Windows

Last year's installation instructions are a bit outdated. The one click installer we used hasn't been updated in two years. They're still posted below, but we're going to work with the updated ruby 2.6.5 and rails 6.0.0 this year.

This article is a very well filled out guide on how to install rails 6.0.0 on windows 7, 8, and 10

https://medium.com/ruby-on-rails-web-application-development/how-to-install-rubyonrails-on-windows-7-8-10-complete-tutorial-2017-fc95720ee059

Last year's guide:

1. Install Rails

Download RailsInstaller and run it. Click through the installer using the default options.

1a. Enable copy and paste in Windows Command Prompt

Test if you can use the ctrl button to copy and paste in the terminal, if not try these steps:

Open Command Prompt with Ruby and Rails. Right-click on the command prompt’s title bar, and choose “Properties”. Navigate to the “experimental” tab, and check the “Enable new Ctrl key shortcuts” option (you may need to check the “Enable experimental console features” option first).

Otherwise:

To paste a text in the command prompt window you’ll need to use the mouse (right-click on the window –> paste).

1b. Install Rails

In the Command Prompt with Ruby and Rails, run the following command:

rails -v

If you see the following message:

the system cannot find the path specified

This can happen when the installer cannot correctly setup the paths required to run rails. It’s nothing serious, we can fix this in different ways but the easiest is by manually installing the rails gem with the following command:

gem install rails bundler --no-document

This will (re)install rails correctly and running:

rails -v

Should print the currently installed rails version number (your version may differ):

Rails 5.2.1

If the Rails version is less than 5.1, update it using a following command:

gem update rails --no-document

Testing your Install - Possible errors

run `rails new testapp`

If you don't get an error, move down to Run bundle install

If you get an error stating Gem::RemoteFetcher:

Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError: SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read
server certificate B: certificate verify failed (https://rubygems.org/gems/i18n-0.6.11.gem)

This means you have an older version of Rubygems and will need to update it manually first verify your Rubygems version

gem -v

If it is lower than 2.6.5 you will need to manually update it:

gem update --system

Check your version of rubygems

gem -v

Make sure it is equal or higher than 2.6.11. Re-run the command that was failing previously.

If you are still running into problems you can always find the latest version of rubygems online at rubygems.org. If you click on GEM you will get the latest version.

Run `bundle install`

If you don't get an error, jump down to Installing a text editor

The Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError: SSL_connect can also occur during the bundle install stage when creating a new rails app.

The error will make mention of bit.ly/ruby-ssl. What is relevant for Windows users at this point is this GitHub gist. The described manual way has proven to be successful to solve the bundle install error.

‘x64_mingw’ is not a valid platform` Error

Sometimes you get the following error when running rails server: 'x64_mingw' is not a valid platform If you experience this error after using the RailsInstaller you have to do a small edit to the file Gemfile:

Look at the bottom of the file. You will probably see something like this as one of the last lines in the file:gem 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:mingw, :mswin, :x64_mingw]. If you have this line with :x64_mingw, then please delete the :x64_mingwpart. In the end it should just say: 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:mingw, :mswin]

After you did that, please use your Command Prompt again and type bundle update.

2. Install a text editor to edit code files

For the workshop we recommend the text editor Atom.

Visit the atom.io website to download and install the latest version.

If you are using Windows Vista or older versions, you can use another editor Sublime Text 2.

3. Update your browser

If you use Internet Explorer, we recommend installing Firefox or Google Chrome.

Open whatsmybrowser.org and update your browser if you don’t have the latest version.

4. Install Node.js

Go to https://nodejs.org/ and download the Node.js LTS package.
Install Node.js following the wizard
Close and reopen your Rails Command Shell

Check your version of node

node --version

Make sure it is displaying version number.

5. Check the environment

Check that everything is working by running the application generator command.

rails new testapp
cd testapp
rails server

If rails server errors out, it's likely the version of sqllite3 isn't compatible. We can change that in the Gemfile of your project by specifying a version to use:

gem 'sqlite3', '~> 1.3', '< 1.4'

Go to http://localhost:3000 in your browser, and you should see the ‘Yay! You’re on Rails!’ page.

Now you should have a working Ruby on Rails programming setup. Congrats!

Coach: We recommend to verify by using the scaffold command and inputting data with the generated page with coaches to ensure everything is working. Also: remove the test app testapp to make super sure no-one is working in the wrong folder, following the steps of the workshop.