I am contemplating a project, and I have a question:
What components would you use to build a business application in Ruby?

Suppose, you were asked to write a business application. Typical,
no-thrills business app. Reasonably small database, few dozen users (all
internal), some reporting functionality, couple of batch interfaces,
nothing fancy. To give an example, think about sales / stock control
system for a wholesale trader of electronic goods. Or vehicle tracking
system in a truck company. Or something similar.

Naturally enough, one would want to do it in Ruby :) 
But for a job like this, you need a certain set of technologies, namely:

1. A database 
	Java world: Oracle, MySQL or another relational DB of your choice

2. Some way to persist domain objects and manage transactions 
	Java world: entity EJBs, JDO, hand-coded DAOs, O/R <censored> mappers,
etc

3. An RPC (remote procedure call) mechanism for communication between
the front-end and the back-end (assuming that the front-end is a thick
GUI).
	Java world: session EJBs, servlets

4. A thick GUI
	Java world: Swing

5. A Web GUI
	Java world: JSP, XSLT, XMLC and all the other stuff

6. An asynchronous communications infrastructure
	Java world: message-driven EJBs

Doing the whole thing in Ruby is already experimental enough, so the 
choice is limited to mature, production-grade stuff.

What would you use?

If this has been discussed before, I am sorry. Please point me to a
relevant thread in the archives.

Best regards
Alexey Verkhovsky