Lesson 9
The Simplest Possible Rails Application
Welcome to the first screencast in the Learning Rails free online course in Ruby on Rails.
Note: we created this series in 2008, and the Ruby on Rails world, along with the software that supports it (such as various gems) has evolved quite a bit since then. Check the comments for suggestions on how to overcome various incompatibilities. We hope to have an updated version of the series by the end of 2010.
If you want to follow along on your own system, you’ll need to have a basic Ruby on Rails development environment set up. Check Lesson 8 for details on how to do that.
We’d love to hear any feedback you may have on this screencast. Please add your comment at the bottom of the page.
In this lesson, we build a very simple Ruby on Rails application, with just a few static pages, so we can walk through the files that make up a Rails application and show how the view system works.
The simple approach we’ve taken here isn’t something we would recommend for a production Rails application; it’s designed to cut away as much complexity as possible so we can focus on the essentials. In the next lesson, we’ll start building a more dynamic site.
There’s not a lot of code in this first lesson, and we’ll be replacing it in the next lesson, but you can download the full application if you’d like.
P.S. We’re still refining our production workflow, and the video in lesson is not quite up to our production quality goal. You’ll see improvements in future lessons.
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Reader Comments
94 comments
Videos
From: James Bolin, 05/28/11 03:00 PM
Where are the videos? I try and save them and cannot get them to download at all. I also have tried to view them and the page continously loads until it times out. I love the series so far, just wish I could continue
I like this
From: Luis Pirir, 02/12/11 09:28 PM
I like the routing system of Ruby on Rails. Thank your for the course.
Problem starting server
From: pradeep, 12/22/10 02:47 PM
Hi, I am absolutely new to RoR. I have set up my development environment in Windows Vista by the help of your previous podcast. When I tried to run the application it gives me following message: Could not find gem 'sqlite3-ruby (>= 0, runtime)' in any of the gem sources list ed in your Gemfile. Try running `bundle install`. Is there anything wrong with my setup. How can I get around with this problem.Seeking for your assistance :)
response to Routes in Rails 3 From: SteveO
From: hj, 12/08/10 11:00 PM
use this to translate the v2 route code to v3: match ':name' => 'viewer#show', :as => :view_page
Routes in Rails 3
From: SteveO, 12/02/10 03:07 PM
I have been able to work around most of the syntax differences of Rails 2 vs 3 with the exception of routes. Could someone translate the following v2 route code to v3? map.view_page ':name', :controller => 'viewer', :action => 'show' Thanks!
MOV files
From: Leon, 06/27/10 03:18 PM
MOV files don't really play well (or at all) in a web browser on Linux. I can download them of course, but I just wanted to comment that I thought it was a strange choice for a open source initiative to pick this kind of format.
ruby
From: mani, 01/26/10 10:21 AM
i love ruby
It is excellent!
From: ggwang, 12/16/09 08:23 PM
From lession 9, I can get it throght easily. Since it is now Object-insight oriented. Unfortunately it was disturbed by noise after showing the MateText shot Thanks a lot!
Various problems (start/stop ...)
