I have been off and on playing with and learning Ruby on Rails and am finally in the process of using it. I consulted numerous resources in attempting to learn Rails including Code School and a book called Agile Web Development with Rails. However by far the best written material for beginners is Michael Hartl’s Rails Tutorial.

The Internet is awash in debates about what technologies you should learn when you program. I think Ruby on Rails is a good choice because the documentation and community sit above what I have seen elsewhere. Ruby on Rails is used by companies like AirBnb and Basecamp so it has been battle tested. This does not make other options invalid because ultimately all that matters is that you are able to accomplish what you want. Tools are just different roads to the same destination.