21 Merb Links, Tutorials and Other Resources

By Peter Cooper

Merb is a Ruby Web framework that most Ruby and Rails developers are familiar with, even if they haven't used it. Merb is a Model View Controller based framework, somewhat like Rails, but it's significantly lighter, faster, and more customizable. Merb's strength is that it has a lightweight core and relies on plugins, selected by the user, to provide most of the extended functionality.

This post is to summarize some of the more interesting Merb tutorials and references, so that newcomers to Merb, or those who want to refresh their knowledge, can get started quickly:

Official Stuff

Merb's official homepage - The typical launching point for learning about what Merb is, and for accessing stable and trunk builds or learning how to contribute to the project.

Merb's official API documentation - RDoc generated documentation, straight from Merb's source code. The main page demonstrates how to install Merb, get a basic application started, and how the main concepts, such as models, views, and controllers, work.

Merb Features - The official list of Merb's features.

Merb 0.5 Release Notes - The release notes for the latest (as of February 2008) release of Merb.

Merb's source code repository trunk - A view of Merb's official git repository at github.com. If you want the latest version of Merb, and live on the edge, get it from here.

Motivation / Rationale / Advocacy

Merb (and why you potentially should care) - A well written demonstration of why Merb matters and Merb's key features.

Merb-tastic - A general overview of Merb from a non-official point of view. Unspace, a Canadian Ruby consulting firm, takes a look at what Merb is, how it can use different ORMs, and what their motivations for using Merb are.

Introductions / Tutorials / Installation

Merb + DataMapper + Noob: Quick Start - A great introductory tutorial for newcomers to Merb, demonstrating how to create a note taking / simple blog application from start to finish.

Merb Tutorial - Another tutorial that's older, and partly out of date, but the supplied source code has been updated to the latest Merb standards (well 0.4.2, anyway).

Merborial: Getting Started with Merb and DataMapper - Chris Kaukis with the first installment of a very up to date Merb tutorial (February 2008). In this installment, he shows how to install Merb, DataMapper, and some other plugins, sets up an initial Merb application, creates a database, and provides a bunch of links to useful resources.

Merb & DataMapper: Getting Rolling - A quick introductory piece to installing Merb and DataMapper by Justin Pease.

Doing Stuff with Merb

A Quick Jaunt Through Merb's Framework Code - A blog post by Ezra Zygmuntowicz that takes a look at how Merb processes and handles incoming requests.

Shoes Meets Merb: Driving A GUI App through Web Services - A six page, in-depth article by Gregory Brown and Brad Ediger that demonstrates how to use the Shoes GUI toolkit along with Merb, where Merb provides the data, and Shoes provides the interface.

Taking Merb to Production - Ben Reubenstein looks at how to use Capistrano and Nginx to deploy Merb applications.

Merbful Authentication - A look at a new (as of January 2008) plugin for Merb that provides an easy to use authentication system.

Merb Routing in 0.5 - A great look at how the URL routing system works in Merb 0.5 by Toolman Tim!

File Uploads Via Merb Inside A Rails Application - A three part tutorial showing how to use Merb alongside a Rails application to handle file uploads in an efficient manner. This is what Merb was originally created for.

Merb on AIR - Drag and Drop Multiple File Upload - A slightly old (June 2007) tutorial demonstrating how to use Merb alongside an Adobe AIR powered client to handle file uploads.

The Future and More!

The Road to Merb 1.0 - Robert Bazinet of InfoQ interviews Merb creator Ezra Zygmuntowicz about the future for Merb.

Merb.next - Yehuda Katz, a developer on the Merb team, looks at how things are progressing with Merb up to version 1.0.

A Mega List of Even More Merb Tutorials - For those readers who aren't satisfied enough by the above list of Merb links, Merbcast.com has put together even more for you!