From: Terje Bohler, 10/05/09 08:45 AM
Hi. Command "C>ruby script/server" cause page public/index.html to "launch" OK by typing URL http://localhost:3000/ into the browser. But, clicking link "About your applications environment" (on that page) fails with the following text "We're sorry, but something went wrong". Another thing I see is that when I start the framework by issuing the command "C>ruby script/server", the following (limited) printout occures: => Booting Mongrel => Rails 2.3.4 application starting on http://0.0.0.0:3000 => Call with -d to detach => Ctrl-C to shutdown server That's all! No extra text-lines (as shown in the screencast) with the two "leading stars" occur: ** Starting Mongrel ... ** Starting Rails ... ** Rails loaded ... ... Regards Terje Bohler
Same thing happened to me. I'm using Windows Vista OS
From: ceann, 09/22/09 08:24 PM
From: Me Name Date: 08/16/09 10:03 AM Subject: SQL version conflict I’ve tried the installation on several OS systems, but for some reason I get the same result. When I run my server, and the index page displays, I click “about your application environment” and lo and behold, every time…“We’re sorry, but something went wrong.” I get this error in my development log “Status: 500 Internal Server Error can’t activate sqlite3-ruby (= 1.2.3, runtime), already activated sqlite3-ruby-1.2.5-x86-mswin32” I can not for the life of me find any solution online. Please help, if anyone can :( …I’m sad :( :( :( *tear
Same thing happened to me. I'm using Windows Vista OS
From: ceann, 09/22/09 08:24 PM
From: Me Name Date: 08/16/09 10:03 AM Subject: SQL version conflict I’ve tried the installation on several OS systems, but for some reason I get the same result. When I run my server, and the index page displays, I click “about your application environment” and lo and behold, every time…“We’re sorry, but something went wrong.” I get this error in my development log “Status: 500 Internal Server Error can’t activate sqlite3-ruby (= 1.2.3, runtime), already activated sqlite3-ruby-1.2.5-x86-mswin32” I can not for the life of me find any solution online. Please help, if anyone can :( …I’m sad :( :( :( *tear
Same thing happened to me. I'm using Windows Vista OS
From: ceann, 09/22/09 08:24 PM
From: Me Name Date: 08/16/09 10:03 AM Subject: SQL version conflict I’ve tried the installation on several OS systems, but for some reason I get the same result. When I run my server, and the index page displays, I click “about your application environment” and lo and behold, every time…“We’re sorry, but something went wrong.” I get this error in my development log “Status: 500 Internal Server Error can’t activate sqlite3-ruby (= 1.2.3, runtime), already activated sqlite3-ruby-1.2.5-x86-mswin32” I can not for the life of me find any solution online. Please help, if anyone can :( …I’m sad :( :( :( *tear
Figured it out
From: Chaz, 08/31/09 07:24 PM
Saw that the code built by the Esclipse system did not match that which was used by the simple command line system
SQL version conflict
From: Me Name, 08/16/09 10:03 AM
I've tried the installation on several OS systems, but for some reason I get the same result. When I run my server, and the index page displays, I click "about your application environment" and lo and behold, every time..."We're sorry, but something went wrong." I get this error in my development log "Status: 500 Internal Server Error can't activate sqlite3-ruby (= 1.2.3, runtime), already activated sqlite3-ruby-1.2.5-x86-mswin32" I can not for the life of me find any solution online. Please help, if anyone can :( ...I'm sad :( :( :( *tear
Can't get applications.html.erb to work
From: Chaz, 07/20/09 11:54 AM
What am I missing. I was following along to the video and created and edided the above file but it does not seem to get executed? What did I miss?
installing Sqlite3 on windows XP
From: wajahat, 06/24/09 11:54 AM
this is what got me running sqlite3 on my machine http://blog.emson.co.uk/2008/06/installing-sqlite3-on-windows-for-rails/ to the point right on the mark and this command works: gem install —version 1.2.3 sqlite3-ruby
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:25 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
seeking
From: sheriff, 06/22/09 08:20 AM
I can't get to the lesson page right why you just inform me on my e-mail, but why i can't get there
error when starting server
From: Tony, 05/25/09 01:27 AM
hi, i did lesson 9 perfectly but then when i downloaded the end of lesson 9 app code so i could start lesson 10, netbeans had me update to version 2.0.2 and now i get the following error whenever i try to connect to the server. can anyone help me out? i'm a super n00b C:\Ruby\bin\learningrails_9>ruby script/server => Booting Mongrel (use 'script/server webrick' to force WEBrick) => Rails application starting on http://0.0.0.0:3000 => Call with -d to detach => Ctrl-C to shutdown server ** Starting Mongrel listening at 0.0.0.0:3000 ** Starting Rails with development environment... Exiting c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/active_record/base.rb:1532 :in `method_missing': undefined method `include_root_in_json=' for ActiveRecord: :Base:Class (NoMethodError) from C:/Ruby/bin/learningrails_9/config/initializers/new_rails_defaults. rb:8 from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active_suppo rt/dependencies.rb:489:in `load' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active_suppo rt/dependencies.rb:489:in `load' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active_suppo rt/dependencies.rb:342:in `new_constants_in' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active_suppo rt/dependencies.rb:489:in `load' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.0.2/lib/initializer.rb:342:i n `load_application_initializers' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.0.2/lib/initializer.rb:341:i n `each' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.0.2/lib/initializer.rb:341:i n `load_application_initializers' ... 30 levels... from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.0.2/lib/commands/server.rb:3 9 from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `ge m_original_require' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `re quire' from script/server:3 i'm trying to learn rails so i can make a web form for a database i'm making for my internship.
