Rails Quick Start

Note: If you're using the starter app with test cases from the Rails contest page, you can skip this page of setup.

Ruby on Rails helps you skip lots of boilerplate code when creating a web app, but you may still find yourself repeating certain tasks when creating a new app. To get started even faster, you can clone a "starter app" that comes with various defaults set up, and/or you can use a "wizard" that generates a starter app for you.

RailsApp's Rails Composer tool does both. You can pick one of various starter apps, and it provides a short wizard of options for further customization.

The RailsApp Github page provides brief instructions for using it. To get started, enter the following code in your terminal to create a new app:

rails new your_app -m https://raw.github.com/RailsApps/rails-composer/master/composer.rb

This will generate various output and then the wizard will launch:

option  Build a starter application?
    1)  Build a RailsApps example application
    2)  Contributed applications
    3)  Custom application

Enter 1 to start with a RailsApp starter app.

You’ll see a prompt:

option  Choose a starter application.
    1)  learn-rails
    2)  rails-bootstrap
    3)  rails-foundation
    4)  rails-mailinglist-activejob
    5)  rails-omniauth
    6)  rails-devise
    7)  rails-devise-roles
    8)  rails-devise-pundit
    9)  rails-signup-download
   10)  rails-stripe-checkout
   11)  rails-stripe-coupons
   12)  rails-stripe-membership-saas

Enter 6 to get started with the Devise starter app.

The wizard will then ask you for additional options.

option  Web server for development?
       1)  WEBrick (default)
       2)  Thin
       3)  Unicorn
       4)  Puma
       5)  Phusion Passenger (Apache/Nginx)
       6)  Phusion Passenger (Standalone)

Go with the default 1.

option  Web server for production?
       1)  Same as development
       2)  Thin
       3)  Unicorn
       4)  Puma
       5)  Phusion Passenger (Apache/Nginx)
       6)  Phusion Passenger (Standalone)

Since we'll be using Heroku, go with 4, the recommended server for Heroku.

option  Database used in development?
       1)  SQLite
       2)  PostgreSQL
       3)  MySQL

Go with 1 since it's the simplest. In the future you may want to switch to Postgresql to use the same database technology in development as the one in production.

option  Template engine?
       1)  ERB
       2)  Haml
       3)  Slim

1. default.

option  Test framework?
       1)  None
       2)  RSpec with Capybara

1. Nothing extra right now.

option  Front-end framework?
         1)  None
          2)  Bootstrap 3.3
          3)  Bootstrap 2.3
          4)  Zurb Foundation 5.5
          5)  Zurb Foundation 4.0
          6)  Simple CSS

Previously we discussed using Skelton, a simple CSS Library. This time let's go with 2 to use the popular Bootstrap CSS framework.

option  Add support for sending email?
          1)  None
          2)  Gmail
          3)  SMTP
          4)  SendGrid
          5)  Mandrill

For now, let's go with 1. If you're creating a real site, you'll need to setup email later, and Mandrill is a good choice then.

option  Devise modules?
          1)  Devise with default modules
          2)  Devise with Confirmable module
          3)  Devise with Confirmable and Invitable modules

This app uses Devise which was covered in the Gems Tutorial. We'll keep Devise simple with 1. (Selecting 2 would require users to confirm their email to use the site.)

option  Use a form builder gem?
          1)  None
          2)  SimpleForm

Select 2 to use SimpleForm a gem that lets you create forms with even less code than the Rails default form helpers. It also can add Bootstrap styles so your forms look good.

This will produce some terminal output, and then the wizard will continue.

option  Install page-view analytics?
          1)  None
          2)  Google Analytics
          3)  Segment.io

1. It's not hard to add analytics later when needed.

option  Prepare for deployment?
          1)  no
          2)  Heroku
          3)  Capistrano

2. Prepare for deployment.¹

This will now generate your app and produce lots of output. When it's done, you can test it out:

1. Navigate to the folder in your terminal (cd your_app)
2. Enter rails s to start the rails server
3. Open up your app at localhost:3000

You now an app with working user accounts, ready for your development!

^{1. We'll need to fix some code later before pushing to production.}