Ruby on Rails - Creating a New Rails Application

Introduction

Creating a new Ruby on Rails application is a straightforward process that involves setting up the development environment, generating the application, and starting the server. This guide will walk you through the necessary steps.

Prerequisites

Before creating a new Rails application, ensure you have the following prerequisites installed:

• Ruby: The programming language used by Rails.
• Rails: The Rails framework.
• Database: A database system like SQLite (default), PostgreSQL, or MySQL.

# Install Ruby using a version manager like RVM or rbenv
# Example using RVM:
\curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby
source ~/.rvm/scripts/rvm
rvm install 3.0.0
rvm use 3.0.0 --default

# Install Rails
gem install rails

# Verify the installations
ruby -v
rails -v
                

Creating a New Rails Application

Step 1: Generate the Application

# Generate a new Rails application
rails new myapp

# Navigate into the application directory
cd myapp
                

Step 2: Configure the Database

By default, Rails uses SQLite. To use a different database, modify the config/database.yml file accordingly.

# Example configuration for PostgreSQL in config/database.yml
default: &default
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  pool: 5
  username: myapp
  password: password

development:
  <<: *default
  database: myapp_development

test:
  <<: *default
  database: myapp_test

production:
  <<: *default
  database: myapp_production
  username: myapp
  password: <%= ENV['MYAPP_DATABASE_PASSWORD'] %>
                

Step 3: Install Gems

Install the necessary gems by running:

# Install the gems specified in the Gemfile
bundle install
                

Step 4: Set Up the Database

Create the database and run migrations:

# Create the database
rails db:create

# Run migrations
rails db:migrate
                

Running the Rails Server

Start the Rails server to run your application locally:

# Start the Rails server
rails server

# Access the application in your browser at http://localhost:3000
                

Conclusion

By following these steps, you have successfully created a new Ruby on Rails application. You can now start developing your application and explore the powerful features that Rails offers. Happy coding!