Getting Started with Ruby on Rails: Installation
Introduction
This article will guide you through the process of installing Ruby on Rails, and any other software that is required to begin using it.
This is the first of two articles, Part 1 will show you how to install Ruby on Rails (on Windows) and Part 2 will show you how to create a basic blog.
In order to create a web application with Rails, you will need the following software:
- Ruby (The interpreter for the Ruby Language)
- DBMS (This will be MySQL for this tutorial)
- Rails (Obviously)
First, Installing Ruby!
Ruby is an interpreted language, which means that you don’t have to compile your code before you can execute it – it is interpreted at runtime. For this, we require the Ruby interpreter.
So let’s get started! To install the Ruby interpreter, you will need to download one-click installer.
After initiating the setup process, by double clicking on the one-click installer, you will be guided through the installation by the setup wizard, as follows:
This screen tells you what you are installing (Ruby!) and what version. Nothing much to see here, Click "Next" to move on.
Simply agree to the license agreement by clicking "I Agree" (or read it, if you have too much time on your hands).
This screen will ask you what additional components you want to install. "ScITE" and "Enable RubyGems" should be ticked, as shown, then click "Next".
Choose a location for your installation. It is suggested that you leave this as the default.
And finally, click "Install" to complete the installation.
After the installation is complete, you can check that the installation is correct by keying ruby -v at a command prompt. The version number the Ruby interpreter should appear, as shown below. Also, check to see if the gem command is available by keying gem -v.
Installing MySQL
First, download the setup file by going to the MySQL downloads page. About half way down the page you should see a link "No thanks, just take me to the downloads!"; click on this link, then pick the download mirror you wish to obtain the files from.
Once downloaded, to install MySQL, you can follow any of the helpful tutorials out there. This one, at Global Nerdy, will do just fine.
Important: Remember to take a note of your root password when you create it!
Installing Rails
Installing Rails is simple using the RubyGems package manager (which should be installed along with the Ruby interpreter). Simply key the following at a command prompt:
> gem install rails
Once this command has finished executing, you can check that it has installed correctly by keying rails -v at a command prompt:
Note: don’t worry too much about the version number. As long as it’s 2.2.2 or above, you’re fine.
That’s it! You are now ready to write Ruby on Rails web applications.
In Part 2 of this tutorial, you will learn how to create a basic blog from scratch.
Other Useful Resources for Getting Started
Here are a handful of excellent resources on Ruby on Rails that we recommend.
Other Ruby on Rails Installation Tutorials
The Ruby Language
- Humble Little Ruby Book (Free PDF)
- Interactive Ruby Tutorial (Really great interactive tutorial)
- Poignant’s Guide to Ruby
Editors
- Komodo Edit (Windows)
- e-TextEditor (Windows)
- PSPad (Windows)
- TextMate (OS X)
- Vim (Linux)
Blogs
- Loud Thinking (David Heinemeier Hansson)
- Riding Rails (Official Rails Blog)
- Ruby Inside
- Nuby on Rails
- Ruby on Rails Podcast
- has_many :bugs, :through => :rails
- Obie Fernandez
- theRailWorld.com
Screencasts
- Railscasts (Excellent Resource!)
- Peepcode
- Rails Envy
The "Getting Started with Ruby on Rails" Series
This is a two-part article series that is aimed at getting beginner’s up and running with Rails. Stay tuned by subscribing to the RSS feed so that you can be notified when part two is published.
- Part 1: Getting Started with Ruby on Rails: Installation
- Part 2: Getting Started with Ruby on Rails: Creating a Simple Blog
Related content
- Four Ways Ruby on Rails Can Help You
- 10 Ways to Improve Your Web Page Performance
- 10 Ways to Cut Down Web Development Time
About the Author
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24 Comments
Tukang Nggame
May 17th, 2009
Ruby on Rails something new for me
from this post i’ll learn about it
thanks for share, this post very helpful
Bogdan Pop
May 17th, 2009
I don’t get it. The whole article is RubyOnRails@Windows, but then, in the end there’s links to Linux / Mac OS X editors. Are they any good for Windows users?
I see there’s no link to http://www.ruby-forum.com, which is probably the best resource to finding answers to your questions. Lots of great people over there, and they reply blazing fast as opposed to pretty much any other place on the net.
