Skip to content
Snippets Groups Projects

Rails Hello World Tutorial

Last edited by Eric Franz

Steps

Log into glenn.osc.edu, then:

  1. Setup new rails project with passenger
  2. Add hello world view and route
  3. Work around the root directory config defect

1. Setup new rails project with passenger

Make sure you add the .htaccess file as described at the bottom of this section before accessing the app through https://apps.awesim.org/devapps

Log into glenn.osc.edu

Load ruby module and move into awesim_dev directory:

-bash-3.2$ cd ~/awesim_dev
-bash-3.2$ module load ruby-2.0.0-p247

Start a new project to work with passenger (NOTE: the rails1 directory should not be created before running the mv command below or the files will not copy correctly):

-bash-3.2$ rails new hello --skip-bundle

Then we want to rename this directory to rails1 (if rails1 already exists, move the contents of hello to the contents of rails1 instead):

-bash-3.2$ mv hello rails1
-bash-3.2$ cd rails1
-bash-3.2$ ls
app  bin  config  config.ru  db  Gemfile  Gemfile.lock  lib  log  public  Rakefile  README.rdoc  test  tmp  vendor

Finally bundle install to update the Gemfile.lock file:

-bash-3.2$ bundle install --local

Init git repo:

-bash-3.2$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /nfs/17/efranz/awesim_dev/rails3/.git/
-bash-3.2$ git add .
-bash-3.2$ git commit -m "initial commit"

If you try to do something like use rails generate you will probably see this:

/usr/local/ruby/2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/execjs-2.0.2/lib/execjs/runtimes.rb:51:in `autodetect': Could not find a JavaScript runtime.

For now, use therubyracer gem. Later we will offer node.js as a JS runtime environment which will be more robust. Edit the file Gemfile and uncomment this line:

# gem 'therubyracer', platforms: :ruby

Then bundle install:

-bash-3.2$ bundle install --local
Resolving dependencies...
Using rake (10.1.0)
Using i18n (0.6.5)
...
Using therubyracer (0.12.0)
Using turbolinks (1.3.0)
Using uglifier (2.2.1)
Your bundle is complete!
Use `bundle show [gemname]` to see where a bundled gem is installed.
-bash-3.2$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#	modified:   Gemfile
#	modified:   Gemfile.lock
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
-bash-3.2$ git add .
-bash-3.2$ git commit -m "add ruby racer"
[master ee001cd] add ruby racer
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
-bash-3.2$

Add .htaccess file

Finally, add a .htaccess file to:

2. Add hello world view and route

-bash-3.2$ rails g controller pages index

Now you can access this page via: https://websvcs02.osc.edu/awesim_dev/rails1/pages/index

* https://websvcs02.osc.edu is not a permanent address - the domain for development PUAs may change in the future

3. Work around the root directory config defect

Going here results in an error "Service Temporarily Unavailable":

Add namespace to your routes that matches the original name of your app. In our case it was "hello":

Hello::Application.routes.draw do
  scope 'hello' do
    get "pages/index"
    root 'pages#index'
  end
end

Now when you go to /rails1/hello you will get the index page, and root is set to this location. Finally, replace the default public/index.html page with this redirect page:

<html>
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="0;url=hello/"/>
    <title></title>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Where url is set to the namespace of your app.

Now when you go to:

it auto redirects to the root of your app at

Which shows the PagesController's index page. This is also currently set in the routes to be accessible via: