I'm experimenting with the new Windows Subsystem for Linux as a way to develop Rails applications in Windows. I have WSL installed and I have Ruby in it but how do I use that Ruby from a Windows GUI application, specifically, RubyMine:
This is so I can easily start rails, run tests, etc.
If anyone is wondering how this can be done at this time with the latest version of Ruby, there is a WSL connector for the remote repo of ruby.
[Update 2020-10-30]
Updating the response below as a lot has changed and improved since my initial reply in 2017 😜
The awesome team at JetBrains have enabled RubyMine to talk to WSL via SSH and to use the "remote" Ruby interpreter, and even debug Ruby code running in WSL! :)
Also, in Windows 10 1903, WSL provides the ability to access Linux distros' filesystems from Windows via the \\wsl$\ pseudo-UNC path.
In Windows 10 2004, WSL added a Linux icon to File Explorer making it easier to discover this pseudo-UNC path.
So, in Windows 10 >= 1903, Windows apps, editors, IDEs, etc. can also access files stored in, for example, \\wsl$\Ubuntu\...!
👉 Notes:
Accessing files in Linux via \\wsl$\... will be slower than accessing files locally because file IO requests have to be marshalled back and forth via a 9P fileserver. If you intend on accessing files intensively, we recommend storing the files in the filesystem closest to whatever you'll be using to access those files most intensively.
Thus ... while you can access files directly via the pseudo-path, using WSL integrations built-in to tools like RubyMine, VSCode, Visual Studio, etc. should be preferred if available.
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I am working on a application to deploy challenges for ctfs.
I want to include windows service type challenges, too.
How can I deploy a Portable Executable file on a linux based server?
You can not use docker to run Microsoft Windows. To run Windows executables on linux, you can try to use wine or rely on Virtualization (with a full windows installation inside).
You could also have a look at .net for linux to implement your challenge. This article should get you started if this is what you chose.
this is my first post I am having some trouble with an app, in Visual Studio I can run it on Debug without any issue and everything works correctly, but when I deploy it using IIS I can access any page except of the ones where there is an interaction with an access database. If I search through virtual directory I can download the file without an issue.
Do you have any recommendation?
Are you running x32 or x64 iis? (Usually it x64).
Of course on your desktop, then Visual Studio defaults to x32, and that would explain why the Access database engine (ACE) works. You likely should force your project to x32 or x64 (and then ensure that you have a x64 bit version of the ACE (Access) istalled on your developer machie. You then want to ensure that you launching the x64 bit version of IIS.
You don’t need Access installed on your server, but you will need the ACE database engine – and the most easy way to ensure that data engine is installed is simply installing the Access runtime on that server.
Give that the standard ACE database engine download is x32, then I would look into this issue. You could (should) be able to resolve the issue by installing a x64 bit Access runtime on that server – this would also suggest a possible update to your connection strings. And I would check/test the connection string you are using once you resolve the x64 bit version of Access. The path name in your connection string will ALWAYS be a absolute path (not a relative one).
I have built a rails app which is used as a standalone enterprise application. The application needs to run on Windows desktops (entire user base runs Windows machines). I am able to run it quite successfully on an Ubuntu machine but it's not something customers will prefer to run.
Since deploying on a windows machine is quite messy AFAIK. I would like deploy it on Windows using a virtual machine (VirtualBox).
Requirements would be -
Application installation on Windows 7 / Windows 8.
User should be able to access rails server by browser running on his/her system via localhost or any other IP address.
Application should auto-start when user reboots the machine.
Ideally user should be able to download and install the software on his/her machine by himself/herself.
I am working to make this work but would like to know the feasibility of this solution. Would like to if I am getting the concepts wrongs or if there is something which is simply not possible or is not making any sense.
Take a look at Vagrant, which is a highly scriptable VM host. You can then generate batch files to automatically start the VM on boot.
To deploy new code, you'll just want to provide them with a new VM image they can copy into your app directory.
That said, I agree with other comments that this might not be the right platform for your use case. The main reason for building web apps is so that many clients can use your app over the web using just one set of servers. Deploying a web server to each client seems like it's defeating that advantage.
