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RailsInstaller 2 for Windows released »

Created at: 07.09.2011 23:57, source: Engine Yard Blog, tagged: Open Source Technology RailsInstaller railsinstaller 2

After over 70,000 downloads of RailsInstaller for Windows, it is with great excitement we have released RailsInstaller 2 for Windows. You may download it from the RailsInstaller website.

What’s special about RailsInstaller 2 for Windows? I’m glad you asked.

Exciting feature number one is the most requested addition of all time: Ruby 1.9.2. Many thanks to Luis Lavena and the Ruby/Windows community for all the hard work ensuring that many gems function on Windows with Ruby 1.9.

Exciting feature number two is a small improvement we like to call: Rails 3.1. Here at the World Headquarters of RailsInstaller, we've been waiting and waiting for the Rails 3.1 final release. Like Dr Nic, my favorite feature of Rails 3.1 is ActiveRecord's prepared statement support. SQLite3, PostgreSQL and SQL Server now use prepared statements to yield “2x faster for simple queries and 10x faster for complex ones!”

Exciting feature number three is for you if you are using SQL Server on Windows: the latest ActiveRecord SQL Server Adapter, TinyTDS and FreeTDS are now included! TinyTDS is a project from Ken Collins that allows you to use FreeTDS to connect to Microsoft SQL Server databases. That is, everything you need to create Rails applications for your existing SQL Server database is included within RailsInstaller 2 for Windows!

Alternately you can continue using SQLite3 which continues to be packaged with RailsInstaller and is still the default adapter for new Rails 3.1 applications.

Slightly more minor but still very exciting improvements:

• Bundler is bundled (pun intended) as well and is now version 1.0.18.
• Git has also been upgraded to version 1.7.6.

Keep in mind that the goal of RailsInstaller remains making it as simple as possible for someone to get started with Ruby and Rails. If you have any ideas on how we can make things even easier, please let us know.

RailsInstaller 2 for Windows is for using and for sharing with others. Let your friends, family and colleagues bask in the goodness that is Ruby! You know in your heart that you would love nothing more than your own grandmother hacking with Ruby!!!

RailsInstaller 1.2 for Windows Released »

Created at: 02.06.2011 01:56, source: Engine Yard Blog, tagged: Open Source Technology RailsInstaller railsinstaller 1.2

We have released RailsInstaller 1.2 for Windows. You can download it on the RailsInstaller website now! RailsInstaller will quickly get you up and running with Rails. In one easy-to-use installer, you'll get set up with all the common packages necessary for a full Rails stack, with git and ssh setup thrown in for free! Download it now and you can be writing (and running) Rails code in no time. If you like it, use it as a Rails welcome kit to share with others! New 1.2 features include:

• Significant clarification of the README for anyone who would like to fork the project and contribute
• TinyTDS (example forthcoming in an upcoming post, yay!)
• ActiveRecord SQLServer Adapter

• Rails 3.0.7

Introducing RailsInstaller »

Created at: 19.01.2011 01:02, source: Engine Yard Blog, tagged: Technology RailsInstaller Wayne E. Seguin windows

How can you share Ruby on Rails with your friends? How about giving them a Rails Welcome Kit to make it simple for them to get up and running with Rails? Enter RailsInstaller, the best one-click installer for getting started with Ruby on Rails.

Anyone new to Rails, welcome! We want to make your Rails experience straightforward and enjoyable!

So, what would you pay for such an awesome kit? $295? Probably not. $49? Maybe. $9.99? Definitely, in a heart beat. Well, you are in luck, for today and for an unlimited time into the future, RailsInstaller is Open Source and FREE for you to use!

Goodies in the Rails Welcome Kit

• Install each component (Ruby 1.8.7, RubyGems 1.4,  Rails 3, Git 1.7, Sqlite3 dll & gem, DevKit ) into the destination directory (C:\RailsInstaller by default)
• Create a ‘RailsInstaller’ start menu group with several items
• Link the user to the RailsInstaller website, mailing list and IRC channel

Why is Engine Yard doing this?

It turns out there are some people out there using an operating system called Windows. And they are somewhat unloved historically by both the Rails and Ruby communities…

But the great, vast majority of people who are new to Rails don’t know that yet. You, as a Windows developer, think, “I would like to play with this Rails thing.” That’s all you know. How do you use it? How do we make that experience work, so that they don’t have to go scour the internet for little scraps and ideas? It’s little things—The Rails 3 Guide, the canonical reference for how to get started in rails, refers to the Instant Rails project as a solution for how to get started in Windows. Well, the project hasn’t been updated in three years, it bundles an old, old version of Ruby— Ruby 1.8.6— that doesn’t work with Rails.

We love them so little, these Windows people, that there’s no system that’s known to work, there’s no easy, go-to place… And here at Engine Yard, it’s time for us to turn around and help the millions of Windows users who would like to start using Rails.

So we’ve started with a Rails Welcome Kit for Windows users. It is desperately needed.

We strongly believe that there is also a need for a Welcome Kit for OS/X users too. Currently you need XCode to do a few things on OS/X and Ruby. It’d be nice to package away that requirement, for example. Not everyone is on Snow Leopard and has a version of Ruby on their OS/X machine, which supports Rails 3 (it requires Ruby 1.8.7 which ships with 10.6 Snow Leopard).

Can you please help?

Our first goal is making sure that new Rails developers can easily locate  RailsInstaller when they google “Rails Windows” or “Getting Started with Rails”. This is where YOU come in! Please help us by updating any tutorials or websites to link to http://railsinstaller.org as the canonical place for anyone to get started! This will ensure that Windows users who are starting out with Rails end up using the RailsInstaller and thus have a simplified, streamlined and enjoyable "getting started" experience.

Next, I encourage you to  share Rails with all of your Windows using friends. We all love Rails. It is so wonderful. Now it is easier than ever for your friends to share the joy!

Thanks

This is a packaged goodies bag of existing projects. RailsInstaller for Windows would not be possible without two people. Luis Lavena for being part of the team that created RubyInstaller. And...Luis Lavena, for helping me navigate Windows, the packaging tools, and the surreal development world of Windows.

Thank you very much, in advance, for sharing RailsInstaller with your friends. I hope it helps them enjoy Rails.

So, what’s next?

We have an ongoing list of features/bugs/chores. The code and website are all open source.

You can follow the project on twitter at @railsinstaller, and participate in discussions on the mailing list. Also, come for a chat in #railsinstaller on IRC.

Let’s make RailsInstaller awesome and make sure the world knows it exists!