error when starting server
From: Tony, 05/25/09 01:26 AM
hi, i did lesson 9 perfectly but then when i downloaded the end of lesson 9 app code so i could start lesson 10, netbeans had me update to version 2.0.2 and now i get the following error whenever i try to connect to the server. can anyone help me out? i'm a super n00b C:\Ruby\bin\learningrails_9>ruby script/server => Booting Mongrel (use 'script/server webrick' to force WEBrick) => Rails application starting on http://0.0.0.0:3000 => Call with -d to detach => Ctrl-C to shutdown server ** Starting Mongrel listening at 0.0.0.0:3000 ** Starting Rails with development environment... Exiting c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/active_record/base.rb:1532 :in `method_missing': undefined method `include_root_in_json=' for ActiveRecord: :Base:Class (NoMethodError) from C:/Ruby/bin/learningrails_9/config/initializers/new_rails_defaults. rb:8 from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active_suppo rt/dependencies.rb:489:in `load' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active_suppo rt/dependencies.rb:489:in `load' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active_suppo rt/dependencies.rb:342:in `new_constants_in' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active_suppo rt/dependencies.rb:489:in `load' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.0.2/lib/initializer.rb:342:i n `load_application_initializers' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.0.2/lib/initializer.rb:341:i n `each' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.0.2/lib/initializer.rb:341:i n `load_application_initializers' ... 30 levels... from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.0.2/lib/commands/server.rb:3 9 from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `ge m_original_require' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `re quire' from script/server:3 i'm trying to learn rails so i can make a web form for a database i'm making for my internship.
RE: Ready to go, but confused.
From: Brett, 04/13/09 06:24 AM
Mike: cmd.exe See: http://allaboutruby.wordpress.com/2006/01/09/installing-rails-on-windows-step-by-step-tutorial/
Ready to go, but confused.
From: Mike, 04/10/09 01:57 PM
At the very beginning of this lesson you mention that you start off in "The Terminal" which automatically opens up TextMate. I'm using Vista with NetBeans and GIT. Which is MY terminal?
Ready to go, but confused.
From: Mike, 04/10/09 01:57 PM
At the very beginning of this lesson you mention that you start off in "The Terminal" which automatically opens up TextMate. I'm using Vista with NetBeans and GIT. Which is MY terminal?
Source Code for the lessons
From: Joey, 04/01/09 07:38 AM
Unlike Gilciel, I get an error message (site not found) when I try to download the full application. Can anyone help, please?
Source Code for the leassons
From: Gilciel, 03/30/09 08:04 PM
I managed to download the sources of lessons. I have something to do?
