I have installed RMagick and Image Magick on many Windows machines and I have stumbled across various kinds of errors, and finally I have decided to document them so that I could not only document it for myself, but for other people like me, who are stuck due to these errors.

The issues that I have faced are as follows:

A. This version of RMagick was created to run with ImageMagick 6.3.0 but ImageMagick 6.3.5 is installed on this system. You should either
1) Configure and build RMagick for ImageMagick 6.3.5, or
2) download ImageMagick 6.3.0 from http://www.imagemagick.org and install it.
B. Errors about missing CORE_.. .dll file(s).
C. Errors about missing sqlite3.dll.

Issue A. stems from the fact that you have a incompatible version of ImageMagick installed which does not work with RMagick. The solution would be to uninstall any existing ImageMagick and/or RMagick gem, and start all over as described below.

Issue B. tells me that either ImageMagick or RMagick is not installed properly.

Issue C. is a bit off and has nothing to do with ImageMagick or RMagick. It is probably being thrown by the plugin or application that you are using that needs ImageMagick or RMagick. To fix this issue, just install Sqlite3 and I have a post just for that.

Now that we have tackled the issues, let’s get to the goal – how to install RMagick + ImageMagick on Windows.

1. 1. Uninstall any Image Magick or RMagick gem from before.
2. Download rmagick-win32 for windows that has the gem and the ImageMagick installer from http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/64917/RMagick-2.12.0-ImageMagick-6.5.6-8-Q8.zip
3. Unzip the rmagick-win32 zip file that you downloaded above.
4. Install the ImageMagick from the installer that came in the zip i.e. run the ImageMagick-6.5.6-8-Q8-windows-dll.exe. This will install ImageMagick for you.
5. Now, we need to install the rmagic gem that came in the zip i.e. rmagick-2.12.0-x86-mswin32.gem. To do that, run the following command on a windows command line:
   > gem install <path where you downloaded and then unzipped the rmagick zip>\rmagick-2.12.0-x86-mswin32.gem
Note: When you read this post, the version nos. of the gem and the zip file may change. Please adjust your commands for that.
6. If you get Issue C., from above you probably are left with installing Sqlite3. If you need help you can look up my post.

That should get you going. Yet another big Ruby on Rails development hurdle on Windows, solved for good. If you have any other issues or questions regarding the subject, please let me know via comments. I will try my best to help you.

Although, the usage of nested forms with has_many associations is well documented, I found that especially the call ..build that works for has_many associations do not work for has_one associations. For the code to work for has_one associations, use this instead:
.build_
E.g book.build_author where book has_one association to author.

Hope this helps.

In a previous post, I talked about How to: Deploy application from Git repo to Heroku. Now, let’s be a little more adventurous and see if we can make changes to code using an online code editor at HerokuGarden. That gives us immense freedom to make changes to our application from anywhere you are as long as you have an internet connection and a browser. Let’s see step-by-step how that can be done.

Install HerokuGarden

1. First, let’s install HerokuGarden gem on our local machine

By issuing the following command, we will install the herokugarden gem.

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ gem install herokugarden

---> Installing herokugarden v0.4.2
---> Migrate local checkouts using the git:transition command:

     cd myapp/
     herokugarden git:transition

Successfully installed herokugarden-0.4.2
1 gem installed
Installing ri documentation for herokugarden-0.4.2...
Installing RDoc documentation for herokugarden-0.4.2...

Note that if you had a cloned your Heroku repo to your local machine, you could issue the command as below to move that code to HerokuGarden. So, in our case we get an error as our local machine is not cloned from Heroku repo but cloned from Unfuddle/GitHub repo.

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ herokugarden git:transition

The current directory does not contain a known Heroku app.

I personally like my master copy of the application code to be in my choice of git repo provider and not Heroku. The Heroku repo is only used as a temporary repo for deployment purposes.

2. So, let’s see what herokugarden gem has to offer. The following command lists all the available commands along with their usages.

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ herokugarden
=== Heroku Garden Commands
  list - list your apps
  create [<name>] - create a new app
  info <app> - show app info, like web url and git repo
  update <app> - update the app
    --name <newname>
    --public (true|false)
    --mode (production|development)
  sharing <app> - manage collaborators
    --add <email>
    --remove <email>
    --access (edit|view)
  rake <app> <command> - remotely execute a rake command
  destroy <app> - destroy the app permanently
  keys - manage your user's ssh public keys for git access
    --add [<path to keyfile>]
    --remove <keyname or all>

Example story:
  herokugarden create myapp
  git clone git@herokugarden.com:myapp.git
  cd myapp
  (...make edits...)
  git add .
  git commit -m "changes"
  git push
  herokugarden update myapp --public true --mode production

Create a new application

3. Now, let’s create a new application at HerokuGarden. Well, I know, we already have an application “QParty” with so much code. Don’t worry, we just need to create an application at HerokuGarden so that HerokuGarden creates a repo for us. We will overwrite all the application code that HerokuGarden generates by default, with our latest code from our Unfuddle/GitHub master code repo. I will show you how in a moment.

