Setup New Rails Project
Today we will setup new rails project with rspec for testing.
Setup new rails project
1) Navigate to your desired directory and run the following command in terminal
$ rails new app-name -T # The -T option tells rails not to include Test::Unit
# Other available options are
# --database=mysql Tells rails to use MySQL by default
# --skip-turbolinks
# --skip-bundle This skips the bundle install after all files have been generated
# $ rails --help Other Essential options could be viewed
my personally preferred command is:
$ rails new app-name -T --database=mysql --skip-turbolinks
I don’t like turbolinks and I use rspec instead of Test::Unit and I mostly use mysql database rather than default sqlite
2) Navigate to newly created app.
$ cd /path/to/app-name
3) Initialize the project with git
$ git init
4) Create and Open .gitignore file and add following:
# Rubymine project
.idea/
# Test and misc files
*.rbc
capybara-*.html
.rspec
/public/system
/coverage/
/spec/tmp
**.orig
rerun.txt
pickle-email-*.html
# Ignore bundler config.
/.bundle
# Ignore the default SQLite database and schema.
/db/*.sqlite3
/db/*.sqlite3-journal
#Configs
/config/database.yml
/config/application.yml
# Ignore all logfiles and tempfiles.
/log/*.log
/tmp
# Ignore rmvrc
.rvmrc
# If using bower-rails ignore default bower_components path bower.json files
/vendor/assets/bower_components
*.bowerrc
bower.json
5) Open Gemfile and modify it as necessary. Here are sample some modifications done:
- Use mysql instead of sqlite for database.
- Added figaro gem for managing environment variables.
- Added pry-rails gem for debugging.
- Added capistrano gems for deployment.
- Group gems for development.
source 'https://rubygems.org'
# Bundle edge Rails instead: gem 'rails', github: 'rails/rails'
gem 'rails', '4.1.1'
# Use mysql as the database for Active Record
gem 'mysql2'
# Use SCSS for stylesheets
gem 'sass-rails', '~> 4.0.3'
# Use Uglifier as compressor for JavaScript assets
gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.3.0'
# Use CoffeeScript for .js.coffee assets and views
gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 4.0.0'
# Use jquery as the JavaScript library
gem 'jquery-rails'
# Turbolinks makes following links in your web application faster. Read more: https://github.com/rails/turbolinks
gem 'turbolinks'
# Build JSON APIs with ease. Read more: https://github.com/rails/jbuilder
gem 'jbuilder', '~> 2.0'
# bundle exec rake doc:rails generates the API under doc/api.
gem 'sdoc', '~> 0.4.0', group: :doc
# Figaro for setting environment variables for secrets that aren't included with the source code
gem 'figaro'
group :development do
# Spring speeds up development by keeping your application running in the background. Read more: https://github.com/rails/spring
gem 'spring'
# For deployment
gem 'capistrano-rails', '~> 1.1.2'
gem 'capistrano-rvm', '~> 0.1.1'
gem 'capistrano-bundler', '~> 1.1.3'
end
# Use pry debugger
gem 'pry-rails', group: [:development, :test]
6) Run ‘bundle install’ to update gems.
7) Setting up database.yml for different environments. Note that this file is in gitignore.
default: &default
adapter: mysql2
encoding: utf8
pool: 5
username: root
password:
host: localhost
socket: /tmp/mysql.sock #Your mysql socket location might be different.
development:
<<: *default
database: db_dev
test:
<<: *default
database: db_test
production:
<<: *default
database: db_prod
8) Run ‘rake db:create’ to create the database
9) Generate figaro files
$ rails generate figaro:install
$ figaro install (for figaro 1.0.0 version)
This will generate config/application.yml and add it to gitignore. The variables defined in application.yml is accessible via environment variables.
10) If you open up config/secrets.yml, you’ll find
production:
secret_key_base: <%= ENV["SECRET_KEY_BASE"] %>
This expects SECRET_KEY_BASE to be in environment variable. This is where figaro comes into play. Open config/application.yml and add the following code. (Note: the 128 character key base is generated using command ‘rake secret’. Don’t use the secret below).The SECRET_KEY_BASE is not defined here because it is directly available in secrets.yml and not being read through environment variable.
development:
TEST_VAR: 'development'
test:
TEST_VAR: 'test'
production:
SECRET_KEY_BASE: 8b2971b58d99c483d43962e92f78d18133a552f71d2271ea28c638afaf0d75672442c40f3829d2f46b26be6898ec44110d1ccefbba94afcebe1c93c41d198f79
TEST_VAR: 'prod'
#Heroku users can set the variable in heroku using 'rake figaro:heroku[APP_NAME]'
Similarly, the example variable TEST_VAR can be accessed anywhere using ENV[‘TEST_VAR’] in the rails app.
11) Create a file named ‘.ruby-version’ in the project root. Open the file and type in the version of the ruby you are using.
2.2.3
Rspec Setup and Configuration
1) Dependencies in Gemfile
# Required gems
gem 'rspec-rails'
gem 'shoulda-matchers', require: false
gem 'factory_girl_rails'
gem 'faker'
gem 'capybara'
2) Install gems
# Required gems
$ bundle install
$ rails g rspec:install
3) RSpec configuration
# Additions (Need to include in rails_helper file)
require 'shoulda/matchers'
require 'capybara/rspec'
require 'factory_girl_rails'
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
end
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