I see part 2 is about creating a simple blog. I sure hope so it won’t be a text version of the one located at http://rubyonrails.org/screencasts .
Adrian
May 17th, 2009
Can I use the mySQL from another six revisions tutorial that showed you how to install xampp and wordpress?
Jacob Gube
May 17th, 2009
@Adrian: You definitely can, and in fact, it’s a good idea to. Here’s a great step-by-step guide specifically on getting RoR to work with XAMPP, called “Installing Ruby on Rails (ROR) with XAMPP“.
Luis Lavena
May 18th, 2009
Nice write up.
I have a recommendation: do not check Enable RubyGems.
The name of the option is misleading. What that actually does is set RUBYOPT=rubygems which forces RubyGems load on every ruby script or tool that is called.
Also, it used to interfere when updating RubyGems (gem update –system) and also when developing your own gems or updates and having those already installed.
That’s why was turned off in latest Release candidate and indicated in the changelog of the release.
Cheers!
Derek Neighbors
May 18th, 2009
This is an excellent source for getting ruby on rails setup and running on windows. Thanks for sharing it.
Ben
May 18th, 2009
This is good! Please go ahead with this series about RoR!
Phil
May 18th, 2009
@Bogdan Pop – There is a section called “Other Ruby on Rails Installation Tutorials”, this covers Linux/OS X tutorials. I will try to make the blog tutorial as unique as possible, using as many new features that I can find. ps.. sorry for leaving out the ruby forum, just not a resource I use.
danwer
May 18th, 2009
This is good! Please go ahead with this series about RoR!!!
James
May 18th, 2009
Nice tut, but bummer that it’s only for Windows.
AkitaOnRails
May 18th, 2009
You will want to use the official Rails Guides. Many people think that there is no documentation for Rails, which is not true. So go to http://guides.rails.info to get started.
If you’re interested my blog also covers a lot of stuff, including tutorials, which you can find at http://www.akitaonrails.com/tutorials, including several Windows related articles.
Robert Melton
May 18th, 2009
Vim is ALL platforms. :)
Nouman Saleem
May 18th, 2009
Best ruby online tutorials: http://poignantguide.net/ruby/
Paul Datta
May 19th, 2009
Windows users who are just getting on rails should try either using InstantRails-http://snurl.com/iba3y (Rails version 2.0) or Netbeans (this comes with updated rails – 2.1 or later I guess) – http://snurl.com/iba85
InstantRails comes with mongrel and mysql (bundled) minus the ide, netbeans gives you everything else minus the database :-)
I choose Netbeans as windows users lack a textmate :-)
mupet
May 19th, 2009
I have no experience with ruby, what is the best feature of ruby?, still using my favorit language PHP
satish.borkar
May 22nd, 2009
may i know in which language ruby on rails is developed?
Janko
May 22nd, 2009
Looking forward to seeing part 2!
vivian
May 30th, 2009
thanks for the actually decent installation article. so hard to find one.
bryan
June 2nd, 2009
When I download MySQL, the following error occurs when I attempt to login. I have looked through the forums and to no avail I am still having this problem. can anyone help?
Can’t connect to MySQL server on ‘localhost’ (10061)
Adrian
June 14th, 2009
I can’t migrate the comments table, but posts worked the first time. (i took a screenshot):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33883927@N04/3624907729/
I have tried a lot of things. Can anyone fix this?
Adrian
June 14th, 2009
oh oops that last comment was for a different post. SORRY!! please delete it! i am going to post that at the right place now…
Paul Mccann
July 19th, 2009
When i try to install in C:\xampp\ruby it asks me if I want to uninstall the previous version (which there is not one), when I click yes it loads the xampp uninstaller!!
Bit weird, so I am unable to install ruby into the xampp directory for some reason!
Max
October 19th, 2009
This breaks the installation down into 3 parts. Installing Ruby, MySQL, and Rails. Installing RoR in this order is crucial having a good web server. Another article that gets you started on the right path of setting up Ruby on Rails is located here http://topcweb.com/content/ruby-rails-setup.
Martin
March 18th, 2010
This has been the best installation article description i have seen on the web for installing ror.
Thank you so much.
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