quick-start-rails-for-mac.md

Quick start guide to getting set up for Rails

######tl;dr

$ curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable && source ~/.rvm/scripts/rvm # Get latest Ruby using RVM
$ gem install rails # Get Rails
$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" # Get Homebrew
$ brew install postgresql # Get Postgresql
$ brew install git # Get Git

--

Ruby on Rails is a popular framwork for building web apps, here's a quick guide to getting set up on Mac.

A more detailed explanation of the steps is available here.

###Ruby

Manage your Ruby installations with RVM – Ruby enVironment Manager.

$ curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable

The dollar sign $ represents the prompt. You don't need to type it.

Restart Terminal before continuing.

Install ruby with RVM.

$ rvm install 2.1.3

###Gems

RubyGems is a Ruby package manager. Ruby software packages are called Gems. Install the Rails gem with the gem command.

$ gem install rails

###Rails

Rails comes with a script for generating boilerplate code. Use rails new every time you create a new project.

$ rails new ~/Sites/new_rails_app
$ cd ~/Sites/new_rails_app
$ rails server

The rails server (also rails s) command runs the app and makes it available at the loopback address http://0.0.0.0:3000/.

You're now ready to build an awesome web app. Type the rails command without arguments to see what commands are available and check out the getting started guides.

###Homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager for OSX software. Use it to install Git and PostgreSQL.

Install Homebrew:

$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

You may need to ensure that /usr/local/bin appears before /usr/bin in yout $PATH variable.

The $PATH variable is a list of directories in which your computer looks when it's trying to execute a program from a Shell.

To check it does appear at the front:

$ echo $PATH

If it doesn't to make sure it does (in bash):

$ echo "PATH=\$PATH:/usr/local/bin" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc

Am I running bash? Look at the top of the Terminal window or at the prompt:

Git

Git is a powerful and popular tool for keeping track of changes to code.

$ brew install git

To use Git:

$ git init                            # Initialises folder as Git repo
$ git add .                           # Adds all changes to the staging area
$ git commit -m 'Initial commit'      # Commits the changes to Git with a message

Postgres

PostgreSQL is database software. We need it for production databases for apps we want to host on Heroku.

$ brew install postgresql

To use PostgreSQL as the database driver in Rails the pg Gem is needed. First wrapt the existing sqlite3 Gem reference in a block:

# ./Gemfile
group :development, :test do
  gem 'sqlite3'
end

Then specify gem pg for production:

# ./Gemfile
group :production do
  gem 'pg'
end

$ bundle install

Set postgresql as the database driver for production:

production:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: app_name_production # replace app_name_ with the name of your app
  username: app_name # replace app_name_ with the name of your app
  password: <%= ENV['APP_NAME_DATABASE_PASSWORD'] %> # replace APP_NAME_ with the name of your app

Heroku

Deploying Rails to Heroku is as easy as downloading the toolbelt and using a couple of heroku commands.

$ heroku create
$ git push heroku master
$ heroku run rake db:migrate
$ heroku run rake db:seed
$ heroku open

For more a more detailed overview see this tutorial.