| description | Get to grips with key concepts of Nails. |
|---|
A good starting point is understanding the key concepts in a Nails application. These concepts are referred to a lot throughout the documentation.
Learn about how Nails handles the various environments an application might be deployed in.
{% content-ref url="environments.md" %} environments.md {% endcontent-ref %}
There are various types of routing in Nails: explicit, generated, and automatic. Learn the difference between and when to use each type here:
{% content-ref url="routing.md" %} routing.md {% endcontent-ref %}
The central service loader for Nails; the factory is responsible for getting instances of all your classes as well as providing an interface for the simple extension of core components.
{% content-ref url="factory/" %} factory {% endcontent-ref %}
The brain of your application, controllers respond to requests and orchestrate your application's logic.
{% content-ref url="controllers.md" %} controllers.md {% endcontent-ref %}
Views are the presentation layer of your application.
{% content-ref url="views.md" %} views.md {% endcontent-ref %}
Helpers are groups of utility functions which add functionality, or provide shortcuts for methods exposed by other parts of the application.
{% content-ref url="helpers.md" %} helpers.md {% endcontent-ref %}
The real power in Nails is leveraging the components ecosystem to bring in advanced functionality through additional modules, drivers, and skins.
{% content-ref url="components/" %} components {% endcontent-ref %}