Installing Instant Rails

Installing Instant Rails takes two steps.

1) Point your browser to http://rubyforge.org/projects/instantrailsand then click on the Files tab to take you to the page shown in Figure 1 below.  Download the "Instant Rails 1.0 Final" release by clicking on the file name ending with "-win.zip" (rather than on the release name, unless you want to review the Release Notes).


Figure 1. Instant Rails downloads at www.rubyforge.org

2)  UnZip the downloaded file (InstantRails-1.0-final-win.zip) onto your C: drive.  If you do, and the tutorial assumes you do, you'll end up with the file structure shown in Figure 1.1 -- with one IMPORTANT exception.  

Important note:  The name of the root directory of your Instant Rails installation will not be "C:\InstantRails".  Instead, it will be "C:\InstantRails-1.0" or, in the near future, "C:\InstantRails-1.1" and then later it will be "C:\InstantRails-2.0" and then later... You get the idea.  The name of the Instant Rails root directory the installation creates changes in synch with the release name.   Let us know if this causes you too much confusion.


Figure 2. Directory structure after unzipping Instant Rails 

This is a good time to take note of three points about the Instant Rails download.

The first is that the Instant Rails directory contains all the components you need for a functional Rails development environment.  The Apache web server, mySQL database server, Ruby and PHP interpreters, and Rails framework are all present and they all 'know about' each other.  Instant Rails just saved you a significant amount of time versus installing all of this one piece at a time.

The second point to note is that the Rails development environment is not integrated into your environment in the usual sense because Instant Rails was not "installed" in the usual sense.  TheWindows registry was not modified, environment variables remain unmolested, etc.  As a result, Instant Rails is a no-risk opportunity to test drive Rails.  The 'install' couldn't be easier or faster.  Don't like it?  Delete it. You don't need to worry about any little future nuisances the install / uninstall may have left behind.

The last point to note is that there are two fully functional apps included in the download, one of which (the cookbook application) this tutorial will show you how to create.

Note to Linux and OS X users: The Windows installer come with the RubyGems package manager already installed. Whatever means you use to install Ruby, you will probably have to install RubyGems, also.