From Spain
From: Rafa, 03/12/09 12:11 PM
Very good lesson, I'm not a programmer, just a journalist learning RoR and after the lesson, everything works!, now I'll go for the next.
deleted file index.html changes to routes.rb don't work [fixed]
From: kevin, 02/04/09 09:35 AM
iyi, i don't know why but the original message posted twice. so, anyways, i closed everything down and opened it again and i works fine now, sorry for clutter.
deleted file index.html changes to routes.rb don't work
From: Kevin, 02/04/09 09:28 AM
This is unusually but i have removed the index.html from the public folder and made changes to the routes.rb and when i refresh the browser to the base url the initial Welcome aboard! screen shows. When i go back and click on tabs resources,about,contact i can navigate through until clicking home brings up the Welcome aboard! screen also. Why would this screen still show after i have removed the index.html file?
deleted file index.html changes to routes.rb don't work
From: Kevin, 02/04/09 09:28 AM
This is unusually but i have removed the index.html from the public folder and made changes to the routes.rb and when i refresh the browser to the base url the initial Welcome aboard! screen shows. When i go back and click on tabs resources,about,contact i can navigate through until clicking home brings up the Welcome aboard! screen also. Why would this screen still show after i have removed the index.html file?
Doesn't save to the iPhone
From: Jorge Bucaran, 01/05/09 03:34 PM
When I try to sync iTunes with my iPhone 3G to upload the tutorial to the iPhone it shows an error dialog saying that this movie doesn't work on the iPhone. I had not had any problems with this screen cast so far.
Can't watch/download the lesson
From: Leo Sierek, 12/28/08 02:05 AM
Hi guys, First, thx for doing all the work, but there is one small problem. I can't watch the qt movie or download it, because the link isnt right or the file is missing. Could you fix that please. Thx in advance
SQLITE 3
From: Ahad, 12/18/08 12:33 AM
Thanks Oswaldo, i was receiving the same error so i switched to sql. The "gem install sqlite3 --version 1.2.3" worked!
SQLite3 installation
From: Oswaldo, 12/17/08 11:59 AM
I obtained a recurrent "no such file to load --sqlite"; installing and unistalling one and another time trying to fix the problem using a commad as suggested '%>gem install/uninstall sqlite3-ruby' without result; Looking around the web I found the following tip '%>gem install sqlite3 --version 1.2.3' that finally works. I would like to know what is the problem? and why was resolved using such bizarre command? My Ruby installation is the latest OneClick and the OS is Windows Vista.
Directory
From: Ahad Bokhari, 12/17/08 02:55 AM
For you Windows guys -> make sure to switch to the directory where you created your App and then run the ruby script/server command
application.html.erb
From: Jaime, 10/20/08 07:38 PM
this changes doesn't show up in any of the pages /home /about... don't know why.....
ruby 186-26.exe download
From: cherrian, 10/17/08 11:49 PM
Hello, I am having a difficult time following this lesson#9. Ruby 186-26.exe does does not respond to the command. I can't find rails, mongrel,etc... no indication that it's part of the ruby download. If I uninstall and download this file once more, will this make a difference?Or do I need to download rails as different file?
ruby 186-26.exe
From: cherrian, 10/16/08 06:24 AM
I've downloaded Ruby 186-26.exe I went into the DOS command prompt and type the command to check that Ruby was installed correctly but still not sure... ...checked Ruby gems package manger with the commands but got an error message Not sure if set the right environment??/
RE: Where is Netbeans?
From: Christopher Haupt, 10/04/08 10:29 PM
Jason: We are really sorry that the Netbeans references caused this confusion for you. When we started the podcast series last year, we were indeed starting to use Netbeans for our offline, in person Rails course/seminar. At that time, we found Netbeans 6.0 (the current version at the time) was too buggy and that many students were having trouble. We reverted back to a basic text editor and the command line, since it worked for pretty much everyone on Mac, Windows, and Linux. If you check out my Windows installation articles, that might help you out. See Lesson 8 for the links. Note that for the lessons, we don't use MySQL, so you can skip that. You do have to make sure SQLite is installed, so look for that section. Really any text editor should be just fine for the lessons, and we point to a few in my setup articles for Windows. My current favorite editor on Windows is the E-texteditor. While this is a commercial editor on Windows, it is pretty inexpensive. What is really interesting, though, is that it is almost an exact port of TextMate. It can also use many of the TextMate bundles (plugins). Worth checking out the demo version. Ultraedit (commercial), jEdit (open-source), and the latest Netbeans, are all options as well as others. You can use Netbeans as strictly an editor if you like.
