of what the internet, web servers, clients, applications, and all the other moving parts that come into play when you type in iExperience.github.io in your browser.

E1: So what IS going on?

Write down, step by step, what happens between the time you press enter in the URL bar in your browser and before you see a page on your screen. In particular, make sure you cover these questions in your steps (but you should have many steps in addition to the answers to these questions).

1. What is a request?
2. What is making the request?
3. Where does the request go (like physically, on Earth, as well as conceptually, on the internet)? What's its "address"?
4. What happens to the request when it gets "there"?
5. What comes back? What is it? What data does it contain?
6. What happens when it comes back?

E2: Ruby Rocks

Go to iexperience.github.io/exercises/ruby_rocks. What shows up on the screen? What does it mean? Why is it that particular number? Does this in fact mean that Ruby does not rock? You may have to do some Googling.

Projects

The Long Road to Rails

Make your personal page render with Ruby on Rails. Your steps might be something like:

$ rails new personal
...move files into the 'right' places