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Michael Ing edited this page Nov 20, 2012 · 6 revisions

Installing MarkUs on Windows

(Note: Though there have been instances where developers have been able to get a MarkUs development environment running on Windows, it is more difficult than an install on either Linux or OS X. We suggest developing on either of these two other platforms.)

Setting up Git

Git is the Source Content Management used by MarkUs. You can find some documentation on GitHub. You will also have to set-up a GitHub account. [[How to set-up Git on Windows|http://help.github.com/win-set-up-git]]

Installing InstantRails

Paraphrased from the "Agile Web Development with Rails" textbook by Dave Thomas and David Heinemeier Hanssson, 2nd edition.

  • Download [[InstantRails |
  • http://instantrails.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl"]],
    version 2.0 as of the time of this writing.
  • Create a folder on your system, but make sure there are no spaces in the path. For example, do not use "C:/Program Files/InstantRails".
  • Unzip the download into the folder that you created.
  • Run it by clicking on the InstantRails icon, (the ugly red I).
  • Say "OK" when prompted about regenerating the configuration files.
  • By now you should see the InstantRail window on which you can monitor all your application.

We require a gem with version > 1.3.x and Rails version > 3.0.13, which InstantRails 2.0 does not come with. To upgrade these:

  • Click on the black I button in your Instant Rails window. Click on Rails Applications > Open Ruby Console Window. You should see a window that looks just like the Windows command prompt, but it is much more useful.
  • Run gem update --system to upgrade the Gem. This may take a few minutes, so be patient.
  • Run gem update rails to upgrade the Rails version.

Installing a Database

You can use several types of databases with MarkUs. The recommended database is Postgres.

Using MarkUs with Postgres

Installing the Database

  • Install PostgreSQL. (At the time of writing Version 8.3 works well, version 8.4 may have some

    problems installing on Windows).

  • The default user is "postgres", and you will be prompted to set a password.

  • Locate the bin directory in the location in which you installed PostgreSQL. Note the path.

  • Add this path to the PATH environment variable: Start > Control Panel > System > Advance > Environment Variables. Select the PATH variable, and the append the bin directory path to the end.

  • Start the Postgres server by: Start > Programs > Postgres > Start Server. If you are using Vista or Windows 7, you will need to run it as an administrator (right click and select "Run as administrator").

  • Connect to the server: Start > Programs > Postgres > Start Server > SQL Shell. Hit enter to each prompt until you're asked for the password. You should now be in the interactive terminal.

## Installing the Driver

  • Run InstantRails
  • InstantRails > Rails Applications > Open Ruby Console Window
  • The command gem install postgres-pr will install the Postgres driver

If RubyGems is not updated to the latest version, it is possible that this command will hang as there are some memory problems with RubyGems prior to version 1.2. Make sure RubyGems is up to date with the command gem update --system as instructed earlier.

Using MarkUs with MySQL

Only follow these steps if you want to use MySQL (included in InstantRails) instead of Postgres.

  • From this folder, run mysql --user root

  • Once you're in, run create user '<your-desired-new-user>'@'localhost' identified by '<your-desired-password>';

  • To give yourself useful permissions: GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'youruser'@'localhost';

  • Log out of root and then log yourself in: (it'll prompt you for your password) mysql --user youruser --password

  • Let's test our permissions:

    • run create database test_rythmbox; If this succeeds, we're good.
    • drop it: drop database test_rythmbox;

  • Now you're done with the database.

Installing MarkUs

Once you have the required software installed, it should be pretty straight-forpward to install MarkUs.

In order to checkout Markus you will need to have a Git client installed on Windows.

  • Clone your personal MarkUs fork, which you created on Github.

  • You need to select the proper database connection settings file to match the database you are using. To do this, you must copy the appropriate file in the config folder to database.yml:

    If using PostgreSQL:

    cp config/database.yml.postgresql config/database.yml

    If using MySQL:

    cp config/database.yml.mysql config/database.yml

  • Edit config/database.yml and be sure that:

    • "development" section is uncommented
    • username/password is the same as the one used for mysql/PostgreSQL install

  • Create the database for MarkUs (do these steps in the ruby console window):

    `rake db:create`

If you have a problem executing the above command then it is likely that there is something wrong with the file database.yml that you just edited. Make sure bundler is set up properly.

  • Now you need to install the Ruby/Subversion bindings. ( <http://danintouch.blogspot.com/2008/08/svn-151-ruby-bindings-on-windows.html> for original tutorial and <http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=8100> for the latest downloads)

  • Load the database schema for MarkUs:

    rake db:schema:load

  • I recommend that you restart your computer at this point, especially if you get a error about an invalid Win32 application when trying the next step.

  • If you want you can populate MarkUs with sample data:

    rake db:seed

  • Because Markus uses an external password validation program, authenticating a user externally only works on * nix platforms and not on Windows. To bypass the authentication for development purposes:

    • go into app/models/user.rb

    • comment out the lines:

      if RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /(:?mswin|mingw)/

      return AUTHENTICATE_BAD_PLATFORM

      end

    • Just above the line that says pipe = IO.popen(VALIDATE_FILE..., add the line

      return AUTHENTICATE_SUCCESS

  • Markus Installation is now done!!!

  • See if it works:

    • Start InstantRails
    • Start the servers
    • Open the Ruby console window (InstantRails black I button > Rails Applications > Open Ruby Console Window)
    • cd to the directory where you put the markus source code you checked out
    • type ruby script/server and wait until it is started. can take 10 to 15 seconds.
    • In your web browser, http://localhost:3000
    • use the instructor user name that you set up before (for example "markus") and any number of characters > 0 as password
  • If you see MarkUs login screen, Congratulations!! Your installation is a success!!
    • The default admin user is 'a' with any non-empy password. Look at db/seeds.rb for other users.

Optional: Install an Editor

There is no official IDE for rails, so you can use whichever editor you prefer. Some options that work with Ruby and Rails include RadRails, NetBeans, Komodo Edit, [jEdit](wiki:JEdit) and Wing. Try out your own editor!

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