Application development framework Rails went live with version 1.1 , adding more than 500 fixes and new features to the popular system for developing Web applications with the lightweight Ruby scripting language.

The star addition to Rails 1.1 is RJS, which enables JavaScript calls in Ruby code and simplifies AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML)-style programming. Tasks that previously required more extensive coding and server calls can now be handled more concisely with RJS.

"It makes Web application programming a lot more like desktop GUI [graphical user interface] programming," said Jeremy Voorhis, lead architect at Planet Argon, a Portland, Ore., services firm that specializes in Ruby on Rails development. Planet Argon has already used RJS on several client projects. Because Rails is an open source project, developers can start working with new features before they make their way into a formal release.

Four "blockbuster features" will improve on the programming experience.

The first is JavasScriptGenerator (RJS) templates. The templates create instructions on how to modify an already rendered page. They make it easier to modify multiple elements on a page with a single AJAX response. Actions with these templates are called in the background with AJAX and make updates to the page where the request originated from. RJS allows for flexibility and even simpler code expessions in Rails.

Another upgrade is adding new features to Active Record - the Rails' approach to reading data from a database. From the release: "Active Record has been blessed with bottomless eager loading, polymorphic associations, join models, to_xml, calculations, and database adapters for Sybase and OpenBase." In short, these improvements make it easier to operate with database data, which is the backbone of every web applications these days.

The third major feature in Rails 1.1. is adding new functionality to the Action Controller, which in turn allows the programmer to create application programming interfaces with ease.

The final "blockbuster feature" is the integration of third layer of testing to Rails: Integration tests. They allow the simulation of users accessing multiple controllers and even gives the developer the power to simulate multiple concurrent users.