mongodb with Rails 3

Few days back, I did introspection and thought, as a developer:

1. How many languages I know?
2. How many databases I have worked with?
3. Which frameworks I am comfortable working with?
4. Do I know the latest technologies in my field?

I then realized that working on PHP 4, PHP 5, Ruby 1.8.6 doesn't mean that I know the latest cutting edge technologies. I should try learning may be Ruby 1.9.2, or may be a new language. I have worked with MySQL, Oracle, but what's new? I should try working with some other database, may be Mongodb. I did work on Drupal 4.7.x, 5.7.x and also on Rails 2.0.x to 2.3.x, but may be I should try Rails 3.

Then I downloaded Ruby 1.9.2, with pik, so I can continue work on the project work(ruby 1.8.6), as well as try out rails 3. Needless to say Rails 3.x is far better than it's predecessor Rails 2.x. bundler  is just awesome! But I was so used to use ActiveRecord (with mysql and oracle), I was not able to think how would I work without it on a Rails project. 

I first tried mongodb online (Try it out section) and felt it different, but complete. Whatever basic operations you can perform in mysql/oracle, you can do it in that tutorial.

I installed Rails 3.0.3 without ActiveRecord and installed mongodb to give it a try. It is really different and it amazes you by the fact that how easy to use it with rails. ActiveRecord syntax will not work, but mongo mapper has it's own syntax. In two-three hours I had my basic application with Rails 3 and mongodb on windows7 machine up and running (including learning curve and thanks to mongodb and mongo mapper asciicast and Ryan Bates for nifty_generators)

Once I was done with my rails3-mongodb test application, I realized that MySQL and Oracle are not end of the world. There are better and different things that I should learn. It is much faster to install and configure Ruby 1.9.2 + mongodb + rails 3 and get the application up and running as compared to Ruby 1.9.2 + MySQL/OracleXE (10g) + rails 3 from scratch.

I would love to hear comments/similar experiences :)