This article is an introduction to the installation and deployment of Ruby on Rails.
What is Ruby on Rails?
Ruby is a programming language just like Perl, Python or PHP. Rails is an open source Ruby framework for developing database-backed web applications. You could develop a web application at least ten times faster with Rails than you could with a typical Java framework. It is a web application framework written in the Ruby programming language.
We tried the installation of Ruby on Rails on a server with this configuration:
1. Red Hat Linux release 7.3
2. Plesk 5.0.5
3. Apache 1.3.27
4. PHP 4.3.4 # Run as an Apache Module
Install Ruby
Before installing Ruby, first check if zlib is installed in PHP. You can do this by running a simple script with this code.
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Now you are all set to start the installation.
cd /usr/local/src wget ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/ruby-1.8.2.tar.gz tar xvzf ruby-1.8.2.tar.gz cd ruby-1.8.2 ./configure make make install ruby rubytest.rb
If the installaiton is successful, then you will get a message “test succeeded”.
Install RubyGems
cd /usr/local/src wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/5207/rubygems-0.8.11.tgz tar xvzf rubygems-0.8.11.tgz cd rubygems-0.8.11 ruby setup.rb all
This step involves execution of `ruby setup.rb` with arguments `config / setup / install` all together
gem query --local OR gem q -L
Listing all installed gems
Install Rails
gem install rails OR # (Enter Y for all dependencies) gem install rails --include-dependencies
Install FastCGI
wget http://fastcgi.com/dist/fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz tar -xvzf fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz cd fcgi-2.4.0 ./configure make make install
Install mod_fastcgi
wget http://www.fastcgi.com/dist/mod_fastcgi-2.4.2.tar.gz tar -xvzf mod_fastcgi-2.4.2.tar.gz cd mod_fastcgi-2.4.2 /path/to/apxs -o mod_fastcgi.so -c *.c /path/to/apxs -i -a -n fastcgi mod_fastcgi.so
In Apache’s httpd.conf, add this line.
Include /path/to/httpd/conf/fastcgi.conf
Now, add this text to fastcgi.conf
cat > /path/to/httpd/conf/fastcgi.conf
User apache
Group apache
<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
FastCgiConfig -idle-timeout 900
AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi .fpl .rb
FastCgiIpcDir /tmp/fastcgi_ipc/
FastCgiSuexec /usr/sbin/suexec
To make FastCGI run as suexec. Use path to suexec
</IfModule>
Ctrl + D
mkdir /tmp/fastcgi_ipc/ chown -R apache.apache /tmp/fastcgi_ipc chmod 700 /tmp/fastcgi_ipc/ service httpd restart
NOTE : In some systems, the ownership of fastcgi_ipc is done by Apache itself, but its safe to include these steps in your routine.
Related files: /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.0.0/dispatches/dispatch.fcgi # OR ~USER/<app_name>/public/dispatch.fcgi # Log file declaration & all
Install gem bindings
To install gem bindings for Fastcgi and MySQL
gem install fcgi gem install mysql
Testing
1. Install Test Application
cd ~USER rails testapp # Create a test application named 'testapp' cd testapp/ ./script/generate controller test cd ~USER/httpdocs ln -s ~USER/testapp/public rails # In order to access the test application '~USER/testapp/public' from the browser
In order to allow symlinks, enter the following in to ~USER/httpdocs/.htaccess
Options Indexes +FollowSymLinks
Now you need to set the correct ownership and permissions for the test application. I did the following for my project. You can learn from the example:
cd ~USER chown -R USER.psacln testapp chmod -R 755 testapp chown -R USER.psacln httpdocs/rails chmod -R 755 httpdocs/rails
Create Test Pages
cd ~USER cd ~USER/testapp/app/controllers
Create a file called test_controller.rb and put in the following code:
cat > test_controller.rb class TestController < ApplicationController def hi render :text => 'Hi world' end def hello end def index render :text => 'Hi! This is the Index.' end end Ctrl + D
Now create the test page.
cat > ~USER/testapp/app/views/test/hello.rhtml # The test page
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello from Rails!</h1>
<p>The current time is <%= Time.now %></p>
</body>
</html>
Ctrl + D
Now just access the URL: http://yourdomain/rails/test/hi
NOTE:- Remember to change ownership of the test pages you created.
Congrats! You have installed Ruby On Rails 🙂
Reference:
Installing Ruby on Rails in Plesk http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/HowtoInstallAndRunRubyOnRailsOnPlesk
About the author:
Rashid Mullali Mohamed Kunhi works in Bobcares as Jr. Engineer. He primarily works on Plesk servers on Linux.
good article on installation of ruby and it’s extension above method working for me.
Such a useful information sharing and it’s really very helpful for everyone. Thanks for sharing that.