Steps to previewing a fully-functioning Ruby on Rails app in browser - ruby-on-rails

I am very new at this so apologies for the noobiness of the question.
I've forked & cloned a fully-functioning Ruby on Rails app that I will be editing/playing around with locally. I would like to be able to view it in my local browser.
Is there a standard checklist of commands to run or things to check for before being able to run it locally?
I assume I would have to look at the Gemfile and make sure everything is installed with the right versions. I already have npm installed. I installed rails, but it appears to be a different version than the Gemfile specified.
Other info:
Operating system is Mac OS High Sierra; Browser: Chrome; Text Editor: Atom or VS Code are preferred.
Thank you in advance!

It sounds like you are running the wrong version of ruby on your machine, check out RVM to manage different versions.

Related

How do I set up an old Ruby on Rails project on a new server?

I'm not a RoR programmer myself, but a good client of ours has sent a project their previous web team built and I need to get it up and running on their server.
The server uses cPanel and Ruby on Rails is already installed. I've created a project via the cPanel wizard and located the file tree via SSH.
Using SSH, I've tried to replace this file tree with the project I've been sent, but when I hit 'run' in cPanel, the application doesn't actually start (although the success message would indicate that it has).
If I leave the original cPanel-created application in place, I can run/stop no problem and the web interface at :12001 opens up just fine.
I assume there are either conflicts with RoR versions that I need to resolve, or there's simply more to it than just replacing the file tree? Again I'm not a RoR programmer and I'm having a hard time finding a migration guide that tells me anything other than "set up in cPanel and replace the files".
I'd very much appreciate either some genuinely useful links to RoR application setup/migration guides (ideally for cPanel) or a step-by-step answer please.
First, forget Cpanel for now. Try in one environment where you can control everything.
Try to know better the rails version used and the associated gem19s or plugin if from 2.x days. The ruby version is important too, only then you can start defining a plan.
I'm afraid you won't get a step-by-step answer, but I'm sure you can be pointed in the right direction by providing the requested information.
Simple questions: Do you have a Gemfile file at the top at your project? Do you have any plugins (stuff in vendor/plugins)?
Update:
With the Gemfile provided here are the required steps:
Install ruby (if you haven't install it using rvm. The version 1.9.3-x should be the safest.
Install rubygems
Install bundler
Go the project dir and run bundle install
run rake db:migrate (assure you have the database setup acording to config/database.yml
run rails s and check the logs and see if the server is up.
If after installing bundler, you don't have the bundle command in your path, you need to add this your .bash_profile:
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin
export PATH

changing to a new computer

OK, so I have been working through the ruby on rails tutorial by Hartl. I've begun the demo_app. I want to change computers. I downloaded ruby and ruby on rails to my new windows 8 machine. I then copied the folder with all my ruby on rails apps from my old computer to my new one. I thought everything would just work. But, no! I had to run bundle install before I could even start the rails server from within the sample_app. After that things seem to work. But I don't know why I had to do that. Can anyone explain?
Now, I'm not sure what will happen if I install github and heroku on the new machine. I think I already have a new ssh key for one thing. And so I have no idea if I do download both of those if I just continue with my development of the demo_app or if everything is going to be screwed up. Any advice would be appreciated. Yes, I'll read the git book, but I was hoping I could get going with my rails stuff in the meantime if there is some easy way to make the transition to the new machine. Or should I just stick to the old machine until I've learned a lot more about git?
Gems are installed in your default system location for gems, not in your projects. You have copied your project folder but not the gems, that is why you have to bundle install again.
What bundle install does is it installs the required gems by your application to your computer. So naturally if you change the machine, gems that installed to your previous computer is not there in your new machine. That is why you have to run bundle install again.
if you want to install your gems inside the project directory (so that if you change the machines it will not effect you) do the following
bundle install
check this out for more info
HTH
After installing Rails you're halfway there.
Like the other answers say you need a bundle install.
The next step (I would suggest) is the database-server. But you said your app is already working (?). At this point you should be able starting your web using a server like Webrick.
I think the easies way to set up Git, is installing git, set it up (like email and name and this stuff) and then cloning the repository to your new pc (with git clone ...). Of course you can add your new Ssh-key to Github, to have easier accces to GitHub.
I can't tell you so much about heroku because I've never used it. But if you've set up your deployment it should work like before, because (I guess) it also gets the code from github.

Ruby on Rails app not loading stylesheet despite it being accessible on the server

I'm currently migrating my Ruby on Rails 2.3.8 apps to a new server running Apache 2.2.17 on FreeBSD 8.1 with Passenger 3, Ruby Enterprise Edition 1.8.7. For some reason, despite the stylesheets being accessible, the apps are not loading them. The code is correct and runs fine on the old setup. Has anyone ran into this?
Update: Wowwww it was an issue with the version of chromium. All is good after updating. Thanks for the help everyone.
I'd check on the permissions -- what user is the ruby process running under (for passenger), and does that user have access to the stylesheet in question.
you can use ls -l to see permission sets for the stylesheets.
This was an issue with the edge-version of Chrome I was using... Should have checked another browser before posting.

Setting up Rails for the first time - is this normal?

