Web Programming with Ruby

Ruby
1

Does anyone know any really good tutorials out there?

I’m having some issues with this Ruby on Rails thing, and I can’t seem
to get it to install AT ALL. I have a server and everything online (if
that’s even what you need)…I’m really clueless, all I can really find
are MAC tutorials when I look around.

Thanks for the help.

2

The best place to start with Ruby on Rails (assuming Windows) is to
install InstantRails (http://instantrails.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl).
Unzip and go. Works fine on Windows XP if that is what you are using.

Regards,
Jim

3

Do I actually need the other programs installed on my computer in order
for rails to work?

4

Superfly,

If you read the link, you’ll see that “Instant Rails is a one-stop Rails
runtime solution containing Ruby, Rails, Apache, and MySQL, all
pre-configured and ready to run.” That’s it. Unzip into a directory, run
the “InstantRails.exe” file to start everything and you’re ready to
develop. That simple. It’s called “InstantRails” for a very good reason.

-Jim

5

Yep, I’ve gotten that far.

It’s having a hard time “connecting” to apache and mysql though; so i’m
wondering that i’m doing wrong there. =/

6

What do you mean? What do you see in your web browser when you connect
to “http://localhost” (by default it should be a ‘Replace this file!’
message). Have you created an application in Rails by changing the
directory to where you app should be and then typing: rails my_app_name
to create it? Are you starting WEBrick (ruby script/server) and then
connecting to http://localhost:3000 to see the Rails default info
screen?

Likewise what do you see when you are connecting to MySQL? Are you
connecting to the default port of 3306? Are you using a command line or
a GUI such as the MySQL Administrator? What messages do you see on your
screen? InstantRails sets up MySQL to use a username of root with a
blank password. What do you see when you try these values?

Saying you are having a hard time doesn’t provide any information about
what may be going wrong. If you provide specific error messages or
describe how you are trying to connect, that would be much more helpful
to troubleshoot.

I’m guessing that you are probably new to Rails. You should pick up a
copy of “Agile Web D. with Rails” (second edition) and see
section 3.2 for InstantRails on Windows and then work through chapter 4.

-Jim