Rails 7.1 was released a couple of days back and as a Ruby user primarily on Windows, I was keen to see if it works and runs on Windows.
Thanks to the stellar work of everyone involved, it just works. In short, all you need to do is as below:
- RubyInstaller – Download and install a supported version of Ruby on your Windows computer: Ruby 3.0.x | Ruby 3.1.x | Ruby 3.2.x
- Open a console window, and follow the commands below.
$ gem install rails
$ rails new hello
Once done, go on in to the hello folder and start the Rails Server
ruby bin\rails serverThen, open a web browser and take a look at http://localhost:3000/ to be greeted with this.
I was expecting to document some workarounds and problems I faced but at least at the very beginning, there was nothing. So, I decided to continue on to a part of the Rails Getting Started tutorial.
So, what’s next? Literally, everything! The basic application uses sqlite3 and you might want to use PostgreSQL – you can either install it directly or set it up without an installation.
Detailed steps
Let’s start by seeing the Ruby version we have.
$ ruby -v
ruby 3.2.0 (2022-12-25 revision a528908271) [x64-mingw-ucrt]
Next, install Rails.
$ gem install rails
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Successfully installed zeitwerk-2.6.12
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rackup's executable "rackup" conflicts with rack
Overwrite the executable? [yN] y
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Temporarily enhancing PATH for MSYS/MINGW...
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
Successfully installed websocket-driver-0.7.6
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
Successfully installed nio4r-2.5.9
Successfully installed actioncable-7.1.0
Successfully installed rails-7.1.0
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Done installing documentation for zeitwerk, thor, rack, rackup, tzinfo, minitest, connection_pool, activesupport, nokogiri, crass, loofah, rails-html-sanitizer, rails-dom-testing, rack-test, rack-session, erubi, builder, actionview, actionpack, railties, marcel, timeout, activemodel, activerecord, globalid, activejob, activestorage, actiontext, mini_mime, mail, actionmailer, actionmailbox, websocket-extensions, websocket-driver, nio4r, actioncable, rails after 79 seconds
37 gems installed
You may have noticed some lines like these
Couldn't find file to include 'activemodel/README.rdoc' from lib/active_model.rb
Couldn't find file to include 'activerecord/README.rdoc' from lib/active_record.rb
Couldn't find file to include 'activejob/README.md' from lib/active_job.rb
Couldn't find file to include 'activestorage/README.md' from lib/active_storage.rb
...
This is unexpected and I opened an issue on the Rails GitHub for this – it should be resolved by the time 7.1.1 lands.
Next, create a new project.
$ rails new hello
create
create README.md
create Rakefile
create .ruby-version
create config.ru
create .gitignore
create .gitattributes
create Gemfile
run git init from "."
Initialized empty Git repository in D:/projects/rails/rails71-try/hello/.git/
create app
create app/assets/config/manifest.js
create app/assets/stylesheets/application.css
create app/channels/application_cable/channel.rb
create app/channels/application_cable/connection.rb
create app/controllers/application_controller.rb
create app/helpers/application_helper.rb
create app/jobs/application_job.rb
create app/mailers/application_mailer.rb
create app/models/application_record.rb
create app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
create app/views/layouts/mailer.html.erb
create app/views/layouts/mailer.text.erb
create app/assets/images
create app/assets/images/.keep
create app/controllers/concerns/.keep
create app/models/concerns/.keep
create bin
create bin/rails
create bin/rake
create bin/setup
create Dockerfile
create .dockerignore
create bin/docker-entrypoint
create config
create config/routes.rb
create config/application.rb
create config/environment.rb
create config/cable.yml
create config/puma.rb
create config/storage.yml
create config/environments
create config/environments/development.rb
create config/environments/production.rb
create config/environments/test.rb
create config/initializers
create config/initializers/assets.rb
create config/initializers/content_security_policy.rb
create config/initializers/cors.rb
create config/initializers/filter_parameter_logging.rb
create config/initializers/inflections.rb
create config/initializers/new_framework_defaults_7_1.rb
create config/initializers/permissions_policy.rb
create config/locales
create config/locales/en.yml
create config/master.key
append .gitignore
create config/boot.rb
create config/database.yml
create db
create db/seeds.rb
create lib
create lib/tasks
create lib/tasks/.keep
create lib/assets
create lib/assets/.keep
create log
create log/.keep
create public
create public/404.html
create public/422.html
create public/500.html
create public/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png
create public/apple-touch-icon.png
create public/favicon.ico
create public/robots.txt
create tmp
create tmp/.keep
create tmp/pids
create tmp/pids/.keep
create tmp/cache
create tmp/cache/assets
create vendor
create vendor/.keep
create test/fixtures/files
create test/fixtures/files/.keep
create test/controllers
create test/controllers/.keep
create test/mailers
create test/mailers/.keep
create test/models
create test/models/.keep
create test/helpers
create test/helpers/.keep
create test/integration
create test/integration/.keep
create test/channels/application_cable/connection_test.rb
create test/test_helper.rb
create test/system
create test/system/.keep
create test/application_system_test_case.rb
create storage
create storage/.keep
create tmp/storage
create tmp/storage/.keep
remove config/initializers/cors.rb
remove config/initializers/new_framework_defaults_7_1.rb
run bundle install
Fetching gem metadata from https://rubygems.org/...........
