Update Getting Start With Rails guide to account for Dev Containers

guides/source/command_line.md

@@ -46,27 +46,28 @@ Rails will set up what seems like a huge amount of stuff for such a tiny command
 
 If you wish to skip some files from being generated or skip some libraries, you can append any of the following arguments to your `rails new` command:
 
-| Argument                | Description                                                 |
-| ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
-| `--skip-git`            | Skip git init, .gitignore, and .gitattributes               |
-| `--skip-docker`         | Skip Dockerfile, .dockerignore and bin/docker-entrypoint    |
-| `--skip-keeps`          | Skip source control .keep files                             |
-| `--skip-action-mailer`  | Skip Action Mailer files                                    |
-| `--skip-action-mailbox` | Skip Action Mailbox gem                                     |
-| `--skip-action-text`    | Skip Action Text gem                                        |
-| `--skip-active-record`  | Skip Active Record files                                    |
-| `--skip-active-job`     | Skip Active Job                                             |
-| `--skip-active-storage` | Skip Active Storage files                                   |
-| `--skip-action-cable`   | Skip Action Cable files                                     |
-| `--skip-asset-pipeline` | Skip Asset Pipeline                                         |
-| `--skip-javascript`     | Skip JavaScript files                                       |
-| `--skip-hotwire`        | Skip Hotwire integration                                    |
-| `--skip-jbuilder`       | Skip jbuilder gem                                           |
-| `--skip-test`           | Skip test files                                             |
-| `--skip-system-test`    | Skip system test files                                      |
-| `--skip-bootsnap`       | Skip bootsnap gem                                           |
-| `--skip-dev-gems`       | Skip adding development gems                                |
-| `--skip-rubocop`        | Skip RuboCop setup                                          |
+| Argument                | Description                                              |
+|-------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
+| `--skip-git`            | Skip git init, .gitignore, and .gitattributes            |
+| `--skip-docker`         | Skip Dockerfile, .dockerignore and bin/docker-entrypoint |
+| `--skip-keeps`          | Skip source control .keep files                          |
+| `--skip-action-mailer`  | Skip Action Mailer files                                 |
+| `--skip-action-mailbox` | Skip Action Mailbox gem                                  |
+| `--skip-action-text`    | Skip Action Text gem                                     |
+| `--skip-active-record`  | Skip Active Record files                                 |
+| `--skip-active-job`     | Skip Active Job                                          |
+| `--skip-active-storage` | Skip Active Storage files                                |
+| `--skip-action-cable`   | Skip Action Cable files                                  |
+| `--skip-asset-pipeline` | Skip Asset Pipeline                                      |
+| `--skip-javascript`     | Skip JavaScript files                                    |
+| `--skip-hotwire`        | Skip Hotwire integration                                 |
+| `--skip-jbuilder`       | Skip jbuilder gem                                        |
+| `--skip-test`           | Skip test files                                          |
+| `--skip-system-test`    | Skip system test files                                   |
+| `--skip-bootsnap`       | Skip bootsnap gem                                        |
+| `--skip-dev-gems`       | Skip adding development gems                             |
+| `--skip-rubocop`        | Skip RuboCop setup                                       |
+| `--skip-devcontainer`   | Skip Dev Container setup                                 |
 
 These are just some of the options that `rails new` accepts. For a full list of options, type `rails new --help`.
 

guides/source/getting_started.md

@@ -64,6 +64,9 @@ The Rails philosophy includes two major guiding principles:
 Creating a New Rails Project
 ----------------------------
 
+TIP: New Rails apps come with a preconfigured Dev Container development environment. This
+is the fastest way to get started with Rails. For instructions see [Getting Start with Dev Containers](getting_started_with_devcontainer.html)
+
 The best way to read this guide is to follow it step by step. All steps are
 essential to run this example application and no additional code or steps are
 needed.
@@ -194,6 +197,7 @@ of the files and folders that Rails creates by default:
 |.gitignore|This file tells git which files (or patterns) it should ignore. See [GitHub - Ignoring files](https://help.github.com/articles/ignoring-files) for more information about ignoring files.|
 |.rubocop.yml|This file contains the configuration for RuboCop.|
 |.ruby-version|This file contains the default Ruby version.|
+|.devcontainer/|This folder contains the Dev Container configuration|
 
