Chapter 7: Example Project – Build a Welcome Page

In this chapter we will build a complete welcome page, putting together routes, controllers, and views. This is the first practical example of the course and it shows the full request cycle in action.

✅ Step 1: Generate the Controller

Generate a controller with a welcome action:

rails generate controller pages welcome

✅ Step 2: Add an Instance Variable

Open app/controllers/pages_controller.rb and add an instance variable inside the action:

# app/controllers/pages_controller.rb
class PagesController < ApplicationController
  def welcome
    @name = "Ruby Learner"
  end
end

✅ Step 3: Edit the View

Open app/views/pages/welcome.html.erb and display the variable:

<h1>Welcome, <%= @name %>!</h1>
<p>You have successfully built your first Rails page.</p>
<p>The current year is <%= Time.now.year %>.</p>

✅ Step 4: Add a Route

Add a route for the page in config/routes.rb:

# config/routes.rb
get "/welcome", to: "pages#welcome"

✅ Step 5: Run the Server

Start the server and visit http://localhost:3000/welcome:

rails server

You should see a page that says “Welcome, Ruby Learner!” along with the current year. That is the entire request cycle: route, controller, view – working together.

🏠 Practice Exercises

Extend the welcome page on your own:

<h1>Welcome, <%= @name %>!</h1>
<p>Today's date is <%= Date.today.strftime("%B %d, %Y") %>.</p>
<% if Time.now.hour < 12 %>
  <p>Good morning!</p>
<% else %>
  <p>Good afternoon or evening!</p>
<% end %>

Try adding a second variable, such as @city, and displaying it in the view. In the next chapter you will build a full blog application with a database.