The Rails framework empowers developers with unprecedented levels of productivity by embracing principles such as "convention over configuration" and "don't repeat yourself". This paradigm is even apparent at the community level, where developers regularly share their custom framework extensions by way of Rails' plugins feature. Plugins offer a way for developers to extend the core Rails framework with their own custom features, allowing for rapid integration of features such as authentication, user ratings, and search. Practical Rails Plugins shows you how to capitalize upon the wide variety of plugins at your disposal by guiding you through their integration into a number of interesting projects. You'll learn how to rapidly augment projects involving asynchronous video transcoding, geocoding and mapping, content management, community ratings, and PDF generation. You'll also learn how to create and distribute your own plugins. * The ultimate guide to building powerful web sites faster using Rails plugins * Demonstrates how to use popular plugins within a number of practical (and fully functional) projects and mini-applications * Shows you how to create and distribute your own plugins What you'll learn * Install and manage your plugin collection. * Effectively manage the development process using plugins for browser testing, model augmentation, and data validation. * Use plugins to expand your application's abilities, adding features such as OpenID authentication, file attachment handling, graphing and charting, and full text search. * Create and distribute your own plugins for use by other community members! Who this book is for Rails developers interested in taking advantage of plugins to streamline application development.