Can a ruby gem/module be added just like a java jar file?

Question

I use Eclispse Kepler with DLTK plugin for ruby. I am unable to "require" nokogiri module because it cannot be found by eclipse. I tried some gem install command from some website and that did not help. Now, I don't want to use commandline until I first master Ruby programming.

I learned that I can add java jars to my project by creating a lib folder, copying jars to that folder and then adding them all to the build path. So easy, right ?

Can I do the same thing for ruby gems and modules ? Ideally, I'd like to use only the IDE for this instead of using commandline and complext install scripts.

Please help.

Answer 1

If this gem already installed with all dependencies, then you can add it with simple require command:

require "/path_to_gems/gem_name/lib/gem_name"

In my case the command is:

require '/Users/yukke/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.1/gems/nokogiri-1.6.1/lib/nokogiri'

Otherwise you can try to require rubygems first:

require "rubygems"
require "gem-name"

Answer 2

I would suggest maybe using a different IDE with better Ruby support, such as Aptana, which is Eclipse-based but has a lot of additional addons to support Ruby development. You can install Ruby gems in it on the start page, or through the integrated terminal.