Rails, Apache2 and SUSE

David — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 05:14:43 +0000

Getting Rails up and running on Apache2 on SUSE is takes a little work as at the moment Rails is not part of the the SUSE software updates network. This means you must build Rails (and Ruby if using SuSE < 9.3) and the FastCGI development kit from source.

1. First off it you need Ruby 1.8.2 (or greater) to run Rails. If you have a version less than this you will need to compile and install Ruby from source.
Install GCC, make, the C devel, zlib and zlib-devel packages using Yast.
Download the latest version of Ruby from http://www.ruby-lang.org/
Untar the source file to /usr/local/src, compile and install (as root or sudo):

tar -xzf ruby-1.8.3.tar.gz
cd ruby-1.8.3
./configure
make
make test
make install

Once completed this will set Ruby up on your system (by default into /usr/local/bin). Create a link in /usr/bin to ruby.

ln -s /usr/local/bin/ruby /usr/bin/ruby

2. Install gems (a ruby package manager). Download gems from http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubygems/
Untar the source code into /usr/local/src, compile and install (as root or sudo):

tar -xzf rubygems-0.8.11.tgz
cd rubygems-0.8.11
./configure
make
make install

This will install gems into /usr/local/bin. Create a link in /usr/bin

ln -s /usr/local/bin/gem /usr/bin/gem

3. With ruby and gems installed install Rails:

gem install rails --include-dependencies

4. With Rails installed create a test project and test the Rails WebBrick server.

5. Using Yast install the mod_fastcgi package for integrating Rails into Apache2.

6. From http://www.fastcgi.com/ download the FastCGI development package. Untar the source into /usr/local/src and compile:

tar -xzf fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz
cd fcgi-2.4.0
./configure
make install

7. Now install the fcgi component for ruby using gem.

gem install fcgi -- --with-fcgi-dir=/usr/local/

8. Edit /etc/sysconfig/apache2 and in the modules section add fastcgi to the list of modules loaded by Apache when it starts.

9. Create a new virtualhost in Apache for your Rails application. Use the following template as an example:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName rails.test.domain
        AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi
        AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
        DocumentRoot /srv/www/rails/RailsTestProject/public
        <Directory /srv/www/rails/RailsTestProject/public>
                RewriteEngine On
                RewriteRule ^$ index.html [QSA]
                RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.html [QSA]
                RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
                RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.fcgi [QSA,L]
                ErrorDocument 500 "<h2>Application error</h2>Rails application failed to start properly"
                Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride all
                Allow from all
           Order allow,deny
        </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

10. Restart Apache and test the virtual host. Hopefully fastcgi should be working with Rails to display your new application.

Ruby on Rails in OSX Tiger

David — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 10:26:06 +0000

At the moment I am learning Ruby on Rails (I must say it is very impressive). Unfortunately getting it setup in OSX Tiger was not as straightforward as one would hope.
Although Apple have included Ruby with Tiger there are a few things that do not work right.
For my own future reference (and for anyone else that is interested) this is how I got it working with MySQL correctly on OSX Tiger and MySQL's own OSX binaries.

Follow the install intructions found here:
Rolling with Ruby on Rails on Mac OS X Tiger

Once installed open a Terminal window and enter the following:

sudo sh
(enter the admin password)

curl -O rufy.com/fix-ruby-tiger.sh; sh fix-ruby-tiger.sh

gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-lib=/usr/local/lib/mysql --with-mysql-include=/usr/local/include

exit

This should fix any Ruby issues and compile a fully functional Ruby MySQL driver ready for you to use.

Ruby on Rails 15 minute Intro video

David — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 11:33:15 +0000

This introduction video for Ruby on Rails is very impressive. Even if you don't know anything about programming it comes across as being very easy. If you are used to programming in Java like me watching this made me very, very jealous....

Ruby on Rails 15 minute introduction video

stressfree - rails

Rails, Apache2 and SUSE

Ruby on Rails in OSX Tiger

Ruby on Rails 15 minute Intro video