Installing Ruby on Rails for Windows 7 (up to date)

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+1 Q:

Installing Ruby on Rails for Windows 7 (up to date)

I'm a designer and not a coder and having issues with the first install.

I downloaded Rails 1.8.6 and Instant Rails.

I opened a console and tried updating gems. Nothing worked there.

I think I will just delete everything and start over because I'm sure I broke something by now. I was really thinking about buying a Mac today just to get it working.

What do you recommend for: 1. What EXACTLY to download? 2. Steps to take?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

+2 A:

To be honest I'd almost just download VirtualBox and install Ubuntu in it, then develop with Rails on there. Things just work better on *nix systems when it comes to Ruby/Rails/gems/etc. Rails development on Windows is more pain than it needs to be.

codykrieger 2010-08-13 04:34:24

+3 A:

I've been developing with Rails on Windows 7 for over a year and have never experienced any frustrations due to this. These instructions have always worked perfectly for me.

Download and install Ruby 1.8.7

http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/71492/rubyinstaller-1.8.7-p299.exe

Download the latest RubyGems, and extract the file somewhere

http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126

Open the command prompt, cd into the directory you extracted RubyGems too, and do "ruby setub.rb"

On the command line anywhere run "gem install rails"

I have no idea why so many people are anti Rails/Windows. I suppose OS X is easier since it comes with Rails already installed. Linux on the other hand you can easily jack up your environment if you mix up using apt-get and gems to install libraries.

Zachary 2010-08-13 04:55:10

+1 You're a more patient man than me. Which DBMS are you using for development on Windows?

fletcher 2010-08-13 05:16:08

I'm currently using mysql, although I've been meaning to move over to sqlite for a while - I just had mysql already installed and squirrel sql configured to use it.

Zachary 2010-08-13 05:19:09

Ok this is what I don't understand. I can get the Rails to show up in my localhost with "Welcome aboard". Does that mean it's installed? I can't seem to get any editors to produce any results though. I'm using Simply Rails 2 book as a programming and installing guide.When you say command prompt are you talking about the console? I have Mongrel 1.1.2 running right now and not sure how to get back to the prompt to type. Sorry I'm a beginner on code (I do use PHP and CSS on design though).

Ken 2010-08-13 05:19:35

Oh, and I found this link - http://blog.code71.com/2010/03/ruby-on-rails-setup-on-windows.html but I don't even know what #2 is - PATH? Is that the folder path? How do I type that and where (int he console?).

Ken 2010-08-13 05:21:07

Yeah, click the Windows button and type in 'cmd' - that's the command prompt I'm talking about.And if you see that message then Rails is in fact installed, and you have successfully created a rails app. What do you mean about getting editors to produce results?

Zachary 2010-08-13 05:21:31

Using RadRails I get "Empty external server URL" when trying to open a page called 01-car-classes.rb - What does that mean?

Ken 2010-08-13 05:23:04

PATH is an environment variable, I believe when you use the ruby executable to install ruby there was an option to add ruby to your path - I'm not sure if you chose to do that or not.You can add things to your path by clicking the windows button, right clicking my computer -> properties -> advanced system settings -> environment variables

Zachary 2010-08-13 05:24:03

Ah, I have no idea, I don't use RadRails. I just use a regular text editor: e - texteditor.

Zachary 2010-08-13 05:25:04

Thanks for helping. When I type gem install rails in the console I get:ERROR: While executing gem <Gem::RemoteSourceException>HTTP Response 301 fetching http://gems.rubyforge.org/yaml

Ken 2010-08-13 05:27:59

Are you for sure using the latest version of rubygems: 1.3.7?

Zachary 2010-08-13 05:30:01

I doubt it. I'm searching how I find out what version I have now.

Ken 2010-08-13 05:33:44

Where do I download the 1.3.7 to? Inside the Ruby\bin folder?

Ken 2010-08-13 05:38:28

It doesn't matter, when you run setup.rb it will setup things correctly.

Zachary 2010-08-13 05:39:28

I tried doing this "ruby setub.rb" as you mentioned above but it says no such file or directory -- setub.rb <LoadError>It appears it might have something to do with my InstantRails but I could be wrong.

Ken 2010-08-13 05:43:17

I did "gem install rails" and 8 gems were installed! Now it's installing ri docs

Ken 2010-08-13 05:47:15

yeah, that's what it should do. The docs may take a while. I've actually never heard of InstantRails, so I'm not sure what it could have done.

Zachary 2010-08-13 06:05:39

I fixed my paths to everything too. I was over complicating it. It's similar to old DOS. lol Back on the right path! :) I did get the 1.3.7 gems to install. I had 1.0.1 installed. I'm installing another round of rails too up to 1.8.7 from 1.8.6 I believe. Thanks again for your help! - Ken

Ken 2010-08-13 06:14:32

I did a NEW, clean install based off your recommendations. How do I tie in the db now? I downloaded sqlite3 but not sure how to get it running and I read the sqlite3 site and about 40 forums and 3 sites and nothing explainable.

Ken 2010-08-14 05:15:55

+1 A:

Cody's right, but I have more to say than will fit in a comment.

Rails on Windows just pain. You don't have to buy a shiny new Mac (I do like my Mac though). I happen to prefer developing Rails apps on Ubuntu. If you do Rails development for any extended period of time you'll probably want to move to Passenger. Passenger doesn't run on Windows.

My day job is writing .net code and while Mono is great, I wouldn't develop an application targeting a Windows OS on an OS X or Linux machine. I'm not a fanboy by any means - when I decide to take on a new language or framework, I do some research and find out the best platform to use. I don't want to sit and fight with Ruby or Rails because Windows isn't well supported - I'll just go with a *nix based machine and be on my way. When in Rome...

Andy Gaskell 2010-08-13 04:59:27

Out of curiosity, why would you move to Passenger on the machine you are developing on?

Zachary 2010-08-13 05:07:13

I was just glad to see no one mentioned me being a "designer" and having a PC anyway. :)

Ken 2010-08-13 05:16:16

Because when you don't develop on the same platform that you deploy on you ask silly questions on SO. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/230534/mongreldirhandler-equivalent-for-passenger

Andy Gaskell 2010-08-13 05:17:28

I suppose so, but I'd still rather opt for more lightweight tools for development.

Zachary 2010-08-13 05:28:00

nginx is pretty light. You can also produce url's that are closer to a production environment... subdomains with the correct amount of "parts", no ports - stuff like that. If you like developing Rails apps on Windows, right on; just not my thing.

Andy Gaskell 2010-08-13 05:41:44

Looks like I got it. Thanks everyone for your help! :) (and patience)

Ken 2010-08-13 06:04:03

ansaurus

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Installing Ruby on Rails for Windows 7 (up to date)

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