 Hello, Rails!
 -------------

guides/source/getting_started_with_devcontainer.md

@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+**DO NOT READ THIS FILE ON GITHUB, GUIDES ARE PUBLISHED ON https://guides.rubyonrails.org.**
+
+Getting Started with Dev Containers
+===================================
+
+After reading this guide, you know:
+
+* How to create a new Rails application with the `rails-new` tool
+* How to begin working with your application in a Dev Container
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The best way to read this guide is to follow it step by step. All steps are
+essential to run this example application and no additional code or steps are
+needed.
+
+This guide helps you get set up with [Developer Containers (or Dev Containers for short)](https://containers.dev/)
+for a full-featured development environment. Dev Containers are used to run your
+Rails application in a container, without needing to install Rails or its dependencies
+directly on your machine. This is the fastest way to get your Rails application up and running.
+
+This is an alternative to installing Ruby and Rails directly on your machine, which is
+covered in the [Getting Started guides](getting_started.md#creating-a-new-rails-project).
+Once you have completed this guide, you can continue building your application by following
+the Getting Started guide.
+
+Setup and Installation
+----------------------
+
+To get set up, you will need to install the relevant tools; Docker, VSCode and
+`rails-new`. We'll go into detail about each one below.
+
+### Installing Docker
+
+Dev Containers are run using Docker, an open platform for developing, shipping, and
+running applications. You can install Docker by following the installation instructions
+for your operating system in the [Docker docs](https://docs.docker.com/desktop/).
+
+Once Docker has been installed, launch the Docker Application to begin running
+the Docker engine on your machine.
+
+### Installing VSCode
+
+Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is an open source code editor developed by Microsoft. VSCode's Dev Container
+extension allows you to open any folder inside (or mounted into) a container and take advantage of
+Visual Studio Code's full feature set. A [devcontainer.json](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/devcontainers/containers#_create-a-devcontainerjson-file)
+file in your project tells VS Code how to access (or create) a development container with a
+well-defined tool and runtime stack. It allows you to quickly spin up containers, access terminal
+commands, debug code, and utilize extensions.
+
+You can install VSCode by downloading it from [the website](https://code.visualstudio.com/).
+
+You can install the Dev Container extension by downloading it from [the marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers).
+
+### Installing rails-new
+
+`rails-new` generates a new Rails application for you without having to install Ruby on
+your machine. It uses Docker to generate the Rails application, thus allowing Docker to
+take care of installing the correct Ruby and Rails versions for you.
+
+To install rails-new, follow the installation instructions [in the readme](https://github.com/rails/rails-new?tab=readme-ov-file#installation).
+
+Creating the Blog Application
+-----------------------------
+
+Rails comes with a number of scripts called generators that are designed to make
+your development life easier by creating everything that's necessary to start
+working on a particular task. One of these is the new application generator,
+which will provide you with the foundation of a fresh Rails application so that
+you don't have to write it yourself. The `rails-new` tool uses this generator to
+create a new Rails application for you.
+
+NOTE: The examples below use `$` to represent your terminal prompt in a UNIX-like OS,
+though it may have been customized to appear differently.
+
+To use `rails-new` to generate your app, open a terminal, navigate to a directory where you have
+rights to create files, and run:
+
+```bash
+$ rails-new blog
+```
+
+This will create a Rails application called Blog in a `blog` directory.
+
+TIP: You can see all of the command line options that the Rails application
+generator accepts by running `rails-new --help`.
+
+After you create the blog application, switch to its folder:
+
+```bash
+$ cd blog
+```
+
+The `blog` directory will have a number of generated files and folders that make
+up the structure of a Rails application. Most of the work in this tutorial will
+happen in the `app` folder. For a full rundown of everything in your application
+see the full [Getting Started guide](getting_started.md#creating-the-blog-application).
+
+Opening the Blog Application in a Dev Container
+-----------------------------------------------
+
+Our new Rails application comes with a Dev Container already configured and ready to use.
+We will use VSCode to spin up and work with our Dev Container. Start by launching VSCode
+and opening your application.
+
+Once the application opens, VSCode should prompt you that a it has found a Dev Container
+configuration file, and you can reopen the folder in a Dev Container. Click the green "Reopen
+in Container" button to create the Dev Container.
+
+Once the Dev Container setup is complete, your development environment is ready to use,
+with Ruby, Rails, and all your dependencies installed.
+
+You can open the terminal within VScode to verify that Rails is installed:
+
+```bash
+$ rails --version
+Rails 7.2.0
+```
+
+You can now continue with the [Getting Started guide](getting_started.md#hello-rails) and
+begin building your Blog application. You will be working within VSCode, which serves as
+your entry point to your application's Dev Container, where you can run code, run tests and
+run your application.