Installation Guide

In order to start building your first web application using Ruby on Rails, you will need to setup some software and the development environment for your computer. Follow the instructions for your operating system. If you run into any problems, don’t panic. Let us know during the event and we can solve it together.

Setup for OS X

1. Check the version of your operating system.

Click the Apple menu and choose About this Mac.

Apple menu

2. In the window you will find the version of your operating system.

If your version number is higher than 10.6 this guide is for you. If it’s something else, we can setup your machine at the event.

About this Mac dialog

3a. If your OS X version is 10.9 or higher:

If your version number is higher than 10.9, follow these steps. We are installing homebrew and rvm.

Open Spotlight, type Terminal and click the Terminal application. You will write all the following commands in the window that you just opened.

3a1. Install XCode Command line tools in the terminal:

xcode-select --install

3a2. Install Homebrew:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

3a3. Install rvm:

brew update
gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 409B6B1796C275462A1703113804BB82D39DC0E3
\curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable

3a4. Install Ruby:

rvm install 2.2.4
rvm use --default 2.2.4

3a5. Check the Gem Manager:

RubyGems is the gem manager in Ruby.

Coach: Explain what a gem is.

gem -v
gem update --system

3a6. Install Rails:

The Bundler gem is an essential tool for managing gems when developing and running Rails applications. RVM used to install Bundler automatically. As of version 1.26.11 (released March 31, 2015), RVM no longer installs Bundler automatically. You must install Bundler:

gem install bundler
gem install rails --version=4.2.4

3b. If your OS X version is 10.6, 10.7, or 10.8:

Download the RailsInstaller for your version of OS X:

Double click the downloaded file and it will unpack it into the current directory. Double click the the newly unpacked ‘RailsInstaller-1.0.4-osx-10.7.app’ or ‘RailsInstaller-1.0.4-osx-10.6.app’ and follow the instructions. It will open a README file with ‘Rails Installer OS X’ at the top. Please ignore the instructions in this file.

If the Rails version wasn’t the latest, you could update it using a following command on terminal.

gem update rails --no-ri --no-rdoc

4. Install a text editor to edit code files

For the workshop we recommend the text editor Atom.

If you are using Mac OS X 10.7 or older versions, you can also use Sublime Text 2.

5. Update your browser

Open whatbrowser.org and update your browser if you don’t have the latest version.

Now you should have a working Ruby on Rails programming setup. Congrats!

Setup for Windows

1. Install Rails

Download RailsInstaller and run it. Click through the installer using the default options.

Open Command Prompt with Ruby on Rails and run the following command:

rails -v

If the Rails version is less than 4, update it using a following command:

gem update rails --no-ri --no-rdoc

Make sure that all works well by running the application generator command.

rails new blog
cd blog
rails server

Possible errors

Gem::RemoteFetcher error

If you get this error when running rails new blog or gem update rails:

Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError: SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read
server certificate B: certificate verify failed (https://rubygems.org/gems/i18n-
            0.6.11.gem)

This means you have an older version of Rubygems and will need to update it manually first verify your Rubygems version

gem -v

If it is lower than 2.2.3 you will need to manually update it:

First download the ruby-gems-update gem. Move the file to c:\\rubygems-update-2.2.3.gem then run:

gem install --local c:\\rubygems-update-2.2.3.gem
            update_rubygems --no-ri --no-rdoc
            gem uninstall rubygems-update -x

Check your version of rubygems

gem -v

Make sure it is equal or higher than 2.2.3. Re-run the command that was failing previously.

‘x64_mingw’ is not a valid platform` Error

Sometimes you get the following error when running rails server: 'x64_mingw' is not a valid platform If you experience this error after using the RailsInstaller you have to do a small edit to the file Gemfile:

Look at the bottom of the file. You will probably see something like this as one of the last lines in the file: gem 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:mingw, :mswin, :x64_mingw]. If you have this line with :x64_mingw, then please delete the :x64_mingw part. In the end it should just say: 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:mingw, :mswin]

After you did that, please use your Command Prompt again and type bundle update.

2. Install a text editor to edit code files

For the workshop we recommend the text editor Atom.

If you are using Windows Vista or older versions, you can use another editor Sublime Text 2.

Now you should have a working Ruby on Rails programming setup. Congrats!

3. Update your browser

If you are using Internet Explorer, we recommend installing Google Chrome or Firefox.

Open whatbrowser.org and update your browser if you don’t have the latest version.

4. Install node

This is not strictly necessary, but it avoids a problem with and ExecJS::RuntimeError that might occur later (see stackoverflow).

Check your version of node

node --version

Make sure it is higher than 0.12.

Setup for Linux

1. Install Rails

To install the Ruby on Rails development environment you just need to copy the line below for your Linux distribution (Ubuntu or Fedora), paste it in the Terminal and press Enter. Enjoy the text flying on the screen; it will take quite some time. Grabbing a refreshing drink before starting is encouraged.

For Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install curl
bash < <(curl -sL https://raw.github.com/railsgirls/installation-scripts/master/rails-install-ubuntu.sh)

If you are going to use RVM installations with gnome-terminal, you’ll probably need to change it’s default options before you can see and use the right Ruby and Rails versions. Find out how: RVM documentation.

For Fedora:

bash < <(curl -sL https://raw.github.com/railsgirls/installation-scripts/master/rails-install-fedora.sh)

Make sure that all works well by running the application generator command.

rails new blog
cd blog
rails server

2. Install a text editor to edit code files

For the workshop we recommend the text editor Sublime Text.

3. Update your browser

Open whatbrowser.org and update your browser if you don’t have the latest version.

Now you should have a working Ruby on Rails programming setup. Congrats!

Virtual Machine

Instead of installing all tools on your machine, you can also set up a development environment in a Virtual Machine. Please find all the details here.

Using a Cloud Service

Instead of installing Ruby on Rails and an editor on your computer, you can use a webservice for development. All you need is a browser and an internet connection. This guide explains how to get started with nitrous.io. If you’re using a different service, they may use a different wording - e.g. ‘workspace’ instead of ‘box’, but the process is usually pretty similar.

1. Update your browser

If you use Internet Explorer, we recommend installing Firefox or Google Chrome.

Open whatbrowser.org and update your browser if you don’t have the latest version.

2. Create an account

Go to https://nitrous.io and signup.

3. Setup a development box / workspace for ruby on rails

4. Find and restart your development box

5. Coding with your development box

Next: Create your first application