Robby on Rails

PostgreSQL and Ruby libs

• Install PostgreSQL8 with: sudo port install postgresql8
• We need to modify the /etc/profile file again because the postgresql8 install doesn’t add programs like pg_ctl to /opt/local/bin. Change the PATH to now look like this and save.

  PATH="/bin:/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/opt/local/lib/pgsql8/bin" 

• Install the postgres gem with: sudo gem install postgres
  • Oh NO!!! You should see an error about it not finding libraries… what will we do?

  cd /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/postgres-0.7.1
  sudo ruby extconf.rb --with-pgsql-include=/opt/local/include/pgsql8 --with-pgsql-lib=/opt/local/lib/pgsql8
  sudo make && sudo make install
  # for good measure...
  sudo gem install postgres

Successfully installed postgres-0.7.1

Configure PostgreSQL for single user

In our development environments, we don’t find it necessary to keep PostgreSQL running all the time on our servers. We only want it running when we’re doing development. We also typically install it per user on a machine to keep us from needing things like usernames and passwords to connect to it from an application we’re running on the machine. Let’s setup PostgreSQL the PLANET ARGON way!

• Open up iterm and go to your home directory
• Init your new PostgreSQL database with: initdb -D pgdata
• Start up PostgreSQL with: pg_ctl -D pgdata -l pgdata/psql.log start
• Create a new database with: createdb argon_development
• Test the new database with: psql argon_development
• Did it load up your new database? If so, great! If not… check your steps… :-)

Test Rails + PostgreSQL

• Navigate to a directory where you don’t mind sticking projects… mkdir development; cd development
• Generate a new Rails application with: rails -d postgresql argon
• Navigate to new Rails application directory. cd argon
• Generate a new model to test with: ./script/generate model Argonista
• Edit and save the migration that was generated ( db/migrate/001_create_argonistas.rb ) file with your favorite editor…

  class CreateArgonistas < ActiveRecord::Migration
    def self.up
      create_table :argonistas do |t|
        t.column :name, :string
        t.column :blog_url, :string
      end
    end

    def self.down
      drop_table :argonistas
    end
  end

• Edit config/database.yml to look like the following… you’ll notice that we don’t need to supply a username or password.

  development:
    adapter: postgresql
    database: argon_development

  test:
    adapter: postgresql 
    database: argon_test

  production:
    adapter: postgresql
    database: argon_production

  $ rake db:migrate
  (in /Users/allisonbeckwith/development/argon)
  == CreateArgonistas: migrating ================================================
  -- create_table(:argonistas)
  NOTICE:  CREATE TABLE will create implicit sequence "argonistas_id_seq" for serial column "argonistas.id" 
  NOTICE:  CREATE TABLE / PRIMARY KEY will create implicit index "argonistas_pkey" for table "argonistas" 
     -> 0.0399s
  == CreateArgonistas: migrated (0.0402s) =======================================

  $ ./script/console 
  Loading development environment.
  >> a = Argonista.new
  => #<Argonista:0x24569dc @attributes={"name"=>nil, "blog_url"=>nil}, @new_record=true>
  >> a.name = 'Robby'
  => "Robby" 
  >> a.blog_url = 'http://www.robbyonrails.com'
  => "http://www.robbyonrails.com" 
  >> a.save
  => true
  >> exit

  $ psql argon_development
  Welcome to psql 8.1.3, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.

  Type:  \copyright for distribution terms
         \h for help with SQL commands
         \? for help with psql commands
         \g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
         \q to quit

  argon_development=# SELECT * FROM argonistas;
   id | name  |          blog_url           
  ----+-------+-----------------------------
    1 | Robby | http://www.robbyonrails.com
  (1 row)

There we go, we’ve setup Ruby, Rails, and PostgreSQL on a brand new Intel MacBook without breaking a sweat!

Extra Goodies

• Subversion: sudo port install subversion
• Lighttpd: sudo port install lighttpd
• ImageMagick: sudo port install ImageMagick (known to take a while…)
• GraphicsMagick: sudo port install GraphicsMagick
• Install the rmagick gem: sudo gem install rmagick

Have fun!