Creating an all-in-one Windows installer for application deployment...?

Rails
1

Hi All,

I’m in the process of deploying a rails application to Windows
machines. In order to keep my sanity, I do all of my development with
OS X and Linux, but the final app will actually run on Windows
machines.

That said, my client is looking for an all-in-one Apache(I had to talk
him out of IIS)+Rails+Application deployment/installer. He wants to
hand all of his (Windows-based) clients an install CD for their
respective servers (they all want their own setup).

Is there anything like this in existence? I realize Capistrano exists
but that requires a great deal of setup on the hosts (especially for
Windows) beforehand and it’s not very feasible in this particular
case.

In the past I’ve used InnoSetup (Inno Setup)
for creating installers, but I’m not sure that’s going to work in this
case – as I need to bundle multiple installers, then run some post-
install items.

If you guys have any input, suggestions, or highly persuasive client
techniques (to talk them all out of Windows =P) it would be most
appreciated.

Best.

2

2009/6/19 gberz3 [email protected]:

him out of IIS)+Rails+Application deployment/installer. Â He wants to
hand all of his (Windows-based) clients an install CD for their
respective servers (they all want their own setup).

Is there anything like this in existence? Â I realize Capistrano exists
but that requires a great deal of setup on the hosts (especially for
Windows) beforehand and it’s not very feasible in this particular
case.

Have a look at InstantRails. This is an all in one setup with apache
that provides the full rails environment (though not the latest unless
it has been recently updated) and a couple of sample apps. In fact I
think it is not even an installer, just put it in a folder and it
works. You may be able to build on this for your requirements.

Colin

3

Colin L. wrote:

Have a look at InstantRails. […]

Yeah. Other options (not that I’ve tried these):

  • Slingshot
  • Moonshine (different approach, but might be worth a look)
  • Or just use JRuby and package the app as a Java application. This is
    the way Mingle does it, and should be pretty much OS-agnostic.

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]