I highly recommend reading the source. Download the source, and read through the implementations, especially around routing. For most open source, not just Rail

I highly recommend reading the source. Download the source, and read through the implementations, especially around routing. For most open source, not just Rails, this is often your best bet. I rarely use any open source software out-of-box without digging around the source. This can be confusing with Ruby because it can be tough to figure out where methods are, due to module loading. I usually load the whole Rails source in Textmate and then use something like the Grep In Project plugin so that it's easier to search around for specific methods. You'll never get the detail you really want out of just reading documentation.