How to begin with Ruby on Rails using Windows

Question

I've tried downloading the Rails package and installing it on Windows, but have no idea to make it work.

I have had some experience with this commbination:

• PHP 4.x + 5.x (Windows)
• LIGHTTPD (Windows)
• Connecting to a Firebird Database (Windows)

Can anybody enlighten me?

Answer 1

I've gotten Rails up and running on Windows just following the instructions on the RoR website. To paraphrase:

1. Download Ruby Windows installer from here. I recommend this one.
2. Execute the .exe [ruby186-26.exe]
3. Verify your Windows environment variables now includes C:\ruby\bin in the PATH variable. (My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables). If it's not there, add it.
4. Download Ruby Gems from here.
5. Extract the zip [rubygems-1.3.0.zip] to a temporary directory.
6. Open a command window and cd to the temp directory.
7. Type ruby setup.rb in the command window and hit enter.
8. After that from the command window type gem install rails
9. Boom! You have rails on windows.

I've heard good things about Instant Rails I've avoided it though. I highly recommend RadRails for Eclipse. I do all my RoR development in Windows using RadRails to connect to a MySQL database.

Answer 2

Either try Instant Rails, which hasn't been updated in a while. Or try this tutorial and install everything yourself: http://beans.seartipy.com/2008/06/09/setting-up-rails-development-environment-on-windows-vistaxp/