Ruby on Rails 3.1 released

OPEN SOURCE Ruby on Rails has been updated to version 3.1, bringing with it fresh features for improved web development.

The updated release was announced through creator David Heinemeier Hansson's Twitter feed with a brief introduction to its features.

"Rails 3.1.0 is out w/ asset pipeline, HTTP streaming, jQuery default, and a trillion other cool new things", he wrote, before linking to the release notes.

Users that upgrade should probably run their applications in a testing environment before adopting it wholesale, he added, and should at least have tried out Rails v3.

New additions include a switch to the default JSON format over XML, HTTP streaming, which lets the browser download stylesheets and Javascript files while the server is still generating the response and should improve response times, the Sprockets 2.0 powered Assets pipeline, which speeds and improves Javascript and CSS assets delivery, and the use of Jquery as the default Javascript library.

The full list of changes is available in the Ruby on Rails 3.1 release notes. µ