Most websites do one thing : grab information from the user, and store it in a database.
For these simple websites , using Enterprise Java is like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut – you’re much better off using a solution like Ruby on Rails. Off course, once you go off the usual path (e.g. to implement complex business rules and workflow) things become a lot more difficult. That’s how we make a living – a post for another day.
So, if you’re a business person looking for a web site ‘that has to be done by the end of the week‘ or a technologist looking to solve the pain of ‘I can’t believe building web sites is still so difficult‘, then it’s worth checking out Ruby on Rails.
A good place to start is Rails for All, which has recently moved home to Google Groups, and. The official announcement is below.
Rails For All – No more RFA email Hello everybody, This may be the last email you will get from Rails For All. You loved our email updates you say? Well, we have created two Google groups for your reading pleasure – one for discussions and one for announcements. Good stuff. Tell all your friends.
See you there!
Sincerely,
Robert Dempsey
Founder Rails For All, Inc.
—————
Promoting Ruby on Rails to the developer and business communities
Paul Browne 
I like both Ruby and Rails, but the initial “simplicity” alone is often not a good enough reason to choose them.
Scalability, ease of administration, reuse of existing APIs, support, ease of maintenance and mature high-productivity IDEs are all excellent reasons to choose J2EE.
In my view a project would need to be simple, small, non-critical and standalone to justify using an easy but limited technology like RoR.
Colm,
Yep, Ruby on Rails is great , but can be a cul-de-sac once your application takes off and you find that you need one of the things (scalability , API, transaction support etc etc) that have have matured over the last 10 years in the Enterprise Java world.
Current solutions to this problem are:
1) Use Ruby on Rails , but via JRuby (now employed by / sponsored by Sun). This gives / will give you ‘Enterprise Ruby’ and access to all the features that we know and love.
2) Stick with Java on the front end, but go for a combination like Appfuse (Struts 2-Spring-Hibernate) with Maven. A very similar ‘opinionated – do as we say’ approach, but still allows you to break out into standard Enterprise Java if you feel too constrained by this.
Paul