I am trying to setup a Rails environment via CPanel. I've tried on several distinct hosting environments (on all of which I used CPanel to create the project) and I always get the following:
Is this something I've done wrong - I have to first create models/controllers etc - or something I need to bark up my hosting provider's tree about?
Have you tried running your app locally? If I remember correctly, for security reasons, the "about your application's environment" won't load unless it's from localhost.
If you are running your app in production mode (so it is recognized as it doesn't run locally), rails won't show this information, instead it will show this message.
I had this issue and wondering what's wrong when I first setup a new application in a server with passenger. The default environment of passenger is the production so it doesn't show this info. You have to set it up to development mode if you want to see them, to do that go to your virtual host file and add this:
RailsEnv development
When you start creating your application, delete the index.html from the public.
Maximum supported versions at this time are:
Ruby 1.8.7
RubyGems 1.8.25
Rails 2.3.18
Anything newer than that is a near guaranteed breakage and cPanel & WHM will be incapable of utilizing it in any way, shape, or form.
http://tickets.cpanel.net can assist you with removing your existing Ruby on Rails installations and reverting them back to cPanel supported and sanctioned versions (Ruby 1.8, RubyGems 1.8, and Rails 2). That is the only thing they can do for you at this time.
If you want to use any versions newer than this, then you will be unable to use the cPanel & WHM interfaces or management tools for it -- they simply will not work. You will then have to manually manage your RoR install by yourself through command line exclusively. None of it would fall under the scope of cPanel support.

How to begin with Ruby on Rails using Windows

I've tried downloading the Rails package and installing it on Windows, but have no idea to make it work.
I have had some experience with this commbination:
PHP 4.x + 5.x (Windows)
LIGHTTPD (Windows)
Connecting to a Firebird Database (Windows)
Can anybody enlighten me?
I've gotten Rails up and running on Windows just following the instructions on the RoR website. To paraphrase:
Download Ruby Windows installer from here. I recommend this one.
Execute the .exe [ruby186-26.exe]
Verify your Windows environment variables now includes C:\ruby\bin in the PATH variable. (My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables). If it's not there, add it.
Download Ruby Gems from here.
Extract the zip [rubygems-1.3.0.zip] to a temporary directory.
Open a command window and cd to the temp directory.
Type ruby setup.rb in the command window and hit enter.
After that from the command window type gem install rails
Boom! You have rails on windows.
I've heard good things about Instant Rails I've avoided it though. I highly recommend RadRails for Eclipse. I do all my RoR development in Windows using RadRails to connect to a MySQL database.
Either try Instant Rails, which hasn't been updated in a while.
Or try this tutorial and install everything yourself: http://beans.seartipy.com/2008/06/09/setting-up-rails-development-environment-on-windows-vistaxp/
If you're really beginning and have no special attachment to the stuff you've downloaded, try getting the latest Netbeans (v6.1) which comes with Ruby and Rails build in. Its massively simple to install and get running. (A double click install). Then, once you've done that do a "File > New Project > Ruby > Ruby On Rails Application", press F6 and you'll be looking at the start page of your first Rails App.
To get to grips with it all, I'd suggest Sang Shin's free Ruby On Rails course. Its been running a while, but its free, is hands on, has some excellent material, and covers a great deal. I'm doing it and have learned a lot about Rails and Ruby also.
HTH
I use Heroku this is the Signup page for all my Rails Development
You don't have to install or set up anything and you are up and running Fast.
Also, this is a good tutorial for setting up Instant Rails on Vista:
You should really consider just install a Virtual Machine using VMWare if possible. You can still get start with Windows, but you could come across a lot of hiccups on various packages you want to use. I was from Windows too... now I switched myself to a mac and never looked back....
The point is, Ruby runs just a lot better on any POSIX other than using Windows, so its better not to try forcing anything suppose to work properly on one platform on another one. Practically, you will NEVER consider hosting a rails application in Windows (similarly, I doubted if you should ever consider hosting a PHP app in Windows too... you are just putting more cost to hurt your own feet by doing so...)
Another possibility is try to get Ubuntu setup on a USB memory/ hard drive and boot using that when you want to play Rails, slightly problematic, but better performance.
NetBeans as suggested as beginner IDE is good. Although if you get start properly with a good book (Pragmatic defacto Rails book 3rd edition is a good choice, you will never put that one down even after so long as the references are just too useful). Alternatively Rails Guide is something you shouldn't miss.
These are the best tutorials that I have seen for setting up rails on Windows.
Xp: http://www.buildingwebapps.com/articles/6467-setting-up-rails-on-windows-xp
Vista: http://www.buildingwebapps.com/articles/6491-setting-up-rails-on-windows-vista
I used this tutorial just yesterday and it worked well. BUT you need to install RubyGems yourself, after installing Ruby and before installing Rails. I found this guide helpful for RubyGems installation.
I was not able to use an environment variable to set up the http proxy; instead I must pass that as a param on the CL when installing gems (-p [myproxy].[mysite]:[port])
Late to the party, but could you try this tutorial instead?
Getting Started with Rails and MySQL
Two observations:
--source http://gems.rubyinstaller.org is no longer needed. remove that part from the command
Install latest RC1 for either 1.9.1 or 1.8.6 from here
Hope that helps
Here's some tools that have helped me in Windows for general RoR development
TextMate-like editor: http://www.e-texteditor.com/
Multi-tab SSH client: http://www.vandyke.com/products/securecrt/index.html
Full featured UNIX shell (including git): http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/
I just followed this tutorial, and it worked great the first time, and gives steps to take if you encounter common errors. I HIGHLY recommend it. it's one of the best tutorials I've ever gone through. I'm an ASP .NET guy, and I had no trouble.
My suggestion is to begin with a microframework. Something like Sinatra. You can move to Rails / Merb afterwards.
checkout Rails Windows Installer
it installs :
Ruby 1.8.7-p330
Rails 3.0.3
Git 1.7.3.1
Sqlite 3.7.3
DevKit
Rubystack is a free, all-in-one installer for Windows that installs Apache, MySQL, Ruby, Rails and all other third-party libraries typically used on a development environment (such as Imagemagick). We include PHP as well, but no lighttpd

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