I have managed to install ruby on my laptop xp home sp2, and I want to install rails as well. I do intend to use both with mysql and intend initially to develp some pages just for local use initially since my hosting company will need to be asked to instal ruby support I would imagine.
I installed ruby from http:/rubyinstaller.rubyforge.org and choose one click ruby installer 1.8.2 -15 stable releace, and it worked fine.
I clicked on the executable in desktop and all was well.

Then I decided to get rails, which I believe is a kind of application framework written in ruby.
I issued the command from the cmd prompt:
C:/ gem install rails --include dependencies and hit return,
the window said i had installed sucessfully rails, rake, activesupport, activerecord, actionpack, actionmailer, actionwebservice,
RDoc documentaition for rake, activesupport, activerecord, actionpack actionmailer actionwebservice
Attempting local installation of 'dependencies'
Then it said local gem file not found dependencies*.gem
Attempting remote installation of 'dependencies'
ERROR:While executing gem... <Gem::GemNotFound Exception>
Could not find dependencies <> 0> in the repository

I must point out a couple of things, one i tried first to issue the command when the machine was not connected to the internet, this does not work! since rails has to be got from the web server.
two I spelt the word dependencies wrongly the first time with an a after depend initially , this was a silly mistake
I have since put this spelling mistake correct but when I issue the command  at the cmd prompt
gem install rails  --include dependencies

I now get
Attempting local installation of 'rails'
Error: Error installing gem rails[.gem]: No metadata found!

So as you can see I have had two separate errors, but now consistently get the second one only when I try to install rails.
I have looked on your bulletin board for poss answers, and am currently looking at other bulletin boards for hope and advice etc..
I have now managed to issue gem update --system and have upgraded my gems from 0.8.10 to 0.8.11 successfully.

rails works in such a way that it allows you to put all in one place your ruby code and you metadata which is stuff that describes the project ( i.e data) is'nt it ??!, like authors name a version a description.
But I do not understand why I keep getting the message

I now get Attempting local installation of 'rails'
Error: Error installing gem rails[.gem]: No metadata found!

I hope you can suggest some stuff, places to look or sound advice on installing rails in an XP home servicepack2 environment?
I expect that something is stopping the gem program going to the server and also something else is looking for some data, (what is called metadata) in the ruby rails jargon on my local computer drive?

Any help advice etc would be v welcome
Ta v much
kind regards julian
I need to get this project back on the rails, and I do have some nice new gems so that's nice.






At a quick glance, I wonder if you have a local firewall running that's preventing your server from serving?   There's a lot to check through in that post ... have a look at the firewall first and follow up if that's not it.

By the way - the "data" is the information you store and the "metadata" is the STRUCTURE of the data you store;  I sometimes describe setting up the metadata as constructing a zoon, then setting up the data as populating that zoo with animals.  The itself (and the cages) are necessary, but it's the animals that people come along to see.


Having had some hours of fun trying to install rails, I have eventually managed to get the locomotive back on the rails at last.
It seems that the installation of rails does not always work first time as you might think it would! I used the uninstaller that comes with ruby to uninstall ruby, ( it is an icon you will find beneath the ruby directory) then went back to http://rubyinstaller.rubyforge.org and found the download link for the last stable version of ruby and downloaded that, you get an executable file on your desktop and of course run that. Then I decided to once more open up the command prompt and type:  gem --update system   This gets the latest gems and in my case updated the gems from 0.8.10 to 0.8.11.
Then once that finished I once more issued from the command prompt gem install rails --include-dependencies and hit return. You have to be paitient here because it takes a while for all the parts of rails and the documentation to get installed.... you know that you have been sucessfull when the cursor goes to C:\ruby\bin and just blinks at you.

Basically I just simply uninstalled ruby and went throught the process of reinstalling ruby, updating the gems and reinstalling rails once more. It seems that retrying the same thing a number of times is the key... ! I think it would be a good idear for some one may be me or may be a team of people to create some very simple fact sheets about how to install ruby and rails, but in particular how to understand the relationships between the actual program data, the structures the data lives in, how the web server knows it is interpreting ruby code, and what is the diffrence between an apache server configured to understand php and another server able to understand ruby??
How do you deploy ruby and rails in a real world and how on a testing computer, and can you simply make an apache server just understand ruby? some simple fact sheets on how all the bits bolt together would be a big help to me and a big help to people new to ruby and rails and gems and all that old programming jargon.
In fact what would be nice would be some fact sheets that turn the programming jargon in to simple bulk standard Berkshire English, or Wiltshire English so we can get to grips with the precious gems and the rails etc?


Quote:

It seems that retrying the same thing a number of times is the key...

Julian - that comment frightens me.   There's going to be something different that you're doing / not doing between the times it words and does not work and you absolutely should NOT need to do it a number of times.

There is indeed scope for a "lightbulb moments" type post / sheet on Ruby on Rails and when I have a month of Sundays .... no -seriously, have a look here ... I can't realisically run the whole thing via a forum Q & A type session!


Hi,

Can't say I have had quite the same experience, but I have installed Ruby , Gems and Rails on Solaris (Unix), and have made some notes here ... http://custard.demon.co.uk/pages/ruby.html

I have also installed under Windows. I used Cygwin, and it was an even more effortless install (so far) so I don't have too many notes for Windows.

I do remember that getting Rails working in a sensible fashion (ie. using mod_ruby or fastcgi) was not that straight forward.

One day I too will find a bit more time to do some Ruby work and update my page....

B

It certainly was the case I did have some errors along the lines of what I said in the earlier posts, and the last time I did the installation of rails it worked with out a single error at all. I think it is difficult to pin down exactly why it did not work the earlier times, unless it was as simple as me making a silly mistake and miss spelling the command to install rails and its dependencies. There is a  lot  for me to learn about ruby and rails, but I am keen to learn and in particular wish to start understand two aspects,
One is how the rails part of the structure interacts with the ruby code you write and if i am to be very honest I find understanding the object orientation of programming a bit tough.... ruby is very much object orientated  so it is certainly one place where I can experiment with objects in a high level language?
Of course if there are any suggestions or advice you can give that will make my understanding of object programming faster for me to comprehend I would be keen to listen to any help, hints advice etc. at the moment I find actually understanding the concepts of objects and the syntax of them quite difficult, but I am willing to try to learn this, and  willing to accept any help  from any appropriate place.
I have at the moment no way of checking that the installation of rails is defective, I have created a controller, some templates and linked some templates together and it it working well at the moment in the WEBrick server that comes with ruby.
What i need is some basic lessons/ help on the syntax of objects and a way of understanding them in simple terms initially? and thanks v much for your responces to my post
J

I realize that doing a course on ruby would be a big help and that you can not train me via a bulletin board!. But at the moment I can not afford a course, so will try to learn using the computer and a book. It may be possible for me to find some other people near where I live that can help, or who are using ruby. I will try to put some messages on the boards that already support ruby.
I will have to save up my pennies to have enough to do an instructor lead course, but that may be a possibility eventually.
Ta for your help
When I said that installing rails multiple time was the answer, I was joking... it should  work everytime (and the first time) if you issue the correct commands and have nothing wrong with your internet connection.
Thanks Julian

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