Resolving dependencies...
Fetching racc 1.7.1
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Installing bindex 0.8.1 with native extensions
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Installing puma 6.4.0 with native extensions
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Installing xpath 3.2.0
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Installing capybara 3.39.2
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Installing irb 1.8.1
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Fetching importmap-rails 1.2.1
Fetching stimulus-rails 1.2.2
Fetching turbo-rails 1.4.0
Fetching web-console 4.2.1
Installing jbuilder 2.11.5
Installing sprockets-rails 3.4.2
Installing web-console 4.2.1
Installing importmap-rails 1.2.1
Installing stimulus-rails 1.2.2
Installing turbo-rails 1.4.0
Bundle complete! 14 Gemfile dependencies, 83 gems now installed.
Use `bundle info [gemname]` to see where a bundled gem is installed.
run bundle lock --add-platform=x86_64-linux
Fetching gem metadata from https://rubygems.org/.........
Resolving dependencies...
Writing lockfile to d:/projects/rails/rails71-try/hello/Gemfile.lock
run bundle binstubs bundler
rails importmap:install
apply C:/Ruby32-x64/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/importmap-rails-1.2.1/lib/install/install.rb
Add Importmap include tags in application layout
insert app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
Create application.js module as entrypoint
create app/javascript/application.js
Use vendor/javascript for downloaded pins
create vendor/javascript
create vendor/javascript/.keep
Ensure JavaScript files are in the Sprocket manifest
append app/assets/config/manifest.js
Configure importmap paths in config/importmap.rb
create config/importmap.rb
Copying binstub
create bin/importmap
run bundle install
Bundle complete! 14 Gemfile dependencies, 83 gems now installed.
Use `bundle info [gemname]` to see where a bundled gem is installed.
run bundle lock --add-platform=x86_64-linux
Writing lockfile to d:/projects/rails/rails71-try/hello/Gemfile.lock
rails turbo:install stimulus:install
apply C:/Ruby32-x64/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/turbo-rails-1.4.0/lib/install/turbo_with_importmap.rb
Import Turbo
append app/javascript/application.js
Pin Turbo
append config/importmap.rb
run bundle install
Bundle complete! 14 Gemfile dependencies, 83 gems now installed.
Use `bundle info [gemname]` to see where a bundled gem is installed.
run bundle lock --add-platform=x86_64-linux
Writing lockfile to d:/projects/rails/rails71-try/hello/Gemfile.lock
Run turbo:install:redis to switch on Redis and use it in development for turbo streams
apply C:/Ruby32-x64/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/stimulus-rails-1.2.2/lib/install/stimulus_with_importmap.rb
Create controllers directory
create app/javascript/controllers
create app/javascript/controllers/index.js
create app/javascript/controllers/application.js
create app/javascript/controllers/hello_controller.js
Import Stimulus controllers
append app/javascript/application.js
Pin Stimulus
Appending: pin "@hotwired/stimulus", to: "stimulus.min.js", preload: true"
append config/importmap.rb
Appending: pin "@hotwired/stimulus-loading", to: "stimulus-loading.js", preload: true
append config/importmap.rb
Pin all controllers
Appending: pin_all_from "app/javascript/controllers", under: "controllers"
append config/importmap.rb
run bundle install
Bundle complete! 14 Gemfile dependencies, 83 gems now installed.
