Set up your Development Environment

Prerequisites

1. Install Rails

First, you must have a working version of Rails. Depending on your operating system, there is a different guide to follow:

• Mac users please use this guide on installing Rails
• Windows users please use this guide on installing Rails
• Linux users, you may refer to gorails guide. Please note: The Linux instructions are written and kept up to date by a third party (Go Rails). During the installation, you are offered choices (for Ruby version management and a database). For the purpose of this Installfest, when installing Ruby, please follow the RVM instructions (they recommend rbenv). You can also ignore the instructions to install MySQL and PostgreSQL as we’ll be using the SQLite database.

2. Download a Text Editor (if required)

You will also need a text editor in which to write your code. If you already have one installed, feel free to skip this step. We use Sublime Text.

If you prefer another text editor like Vim, emacs, TextMate or Github’s Atom that’s fine too but these instructions will specifically mention Sublime.

Next steps

Once you’ve successfully installed Rails you’re ready to start.

First we need to determine which version of Rails you’re using. Open a command prompt and type:

rails -v

Ideally, this should be Rails 5.1.

Get Coding!

• For Rails version 5.1 use our version 5.1 guide

Older Versions of Rails

If you have an earlier version of Rails you can find the correct guide here:

• For Rails version 5.0 continue on our version 5.0 guide
• For Rails version 4.2 continue on our version 4.2 guide
• For Rails version 4.1 continue on our version 4.1 guide
• For Rails version 4.0 continue on our version 4.0 guide
• For Rails version 3.2 continue on our version 3.2 guide