Where is Netbeans?
From: Jason , 10/04/08 09:02 PM
I was happy to hear on the podcast and read in this set up page that you were using netbeans in your tutorials. “We use Netbeans in our LearningRails courses” I have set up the environment successfully and went to the first video to find you using textmate. That is very disappointing. Ruby on Rails tutorials with textmate are a dime-a-dozen. I am stuck trying to figure out things when you use textmate. I don't own a macs or have experience with textmate to understand nuances so I become a bit lost quite easily. Here is where I am stuck right now. I was able to set up the environment pretty well, but ran into some issues which were not intuitive for me to just fix. My localhost page states something is wrong with the MySQL setup. I was able to create an initial ‘learningrails_9 project in the command prompt but couldn't open in netbeans; I am not familiar with netbeans and was really looking forward to seeing you perform projects within it. Then I deleted it, tried to open a project through netbeans, but there are so many ‘choices’ in setting up a project and database, I am lost. This experience is a bit discouraging. Are you going to create video’s with netbeans or something for windows machines?
broken link
From: Harry, 10/02/08 10:43 AM
The link to the screencast is broken, both here and in the RSS feed.
Yield
From: Grant, 09/06/08 05:50 PM
I love your tutorials. I can't get any of the info in the application.html.erb to show up in the page source code. also, any changes to headers and footers and CSS do not work as well. Does anyone know why?
WOW!
From: Sharon, 08/24/08 02:41 PM
I'm not sure how I tripped on to your site, but I am so glad I did. I have been trying to learn from a book, supposedly for beginners, but it left out a lot of explanations (or maybe just not explained where a beginner could understand). I was ready to give up. Now it all makes sense and I am so glad I found this site and thank you for making it so affordable! You have explained it so that it makes sense and I am certain it will all make sense with a little practice. Again Thank You!
Change Directory
From: James Grubb, 08/17/08 08:07 AM
Hi thanks for the tutorials. It took me a whilte to work out that you need to change directory in the terminal to point it to the learning_rails_9 folder you set up. Yu don't mention this and for novices like myself I think you should
Error on activating 'About your application' link on default page
From: Kelly, 08/10/08 02:39 PM
Never mind .. I had forgotten to create a database before I started the server. It seems to be working now. Thanks anyway, and thanks to David Frink for posting the link to the sqlite3 fix.
Error on activating 'About your application' link on default page
From: Kelly, 08/10/08 01:35 PM
After I fixed the sqllite3 error, I now get this error. CGI::Session::CookieStore::TamperedWithCookie in Rails/infoController#properties CGI::Session::CookieStore::TamperedWithCookie Any ideas on how to fix this? Kelly
From: Amari, 08/06/08 04:55 PM
thanks for the great job that you guys have done i'm not only learning but i'm enjoying your company as well you guys are the best!!!
script/server does not work for downloaded file
From: Jose Ignacio, 06/29/08 11:52 AM
Everything worked well after creating the file by executing command rails filename, but if I download the source file or even if I move the folder created by rails command, $script/server does not work anymore (even though I am in the correct/new folder). What is going on?? Does rails creates some kind path for mongrell – how to recreate?—thx anyone
Thank you both!
From: Bryan, 06/23/08 12:51 AM
Michael & Christopher,
Thanks for the wonderful screencast! This is really made learning rails fun and worthwhile.
Thank you both!
From: Bryan, 06/23/08 12:51 AM
Michael & Christopher,
Thanks for the wonderful screencast! This is really made learning rails fun and worthwhile.
Thank you so much!