Use `bundle info [gemname]` to see where a bundled gem is installed.
run bundle lock --add-platform=x86_64-linux
Writing lockfile to d:/projects/rails/rails71-try/hello/Gemfile.lock
This is where we see the one warning and comment:
The system cannot find the path specified.
Run turbo:install:redis to switch on Redis and use it in development for turbo streams
Now, move into that folder (hello in our case) and start the server by doing ruby bin\rails server in that directory. Remember to hit Ctrl-C to shut down the server once you’re done using it.
$ ruby bin\rails server
=> Booting Puma
=> Rails 7.1.0 application starting in development
=> Run `bin/rails server --help` for more startup options
*** SIGUSR2 not implemented, signal based restart unavailable!
*** SIGUSR1 not implemented, signal based restart unavailable!
*** SIGHUP not implemented, signal based logs reopening unavailable!
Puma starting in single mode...
* Puma version: 6.4.0 (ruby 3.2.0-p0) ("The Eagle of Durango")
* Min threads: 5
* Max threads: 5
* Environment: development
* PID: 31224
* Listening on http://[::1]:3000
* Listening on http://127.0.0.1:3000
Use Ctrl-C to stop
After this, you should be able to go to http://localhost:3000 and see the page below.
Rails 7.0 added a new up method that can be used to check if the Rails stack has booted successfully. So, you can head on over to http://localhost:3000/up and see a green page.
You can now continue with the Getting Started tutorial, and I did the following.
Continuing the Tutorial
Following the Rails Getting Started tutorial, I did the following:
- Added the route
- Added the controller
- Updated the view
$ ruby bin\rails generate controller Articles index --skip-routes
create app/controllers/articles_controller.rb
invoke erb
create app/views/articles
create app/views/articles/index.html.erb
invoke test_unit
create test/controllers/articles_controller_test.rb
invoke helper
create app/helpers/articles_helper.rb
invoke test_unit
We are then greeted with this, as expected.
Next, we add the model.
$ ruby bin\rails generate model Article title:string body:text
invoke active_record
create db/migrate/20231007083851_create_articles.rb
create app/models/article.rb
invoke test_unit
create test/models/article_test.rb
create test/fixtures/articles.yml
and run db:migrate as below:
$ ruby bin\rails db:migrate
== 20231007083851 CreateArticles: migrating ===================================
-- create_table(:articles)
-> 0.0019s
== 20231007083851 CreateArticles: migrated (0.0022s) ==========================
Finally, we added two articles using rails/console:
irb(main):003> article = Article.new(title: "Hello Rails", body: "I am on Rails!")
=> #<Article:0x00000130a74e2428 id: nil, title: "Hello Rails", body: "I am on Rails!", created_at: nil, updated_at:...
irb(main):004> article.save
TRANSACTION (0.1ms) begin transaction
Article Create (0.6ms) INSERT INTO "articles" ("title", "body", "created_at", "updated_at") VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?) RETURNING "id" [["title", "Hello Rails"], ["body", "I am on Rails!"], ["created_at", "2023-10-07 09:03:55.042688"], ["updated_at", "2023-10-07 09:03:55.042688"]]
TRANSACTION (9.4ms) commit transaction
=> true
irb(main):005> article = Article.new(title: "Hello Ruby 3", body: "New Ruby brings more")
=>
#<Article:0x00000130a77ad0e0
...
irb(main):006> article.save
TRANSACTION (0.1ms) begin transaction
Article Create (0.6ms) INSERT INTO "articles" ("title", "body", "created_at", "updated_at") VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?) RETURNING "id" [["title", "Hello Ruby 3"], ["body", "New Ruby brings more"], ["created_at", "2023-10-07 09:04:06.248810"], ["updated_at", "2023-10-07 09:04:06.248810"]]
TRANSACTION (0.1ms) commit transaction
=> true
Finally, off to the http://localhost:3000/articles and you will see this.
We are ready for more! If you have any comments, please leave them below so that we can improve this page.
On a side note, while the post was originally intended to just check if everything works fine on Windows, it resulted in:
- me reporting an issue to the Rails GitHub
- me opening a Pull Request to fix a small issue in the
upmethod (that’s already merged)
So, I’m pretty happy how it has turned out.