Rails 2.3 Release Candidate 1 Released - What's New?

David Heinemeier Hansson has announced the release of Rails 2.3 Release Candidate 1 (RC1). In a break from the usual rush from RC to a final release, David says that due to the substantial nature of this update this will probably be a "longer than average release candidate phase" in order to get as much testing done as possible. So if you're up for the challenge, try it out with this magical gem command:

gem install rails --source http://gems.rubyonrails.org

Note: The Rails logo, used above, is CC Licensed from railslogo.com

Why Rails 2.3 Will Be A Big Deal

Rails typically has significant new features added on a point-by-point basis, but the number of new features in Rails 2.3 (and the scope of their functionality) is mindblowing:

• Rails 2.3 is now based on Rack
• Rails Metal (thanks to the aforementioned Rack) - Makes it easy for you to hook up very "bare" request handlers that aren't processed through the entire Rails stack.
• Nested Model Forms - It's now trivial to create forms that create objects that are on associations with the current model.
• Rails Templates - Create a Rails application in seconds using templates (basic text scripts) that install plugins, arrange files, set up source code management, and more.
• Sessions are now lazy-loaded, so if you don't want sessions enabled, don't use them!
• Engines
• Improved local caching for all.
• HTTP Digest authentication support
• And, naturally, a lot more! The release notes highlight all of the new features wonderfully.

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