# Rails 2.3

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-2-3/165640>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 16, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-2-3/165640 "2009-04-16T00:18:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![binkly](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@binkly](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/binkly)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-2-3/165640/1 "2009-04-16T00:18:32Z")

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Hello,

I’ve been looking on the Internet for how to use libxml within Rails.  
What I’m seeing is a little confusing. If you install the libxml gem,  
will Rails automatically use that because its installed or do you have  
to explicitly set libxml to be the default after you’ve installed it?

This posting

[http://www.coffeepowered.net/2009/03/16/things-to-do-when-upgrading-to-rails-23/](http://www.coffeepowered.net/2009/03/16/things-to-do-when-upgrading-to-rails-23/)

Says to set this in the environment file.

1. ActiveSupport::XmlMini.backend = ‘LibXML’

But when I do that my app crashes. Anyone have any experience with  
this?

thanks,

binh

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![binkly](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@binkly](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/binkly)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-2-3/165640/2 "2009-04-16T04:21:27Z")

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Binh Ly wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I’ve been looking on the Internet for how to use libxml within Rails.  
> What I’m seeing is a little confusing. If you install the libxml gem,  
> will Rails automatically use that because its installed or do you have  
> to explicitly set libxml to be the default after you’ve installed it?
> 
> This posting
> 
> [http://www.coffeepowered.net/2009/03/16/things-to-do-when-upgrading-to-rails-23/](http://www.coffeepowered.net/2009/03/16/things-to-do-when-upgrading-to-rails-23/)
> 
> Says to set this in the environment file.
> 
> 1. ActiveSupport::XmlMini.backend = ‘LibXML’
> 
> But when I do that my app crashes. Anyone have any experience with  
> this?

If you could provide the entire backtrace, it would be much easier to  
diagnose.

Michael G.