Is Vagrant a good solutions for creating a Rails environment in windows?
I have a powerful Windows 8 64bit desktop. I recently did a project with RoR and fell in love with it. As I found out, installing RoR on windows is just bleh; so I created a dual boot to ubuntu. As a creative developer, I find it rather difficult to get any of the "creative" done in ubuntu because of the lack of my typical creative tools.
I read a bit about a tool called Vagrant; however, I'm still unsure if it meets my requirements: adobe suite, sublime text, git, rails, rails friendly OS(mac?/ubuntu)
Typical duties: edit an image in photoshop(windows), drop it to project assets in VM?
Typical duties: push/pull to git; ssh to VPS server?
Also, I hear you can install mac os in the VM do you think thats a good option? (because I want to try their new OS)
Installing osx in Vagrant is probably possible but it would likely be quite hard, and its not really what vagrant is designed for.
As for your other questions vagrant sounds like the perfect fit.
With Vagrant you could start up an ubuntu vm and get your rails setup going. Then you could just forward a port on your local machine to the vm and load the rails site as if it were running locally on your windows PC. A quick google gets this vagrant box that looks like it might work for you - https://github.com/amaia/rails-starter-box
To work with the site you can just share a folder between the vm and your local machine which will allow you to edit images and code with your windows apps (Photoshop, sublime) so you don't actually need to install these in the ubuntu vm at all, and can pretty much work as normal.
Git is much the same... I prefer to SSH into the vagrant box and use git on the command line in ubuntu but you can just as easily use gitbash or tortoisegit from windows in the repo folder... works just as well.
A good alternative is, https://github.com/fgrehm/ventriloquist
"Ventriloquist combines Vagrant and Docker to give developers the ability to configure portable and disposable development VMs with ease. It lowers the entry barrier of building a sane working environment without the need to learn tools like Puppet or Chef."
I have developed a Struts2 Project using Apache server and MySQL database.
Is it possible to make this application an executable application so that i do not need to give JDK, Apache and MySQL separately to the user. The installer could install all these 3 itself.
Also can i make this so that only a single user can use this application. How Please Tell.
Usually a Web Application has a central server (with at least: a Java Virtual Machine, a Web Server / Application Server, a Database, and the Web Application contanining the Java code), and all the client computers use their browsers to connect to it.
The kind of application that seems to arise from your description is a monolitic one, like a GUI App made in Swing or in Visual Basic; you install it in the clients, and each one has a copy of each component. If you install it 20 times, you will have 20 database, 20 copies of the files, etc...
Even in client-server applications, with centralized database and distributed code, the problems were always client-related; you can't know if the system were you are automatically installing a database, an JDK etc... already has that software, maybe in other versions, or has the environment variables messed up etc. When you need to update the software, or to tune up the system, you need to be physically log to that pc, remotely or by person. This are some of the reasons that led to the choice of preferring Web Applications to distributed applications.
If you need to craft a "package" of your application to be installed in one click by a dumb user (let's say, a portable version of your application, to let your PM perform some Demo in remote locations, or to give it to the big boss to let him see it), you should really evaluate the possibility of creating a Virtual Machine.
A Virtual Machine is a big file (on a hard disk, or read by an USB key, etc) that, once mounted by a Virtualization Software (usually the same software that created the Virtual Machine), will run an entire new OS inside a window of your guest OS.
The leading software to do this is VMWare (the Player is free and cross-platform), alternatively you can use VirtualBox.
Then, you need to
download VMWare Player
download the ISO of your favourite Linux distribution (I hope you don't use Windows as server)
create a, let's say, 10GB partition for your Linux distribution with VMWare Player, and mount it
plug the ISO with something like (the free edition of) Daemon Tools
install the Linux distribution
install and configure all the software you need there (Apache, MySQL, your favourite browsers, etc; JVM usually is already there)
install your web application
Then you will have a physical file with a complete Linux OS inside, with all the needed software already tuned up: just distribute this file to Windows, Mac or Linux users, they will only need the VMWare Player installed to run your file and access (their copy of) your application inside the Linux OS.