Getting Started with Edge Rails (2.2) using JRuby and GlassFish

This blog shows how to get started with Edge Rails (2.2, almost there) using JRuby. The blog uses JRuby 1.1.5 and GlassFish v3 Prelude b28c to deploy a simple Rails app.

1. Download and unzip JRuby 1.1.5.
2. JRuby 1.1.5 comes with "rake 0.8.3". However if you are using JRuby 1.1.4, then you need to update "rake" version to 0.8.3 as:
   
   

   ~/tools/jruby-1.1.4 >bin/jruby -S gem update rake JRuby limited openssl loaded. gem install jruby-openssl for full support. http://wiki.jruby.org/wiki/JRuby_Builtin_OpenSSL Updating installed gems Updating rake Successfully installed rake-0.8.3 Gems updated: rake

3. Install Edge Rails as:
   
   

   ~/tools/jruby-1.1.5 >bin/jruby -S gem install rails -s http://gems.rubyonrails.org -v 2.2.0 JRuby limited openssl loaded. gem install jruby-openssl for full support. http://wiki.jruby.org/wiki/JRuby_Builtin_OpenSSL Successfully installed activesupport-2.2.0 Successfully installed activerecord-2.2.0 Successfully installed actionpack-2.2.0 Successfully installed actionmailer-2.2.0 Successfully installed activeresource-2.2.0 Successfully installed rails-2.2.0 6 gems installed Installing ri documentation for activesupport-2.2.0... Installing ri documentation for activerecord-2.2.0... Installing ri documentation for actionpack-2.2.0... Installing ri documentation for actionmailer-2.2.0... Installing ri documentation for activeresource-2.2.0... Installing RDoc documentation for activesupport-2.2.0... Installing RDoc documentation for activerecord-2.2.0... Installing RDoc documentation for actionpack-2.2.0... Installing RDoc documentation for actionmailer-2.2.0... Installing RDoc documentation for activeresource-2.2.0...

4. Create a new app as:
   
   

   ~/samples/jruby/edge >~/tools/jruby-1.1.5/bin/jruby -S rails helloworld -d mysql JRuby limited openssl loaded. gem install jruby-openssl for full support. http://wiki.jruby.org/wiki/JRuby_Builtin_OpenSSL       create         create  app/controllers       create  app/helpers . . .       create  log/server.log       create  log/production.log       create  log/development.log       create  log/test.log

5. Edge Rails do not ship with any(?, atleast MySQL) pure-Ruby database drivers and throws the following error if a database related operation is performed:
   
   

   ~/samples/jruby/helloworld >~/tools/jruby-1.1.5/bin/jruby -S rake db:create (in /Users/arungupta/samples/jruby/helloworld) !!! The bundled mysql.rb driver has been removed from Rails 2.2. Please install the mysql gem and try again: gem install mysql. rake aborted! no such file to load -- mysql (See full trace by running task with --trace)

   
   I find it weird that a database-backed framework does not ship database drivers. Anyway, lets install MySQL JDBC ActiveRecord adapter as:
   
   

   ~/tools/jruby-1.1.5 >bin/jruby -S gem install activerecord-jdbcmysql-adapter JRuby limited openssl loaded. gem install jruby-openssl for full support. http://wiki.jruby.org/wiki/JRuby_Builtin_OpenSSL Successfully installed activerecord-jdbc-adapter-0.8.2 Successfully installed jdbc-mysql-5.0.4 Successfully installed activerecord-jdbcmysql-adapter-0.8.2 3 gems installed Installing ri documentation for activerecord-jdbc-adapter-0.8.2... Installing ri documentation for jdbc-mysql-5.0.4... Installing ri documentation for activerecord-jdbcmysql-adapter-0.8.2... Installing RDoc documentation for activerecord-jdbc-adapter-0.8.2... Installing RDoc documentation for jdbc-mysql-5.0.4... Installing RDoc documentation for activerecord-jdbcmysql-adapter-0.8.2...

   
   More details on configuring this adapter here.
   
6. Create a simple scaffold:
   
   

   ~/samples/jruby/edge/helloworld >~/tools/jruby-1.1.5/bin/jruby script/generate scaffold runner distance:float time:integer JRuby limited openssl loaded. gem install jruby-openssl for full support. http://wiki.jruby.org/wiki/JRuby_Builtin_OpenSSL       exists  app/models/       exists  app/controllers/       exists  app/helpers/       create  app/views/runners       exists  app/views/layouts/       exists  test/functional/       exists  test/unit/       exists  public/stylesheets/       create  app/views/runners/index.html.erb       create  app/views/runners/show.html.erb       create  app/views/runners/new.html.erb       create  app/views/runners/edit.html.erb       create  app/views/layouts/runners.html.erb       create  public/stylesheets/scaffold.css       create  app/controllers/runners_controller.rb       create  test/functional/runners_controller_test.rb       create  app/helpers/runners_helper.rb        route  map.resources :runners   dependency  model       exists    app/models/       exists    test/unit/       exists    test/fixtures/       create    app/models/runner.rb       create    test/unit/runner_test.rb       create    test/fixtures/runners.yml       create    db/migrate       create    db/migrate/20081103190813_create_runners.rb ~/samples/jruby/edge/helloworld >~/tools/jruby-1.1.5/bin/jruby -S rake db:create (in /Users/arungupta/samples/jruby/edge/helloworld) ~/samples/jruby/edge/helloworld >~/tools/edge/jruby-1.1.5/bin/jruby -S rake db:migrate (in /Users/arungupta/samples/jruby/edge/helloworld) ==  CreateRunners: migrating ================================================== -- create_table(:runners)    -> 0.0068s    -> 0 rows ==  CreateRunners: migrated (0.0077s) =========================================

   
   Some words here.
7. Change "config/database.yml" to use the JDBC adapter. Change:
   
   

   development:   adapter: mysql   encoding: utf8   database: helloworld_development   pool: 5   username: root   password:   socket: /tmp/mysql.sock

   
   to
   
   

   development:   adapter: jdbcmysql   encoding: utf8   database: helloworld_development   pool: 5   username: root   password:   socket: /tmp/mysql.sock

   
   The change is highlighted in bold letters.
8. Download GlassFish v3 Prelude 28c, unzip and start it as:
   
   

   ~/tools/glassfish/v3/28c/glassfishv3-prelude/glassfish >java -Xmx512m -DJRUBY_HOME=/Users/arungupta/tools/jruby-1.1.5/ -jar modules/glassfish.jar

9. Finally deploy the application as:
   
   

   ~/samples/jruby/edge >~/tools/glassfish/v3/28c/glassfishv3-prelude/glassfish/bin/asadmin deploy helloworld Command deploy executed successfully.

And now the scaffold is accessible at "http://localhost:8080/helloworld/runners".

This application does not show any of the cool features (thread-safe, i18n, pooled datbase connections, ...) coming up in Rails 2.2. But at least it clearly explains how to get started if you want to develop and run a Rails 2.2 application using JRuby.

Subsequent blogs will provide more information about performance advantages, multi threading, connection pooling and other benefits offered by GlassFish for Rails applications.

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