Contents |
by Gordon Mathis and Thomas Yeung
These instructions are for a default installation of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, but have also been tested on SUSE 9.3 and SUSE 10. Ruby Rails requires Ruby version 1.8.2 or greater with the exception of 1.8.3 which does not work. SUSE 10 ships with Ruby 1.8.2 so you can enable Ruby via the YaST utility and skip the instructions on for Installing Ruby and start with instructions for Installing RubyGems if you are using SUSE 10.
*** IMPORTANT ***
Execute YaST and from the Software category select Install and Remove Software and then search and select the following packages before doing any part of this install (You will have problems installing Ruby Gems if you don't install zlib-devel before installing Ruby).
zlib-devel
make
gcc
At http://www.rubyonrails.org select the Get Started icon and download and uncompress the latest source for Ruby
tar zxvf ruby-1.8.4.tar.gz
cd ruby-1.8.4
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install
Check installation by typing ruby -v which will echo the version
ruby 1.8.4 (2005-12-24) [i686-linux]
From that same web page download and uncompress RubyGems rubygems-0.8.11.tgz
(06-28-2006: version 0.9.0 released -- instructions below remain the same, just different filename)
tar zxvf rubygems-0.8.11.tgz
cd ../rubygems-0.8.11
sudo ruby ./setup.rb
Now that RubyGems is installed, install Rails and it dependencies. This will prompt you to install the necessary dependencies. Answer 'Y' to each question.
sudo gem install rails
Before you start creating applications make sure the database you plan to use is installed so that the path for the socket property in the config/database.yml is detected correctly.
Execute YaST and from the Software category select Install and Remove Software and then search for mysql. Select mysql and mysql-client packages and click Accept. While still in the YaST utility select the System category and then the Runlevel Editor. From the Runlevel Editor: Service screen scroll down the list and select mysql and then click the Enable button and then the Finish button.
Create a test application and start the WEBrick server
cd ~
rails www.rubytest.com
cd www.rubytest.com
ruby script/server
Open a web browser and browse to http://localhost:3000
At this point you should see a Welcome aboard screen telling you how to get started. Even though welcome screen has basic instructions they can still be a little vague especially for someone who is new to Ruby Rails which is why we are going to go into more detail (Everything is easy once you have done it).
Create a text file named company.sql with following content:
create database company; use company; create table employees ( id int(8) not null auto_increment, firstName varchar(128) , lastName varchar(128) , hireDate date , biography text , primary key(id) ); insert into employees values(0, 'Donald', 'Duck', '1934-6-9', 'Famous for The Wise Little Hen'); insert into employees values(0, 'Mickey', 'Mouse', '1928-11-18', 'Famous for Steamboat Willie'); insert into employees values(0, 'Captin', 'Hook', '1953-11-18', 'Famous for Peter Pan');
Using the file to create and populate a sample database with the following command:
mysql -u root < company.sql
Tell Rails how to find this database by modifying the file /home/developer/www.rubytest.com/config/database.yml and changing the database name to company. Leave the username as root and the password empty. Notice that this properties file supports several different databases and includes sections for development, test, and production for each database. For now we just need to change database property in the development section, for the mysql database.
development: adapter: mysql database: company username: root password: socket: /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
Create the Controller class to handle web requests from the user with the following command:
ruby script/generate controller employee
This will create a /home/developer/www.rubytest.com/app/controllers/employee_controller.rb file. Edit this file and add the following line. This single scaffold command will bring the database to life allowing us to create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) employees in our database!
class EmployeeController < ApplicationController scaffold :employee end
Use the following command to create a Employee Model class that will hold data from the employees table in the database.
ruby script/generate model employee
Set the default routing to this application instead of the welcome screen. To do this modify the /home/developer/www.rubytest.com/config/routes.rb and uncomment the following line:
# map.connect , :cotroller => "welcome"
and replace the word welcome with employee
map.connect , :controller => "employee"
Now rename or delete the /home/developer/www.rubytest.com/public/index.html file.
Restart the WEBrick server
Ctrl-C
ruby script/server
So just to double check we had to do the following six steps:
Open a web browser and browse to http://localhost:3000
At this point you should see the employees sample database and should be able to add, delete, and modify records.
If you get the message: "No such file or directory – /tmp/mysql.sock" you can either modify the MYSQL_UNIX_ADDR value in the /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.14.2/lib/active_record/vendor/mysql.rb file to point to /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock or you can create the symlink shown below. Either way restart the WEBrick server.
sudo ln -s /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock /tmp/mysql.sock
Although this is a great start, the goal of this little tutorial was to use Apache in place of the WEBrick web server. So lets continue on.
Type Ctrl-C to stop the WEBrick server.
From YaST select the Network Services category and then HTTP Server
Click Continue at the dialog window to install the apache2 and apache2-prefork packages (this is only shown on a new installation)
Select the radio button to enable the HTTP Service.
Select Hosts from the list and click the Edit button
At the Configured Hosts screen click the Add button to create a new Virtual Host
At the New Host Information screen enter the following (substituting your username for developer).
Server Name: www.rubytest.com
Server Contents Root: /home/developer/www.rubytest.com/public/
Administrator E-Mail: developer@novell.com
Select Determine Request Service by HTTP Headers radio button
Click OK (On SUSE 10 click Next and then OK at the second screen)
At the Configured Hosts screen select the www.rubytest.com host and click the Edit button.
Note: On SUSE 10 the Directory option will already exists and just needs it options modified as shown below.
At the www.rubytest.com Configuration screen click the Add button
Select Directory from the combo box and click the OK button.
Enter /home/developer/www.rubytest.com/public/ for the path and then enter the following options in the list
AllowOverride all
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
Click OK at the Configured Hosts screen
Click Finish at the HTTP Server Configuration Screen
*** IMPORTANT ***
By default, the Apache rewriter module is not loaded. In order to enable virtual host and URL re-direction to work, you need to turn the mod_rewrite on. In addition, you also need to load the fastcgi module.
Open the file /etc/sysconfig/apache2 and find the line that starts with APACHE_MODULES=. At the end of the string add the words rewrite and fastcgi.
Restart the apache server.
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Now all you need to do is edit the /etc/hosts file and Add a temporary Host Domain Name that you can use until you are ready to purchase a Domain Name and go live. (Make sure you enter the systems actual IP Address and not just localhost)
su
vi /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost 137.65.137.138 www.rubytest.com
Open a web browser and browse to http://www.rubytest.com. You should see the same employee sample database. However this time it is being render by Apache in stead of WEBrick.
By default, Ruby on Rails with work with CGI. However, it will be so much faster to use FastCGI instead. FastCGI uses long running process that initialize the Ruby interpreter and the Rails framework only at start-up. The database connection is established on the first query and kept for the lifetime of the process. In addition, your application code is cached in the production environment. However, you need to install additional three packages:
Execute YaST and from the Software category select Install and Remove Software and then search for ruby. Select apache2-mod_fastcgi, ruby-fcgi, and ruby-devel then click Accept.
Go to http://www.fastcgi.com
Select download link for the Apache section and download the latest version of the file e.g fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz
tar zxvf fcgi-2.4.0
cd fcgi-2.4.0
./configure --prefix=/usr
sudo make install
sudo gem install fcgi
To enable FastCGI on your Rails application, you need to modify the hidden .htaccess file in your application's public directory (/home/developer/www.rubytest.com/public). Change the following line:
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.cgi [QSA, L]
to
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.fcgi [QSA, L]
Restart the apache server.
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Open a web browser and browse to http://www.rubytest.com.
For additional tutorials visit http://www.rubyonrails.org.
© 2009 Novell, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
