RoR Setup

Windows

Here is how to install Ruby on Rails (RoR) and the various other packages on Windows:

Ruby

Download and install the Ruby One-Click Installer

When installing, accept all the default options.

Rails

The Ruby package above will also install RubyGems, the Ruby package manager. So to install Rails, open a command prompt and type:

gem install rails

Answer “Yes” each time when asked to install a dependency.

MySQL

Download and install the “Windows Essential” version of MySQL

When installing, accept all the configuration defaults except:

  • Skip signup for MySQL.com account
  • Use the password “mypassword” (or at least be sure to remember the password you assign!)

SQLyog

Download and install the “Free Edition” of the MySQL GUI editor SQLyog

Accept the configuration defaults and run the program. Then setup the connection to the database by following these steps:

  • Select: New
  • Name: Local
  • Password: mypassword
  • Select: Connect

Alternate Setup

These packages install everything you need in one step, but are not standard setups (at least for Instant Rails)

For other ways to install Ruby or for non-Windows OSes, see:

One-Click Path Fix

The latest Ruby One-Click Installer (1.84-19) doesn’t put Ruby in the path. To check this, start a command window and type “irb”. If an error occurs, follow these instructions:

  1. Start -> Control Panel
  2. System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables
  3. System Variables -> Path -> Edit
  4. To the end of the existing path, add a semicolon ”;” and then “c:\ruby\bin” then save.

To see if the changes work, close the command window and then re-open it (to load the new path) and try “irb” again.

Cheat Setup

This tutorial will guide you through creating several different applications. If you want to cheat, and grab all the files so you don’t need to create them, download and expand this zip file into \rails\demo:

http://www.maxdunn.com/rails_demo.zip