From: Darius del Rosario, 06/09/08 12:10 AM
Hi Michael and Christopher,
Thank you so much for this wonderful screencast! You were very organized in how you presented the things you wanted to teach, and though I initially had difficulties because I was following your tutorial on Windows XP, once I had the initial settings configured correctly, creating the site was such a joy!
Thank you, thank you, thank you… You saved me a lot of time, since most of the tutorials I’ve encountered are based on the “Agile Web Development..” book (which is rather outdated at this point in time, I must say.. yes, even the 2nd edition) which starts with a complex e-commerce site that I really don’t want right now. Your simple static web site is right on target!
Again, thanks. Hoping for more tutorials from you both.
Darius
sqlite3 error
From: David Frink, 06/01/08 07:48 AM
Tim,
I had the same problem. Rails 2.0 defaults to use sqlite3 as the database (which is not installed by default for Windows, AFIK). These tutorials are using MySQL so you need to tell Rails to use that instead.
To fix this, I edited my database.yml file as suggested here: http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/TutorialStepOne
If you’ve got a password on your database, be sure to included it in the file.
Then I ran “rake db:create” from the command line.
After that I didn’t have any problems.
feed back and request
From: Marcos Ricardo, 05/25/08 12:07 PM
Hi Michael and Christopher,
Well, I have just carefully watched the lesson 9 screen cast. And I will try to do it over NetBeans later.
First, a feed back: GREAT JOB on the screencast, really cool.
Second, a request: I'm not a web developer, so, animations like those ("Anim1.swf" and "Rails Routing.swf") presented on the screen cast, helped me a lot.
Could you please include those ".swf" files on the lesson companion material? Or split the animations explanation on separate ".mov" files ? And If possible, would be nice an even more detailed animation in the future ? Showing how a RoR application works (at files level, on the server side, I mean).
The reason ? I think these animations are a fundamental learning tool for non web developers like me. And in that case, we will need to watch them more then once, during the course, to fix the ideas and behavior, behind a web application.
Thanks in advance, and thanks for the course so far.
Editors vs. IDEs
From: Michael Slater, 05/14/08 03:47 AM
Jason, this is a big subject on which there’s a wide variety of opinions. Using a text editor and a terminal window, you have a relatively thin layer between you and the Rails framework. You need to remember some commands, instead of being able to do everything by choosing a menu item, but rarely do you encounter any delays from your tools, and rarely do they actively get in your way.
With an IDE, such as Aptana, everything is brought together for you in a single interface, and most everything can be done via a menu choice. But there’s more work in learning the tool, it tends to be slower, and sometimes it just doesn’t seem to do what you want.
IDEs also can provide features that you don’t get in a text editor—like the ability to click on a method invocation and be brought (relatively) instantly to the file that defines that method.
I’ve used NetBeans fairly extensively, and when it is good, it’s great. It had some growing pains during that Rails 1.2 to Rails 2.0 and NetBeans 6.0 to 6.1 transition, during which it cause me serious grief. I ended up switching to TextMate, and while there are a few things I miss from NetBeans, I like the speed and reliability of working in TextMate.
Text Editors vs IDEs
From: Jason Willis, 05/14/08 01:12 AM
Could you explain the pro/con of using ‘E’ vs something like aptana? (either free or pro version) Thank you!
Jason
E TextEditor for Windows
From: Christopher Haupt, 05/09/08 01:53 PM
I’ve been very impressed with the E-TextEditor for Windows (http://www.e-texteditor.com/) which is a near port of TextMate, but for Windows. It even shares support for almost all of the same plugins (called bundles). It is commercial, but pretty inexpensive.
NetBeans
From: Michael Slater, 05/09/08 12:14 PM
To be honest, we gave up on NetBeans. It’s in better shape now, but there were some rough patches when 6.0 was missing some critical features for Rails 2 and the early 6.1 versions were unstable. We also found that, as a teaching tool for wide audiences, there was too much that was peculiar to NetBeans that took time to explain and wasn’t helpful for the vast majority of developers who are using other solutions. With TextMate and the console, we’re using nothing that isn’t available in virtually any text editor and console. It shouldn’t be hard to translate to NetBeans, but we’re not going to cover NetBeans specifics. (We’ve also moved all our own development work to TextMate. NetBeans just didn’t give us enough back for the grief it gave us.)
