Ruby on Rails Quickstart Guide .: Netfirms 24/7 Support

Use this as a quickstart guide to getting Ruby on Rails up and running with your Netfirms Advantage or Business hosting account. In this demo you will create a simple Ruby on Rails application.

I. Enable SSH on your Netfirms Account

Login to the Netfirms Control Panel at https://controlpanel.netfirms.com
Click Site Tools
Click SSH
Click Enable to enable SSH

II. Create a MySQL Database for Ruby on Rails:

Login to the Netfirms Control Panel at https://controlpanel.netfirms.com
Click Site Tools
Click Databases
Click Add
You will then be prompted for a Database Description

The following will be created by the system for your database:

Database Name
Database address or hostname will be "MYSQLHOST"
User Name
Password

III. SSH into your account using an SSH Client

Putty/OpenSSH or most any other widely free clients (for Windows users) or the default Terminal (for Mac / Linux users) may be used to access your Netfirms account via SSH.

Please configure your SSH client with the following information (you may want to refer to your Netfirms Welcome Letter to recall your username and password):
hostname: <ssh.netfirms.com>
username: <membername>
password: <password>

IV. Install Ruby on Rails

Once logged into your account via SSH, you will be placed into the /www folder by default. to install all Ruby on Rails components and library, enter the following command: rails railsapp
Change to the railsapp directory by entering the following command: cd railsapp

V. Configure Ruby on Rails Files

Execute the following command: cd config
Using vi editor OR ee, edit database.yml to specify the db, user and password

VI. Configure Domain Forwarding

While logged into the Netfirms Control Panel, click Domains
For your domain, click Admin to configure domain forwarding to point to "/railsapp/nfrubyrails/" (this step cleans up the URL)

VII. Configure the Ruby on Rails MySQL Database: The steps below will assist you to set up a sample table in your Ruby on Rails database

While logged into the Netfirms Control Panel, click Site Tools
Click Databases
For the Ruby on Rails database, you created in step #II, click Admin
Click phpMyAdmin
From the left frame, under the Home section, click the database id (eg. d60234532)
Setup a table in MySQL, such as:
create table employees (
id integer not null auto_increment primary key,
name varchar( 64 ) not null
);

VIII. Configure Ruby on Rails Files: The steps below will assist you to configure a sample ruby file based on the sample table created in VII

SSH to your account
Type the following command: ruby script/generate model Employee
Type the following command: ruby script/generate controller Employee
Using vi editor OR ee, edit railsapp/app/controllers/employee_controller.rb by inserting the following line inside the class declaration: scaffold :employee

You should now have a simple database-driven, Ruby on Rails powered website up and running at the following URLs:

http://www.yourdomain.com (where yourdomain.com is your registered domain hosted by Netfirms)

http://www.yourdomain.com/employee

For further support and assistance on Ruby on Rails, we suggest reviewing the following Ruby On Rails support sites: http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/, as well as at http://rubyonrails.org/docs.

Ruby on Rails Quickstart Guide

Related Articles