Mephisto on GlassFish V3

This blog shows how Mephisto, a web publishing system based on Ruby on Rails, can be deployed on GlassFish V3 with minimal changes. These detailed steps are derived from the original instructions. Here are the exact steps that I followed:

1. Download Install GlassFish V3 Technology Preview 1 (lets say GLASSFISH_HOME).
2. Install and Configure JRuby
   1. Download and Install JRuby1.0 RC2 in 'GLASSFISH_HOME/lib' directory. Rename the installation directory to 'jruby' (lets say JRUBY_HOME).
   2. Include 'JRUBY_HOME/bin' in your environment PATH.
   3. Install Rails and ActiveRecord gems in JRuby installation by giving the command:
      
      gem install rails -y --no-rdoc
gem install activerecord-jdbc -y --no-rdoc
   4. Download and Install MySQL/J Connector in a new directory. Copy the JAR file from the main installation directory to 'JRUBY_HOME/lib' directory.
3. Install and Configure Database
   1. Download and install MySQL Community Server 5.0 (lets say MYSQL_HOME).
   2. Start MySQL database by giving the command 'mysqld-nt --user root --console' in MYSQL_HOME/bin directory on Windows or './bin/mysqld_safe' from MYSQL_HOME directory on Unix flavors.
   3. Create a database and grant privileges by giving the following commands:
       
      MYSQL_HOME/bin/mysql -u root
mysql> create database mephisto character set utf8;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> grant all on mephisto.* to arun@localhost identified by 'noway';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> flush privileges;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> quit;
Bye
4. Install and Configure Mephisto
   1. Download and unzip Mephisto 0.7.3. Rename the installation directory to 'mephisto' (lets say MEPHISTO_HOME) for convenience.
   2. Install Mephisto as described here. The two steps are summarized below for convenience:
      1. Copy 'MEPHISTO_HOME/config/database.example.yml' to 'MEPHISTO_HOME/config/database.yml'. Change database entries in the file from:
         
         development:
  adapter: mysql
  database: mephisto_development
  username: root
  password:
  host: localhost
         
         to
         
         development:
  adapter: jdbc
  driver: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
  url: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mephisto
  username: arun
  password: noway
      2. Edit 'MEPHISTO_HOME/config/environment.rb', add the following fragment before "Rails::Initializer.run" statement.
         
         if RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /java/
  require 'rubygems'
  RAILS_CONNECTION_ADAPTERS = %w(jdbc)
end
      3. Run 'rake db:bootstrap' to bootstrap the development database. On windows, you may have to invoke this command as 'JRUBY_HOME\bin\jruby.bat JRUBY_HOME\bin\rake db:bootstrap'.
5. Start GlassFish V3 by invoking the following command in GLASSFISH_HOME:
   
   java -jar lib/glassfish-10.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
6. Deploy the application from 'GLASSFISH_HOME/bin' as:
   
   asadmin deploy --path MEPHISTO_HOME
7. Mephisto is now deployed at 'http://localhost:8080/mephisto'.

This shows how a Ruby application, with minimal change, can be deployed on GlassFish V3. This was also shown in the JavaOne 2007 Technical keynote (start @ 8:29 and finish @ 10:50).

I encourage you to try other popular Rails applications on GlassFish and leave your feedback here.

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