Where is the annouced Netbeans ?
From: Marcos Ricardo, 05/09/08 11:14 AM
Hi,
Just one little complain.
At the beginning, you stated the course will use Netbeans on the lessons.
Watching the first three Screen casts, I just see the regular Mac / Text Mate version…
Any chance I could see a Netbeans version ?
Regards.
Could'not manage to complete the lesson on Vista
From: Tim, 05/06/08 07:42 AM
It looks like something is not configured. I could’not see the versions of my gems on the index page. I follow the Steps in the tutor of how to run Rails on Vista and even reinstall to make sure i do everything right. Also no content in pages/home, it says MissingSourceFile in PagesController#home This error occurred while loading the following files: sqlite3
I really need you help guys…
html working
From: Erwin Odendaal, 05/06/08 04:43 AM
I already discovered that you need Rails 2.0 for the code to work. On my system (xcode 3.0!) it was still Rails 1.x…
html not working
From: Erwin Odendaal, 05/06/08 04:24 AM
I’ve followed your instructions carefully and everything went as you showed in the screencast. What didn’t work was the file “application.html.erb” The sourcecode of “http://localhost:3000/pages/home/” (or any of the other pages) didn’t contain the html-code added. What can there have been gone wrong?
screencast#9
From: Zeck, 05/01/08 05:40 PM
Thanks a lot for your great work !
screencast #9
From: reinhard staudinger, 04/19/08 12:17 AM
thanks a lot for your great work! it makes it easy to dive into ror. greetings from austria!
screencast #9
From: reinhard staudinger, 04/19/08 12:16 AM
thanks a lot for your great work! it makes it easy to dive into ror. greetings from austria!
Screencast #9
From: Robert L. Crocker, 04/15/08 10:17 AM
Good introductory tutorial on controllers, routing, layouts, and CSS. I’ve been through quite a few different tutorials so some of this stuff was already kind of making sense to me but this screencast really put it all together. Keep up the good work guys.
Screencast #9
From: Al, 04/13/08 11:45 AM
I have listened to all 9 episodes. Suggest providing a list of clickable list of links for the “dropped in” code (you had 3 of them i think in #9) in the screencast, so I can “drop it in” as I follow along. Thanks for a great serie.
Thank You!
From: Shannon, 04/10/08 08:17 AM
Your explanations, particularly of routing, are excellent. Very clear and well supported with your graphics. Looking forward to the next one.
Thank you!
From: Dave, 04/10/08 04:14 AM
Gentlemen, This is what i’ve been looking for! I picked up Ruby as my first programming language ever in 1/08. I built along with you and this is my first ever web app (or web page period!) Thank you Looking forward to forthcoming lessons…
Awesome!
From: Ryan Dougher, 04/09/08 09:29 AM
Your audio podcasts have already been a huge help to me, and now the video podcast is just fantastic. I can’t wait to see more of them. Your lessons have been the best I’ve found on the internet, especially for people like me who have zero experience in web programming. Keep up the great work guys!
Screencast
From: Robert L. Crocker, 04/08/08 08:56 PM
Thanks for the effort guys. I’ve listened to the podcasts a couple of times. Looking forward to the screencast and hope to make it to one of your seminars this year.
A Wonderful Beginning
From: Ljuba, 04/08/08 06:03 PM
Great job on your first screencast. I’m a huge fan and loving the lessons. Thank you for providing a bridge for people familiar with HTML and CSS and not diving in right away with building database tables and raking and so on.
When I saw the title “The Simplest Possible Rails App” I thought, “Oh no, a blog application,” but I was delighted to find something new compared to other tutorials I’ve seen. The parts about having multiple views to a single controller and changing the routes.rb file were really useful for beginners like me.
