To understand how the VR plugin works check this forum.

RailRoad generates nice diagrams of your models and controllers.

ActiveScaffold is easy to use, to modify, and to extend to your needs.

Howto install and use RSpec.

These are two basically different things: the first is nothing more than a login screen, the second is far more useful.

You’ll have to document your app. First you’ll have to describe what it should do (via RSpec), and then how it does (using doc & diagram generator plugins).

Hobo is far the best Rapid Application Builder for Rails.

It is far better to use plugins than engines (gems).

The best approach to Rails is to use plugins extensively. It is better to build a Rails application using already existing modules than code from scratch. With this you can buy time.