Again, great job!
Screencast
From: Thomas Schmidt, 04/08/08 05:29 PM
Loved your first screencast. I am just getting started with Ruby on Rails and I am very excited to move forward. I have listened to all your podcasts. You have a beautyful way of making things easy to understand. I hope to be able to sign up with one of your seminars soon. One question though: if you are up and running Ruby on Rails with your provider, why not start every project even static ones in Ruby, eventually they will become dynamic. Just a thought. Kind regards, Thomas Schmidt, Denmark
Great Job
From: Gurvinder, 07/19/08 03:21 PM
You Guys have done a great job in your first screencast. this screencast answered my question in my previous lessons.
Thank you so much….. Looking forward for your next screen cast
Keep on the Good Work… :)
SciTe instead of TextMate
From: Olivia, 07/17/08 02:47 AM
I am running Windows and I don’t have TextMate installed. Can I type “SciTe” (instead of “Mate” within console)on Window terminal? Please help! Thank you!!
SciTe instead of TextMate
From: Olivia, 07/17/08 02:47 AM
I am running Windows and I don’t have TextMate installed. Can I type “SciTe” (instead of “Mate” within console)on Window terminal? Please help! Thank you!!
source code typo
From: Adam Kittelson, 07/15/08 02:25 PM
Sorry, noticed another one with that file right after posting the previous comment. The pagewrapper div is being closed above the content tag in the source code, but to get the page to render the way it does in the screencast it needs to close after the footer.
-Adam
source code typo
From: Adam Kittelson, 07/15/08 02:20 PM
FYI – In the application.html.erb file provided in the ‘download the full application’ link for this lesson, the close tag for the navbar div is another open tag.
Really enjoying the lesson so far.
-Adam
Great help
From: Daire O Broin, 07/13/08 03:48 AM
I wasn’t sure what was going on in the podcasts but now I’ve some solid instructions I really feel like I’m making progress despite being entirely clueless. :)
Problems starting server
From: Jose Ignacio, 07/01/08 08:41 PM
I Have already installed Rails 2.1 (following instructions in the last podcast). If I try to start the server (ruby script/server), I get the following error: Please `gem install -v=2.0.2 rails`, update your RAILS_GEM_VERSION setting in config/environment.rb for the Rails version you do have installed, or comment out RAILS_GEM_VERSION to use the latest version installed. Only when I do not create the folder LearningRails_9 by typing: “rails LearningRails_9”. When I create the folder running rails namefile -> script/server launches Mongrel and everything works wonderfully.
Is there something wrong with my installation?
thank you for your help!
Feedback and a question
From: John, 07/01/08 06:23 PM
Execellent job, great site and Ror rocks….it’s amazing to see how fast the site develops out of nothing…anyway, i have a question…how does Ruby know that it has to generate home.rhtml.erb when the <=yield> command has been given. Is it hardcoded somewhere ? —From the code
How does it understand that yield takes home.rhtml and why not other files in the directory ?
FIXED: routes.rb changes don't work
From: Henry Happ, 06/30/08 08:21 AM
Nevermind. I forgot to remove the default index.html file from the public folders. Shame on me.
Again, great tutorials!
routes.rb changes don't work
From: Henry Happ, 06/30/08 08:19 AM
I love the way that you are doing this and I am following along in a VM’d environment. The only issue that I had with the tutorial was that the change to the routes file didn’t work. I still get the default ruby page. Furthermore, when I click on the “Home” link from any of the pages, I get taken back to the default Ruby page again. Any ideas? Thanks.
routes.rb changes don't work
From: Henry Happ, 06/30/08 08:19 AM
I love the way that you are doing this and I am following along in a VM’d environment. The only issue that I had with the tutorial was that the change to the routes file didn’t work. I still get the default ruby page. Furthermore, when I click on the “Home” link from any of the pages, I get taken back to the default Ruby page again. Any ideas? Thanks.