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ herokugarden create qparty
Created http://qparty.herokugarden.com/ | git@herokugarden.com:qparty.git 

4. Let’s see if our app is created at HerokuGarden.

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ herokugarden list
Enter your Heroku credentials.
Email: rupakg@gmail.com
Password:
Uploading ssh public key C:\Users\Rupak/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
qparty

5. Now, recall that to push to a git repo we need to tell git about a remote. We already have two remotes as below:

a) Unfuddle/GitHub (master code repo)

b) Heroku (deployment repo)

We need to add the repo for HerokuGarden (online code repo) created automatically in step 3. when we created the app on HerokuGarden. We will add a remote to this third repo by issuing the following command:

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ git remote add herokugarden git@herokugarden.com:qparty.git

6. Now, that we have a remote setup we can easily push our latest code to the online code repo at HerokuGarden.  The following commands do exactly that:

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ git push -f herokugarden master
Counting objects: 620, done.
Compressing objects: 100% (431/431), done.
Writing objects: 100% (620/620), 359.36 KiB | 55 KiB/s, done.
Total 620 (delta 188), reused 544 (delta 151)
refs/heads/master: 34dcb40a5a6b24d05a9cf9f709ce0236643a79e3 -> 64d9cfb515701f4faee62d703b9
0d195e998416e
HEAD is now at 64d9cfb... fixed title yet again
master -> master (forced update)it
Running migrations...
App restarting...
######################################################################## 100.0%

Deployed to http://qparty.herokugarden.com

7. Let’s see if our code has been successfully deployed to HerokuGarden. Go to http://qparty.herokugarden.com and we see our code online. Yeah.

That’s it. You have connected to your git rep, deployed code to HerokuGarden online editor. Now, you have the freedom to code anywhere and instantly deploy you changes. Enjoy!

Well, I am sure you have looked for a less expensive (maybe free!) Rails hosting solution. I use a solution that lets me test drive or deploy an idea I want to show to a client or a friend quickly. Anyway, the point of this article is a quick and possibly free deployment solution that does the job. It focuses on getting the application deployed rather than worry about the setup, database migrations and configuration involved at the hosting provider. I found Heroku to fit the bill perfectly. So, here is a run down on how you could try it as well.

Beyond the basic Heroku deployment scenario

I am assuming you can get up and running on the basics of Heroku by following the quick start instructions here, but I will be talking about a scenario which has a little twist. My scenario is that I have an existing app. on a remote repo (Unfuddle in my case or GitHub in your case or any other for that matter). I have my local machine setup with a clone from my remote repo. I have it all worked out and I make changes and push them to my remote repo.

Goal: I want to deploy my application “QParty” to Heroku. It is just a fun little  Follow my step-by-step directions to the goal.

1. Sync local repo to remote repo

Check to see if the local git repo is synced with remote master code repo at Unfuddle/GitHub.

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ git push unfuddle master
Counting objects: 19, done.
Compressing objects: 100% (13/13), done.
Writing objects: 100% (14/14), 1.21 KiB, done.
Total 14 (delta 8), reused 0 (delta 0)
To git@xxx.unfuddle.com:xxx/qparty.git
   593aae6..64d9cfb  master -> master

2. Install Heroku

The following command will install the Heroku gem if you don’t have it already.

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ gem install heroku
Successfully installed rest-client-1.0.3
Successfully installed configuration-0.0.5
Successfully installed launchy-0.3.3
Successfully installed json-1.1.7-x86-mswin32
Successfully installed heroku-1.0
5 gems installed
Installing ri documentation for rest-client-1.0.3...
Installing ri documentation for launchy-0.3.3...
Installing ri documentation for json-1.1.7-x86-mswin32...
Installing ri documentation for heroku-1.0...
Installing RDoc documentation for rest-client-1.0.3...
Installing RDoc documentation for launchy-0.3.3...
Installing RDoc documentation for json-1.1.7-x86-mswin32...
Installing RDoc documentation for heroku-1.0...

3. Create a fresh new app at Heroku

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ heroku create qparty
Enter your Heroku credentials.
Email: xxx@yyy.com
Password:
Uploading ssh public key C:\Users\Rupak/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
Created http://qparty.heroku.com/ | git@heroku.com:qparty.git 
Git remote heroku added

4. Push your code to Heroku and also deploy it

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ git push heroku master
Counting objects: 13, done.
Compressing objects: 100% (7/7), done.
Writing objects: 100% (7/7), 1.89 KiB, done.
Total 7 (delta 6), reused 0 (delta 0)

-----> Heroku receiving push
-----> Rails app detected
       Compiled slug size is 252K

-----> Launching..... done http://qparty.heroku.com deployed to Heroku 
   64d9cfb..bfed5c3  master -> master

5. Check to see if your app is deployed at Heroku

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ heroku list
favlist
qparty

Yeah, it is listed. Now, test the app at http://qparty.heroku.com in your favorite browser.

By the way, if you like to see some more information about your app at Heroku, do the following:

Rupak@RG4WIX /c/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/qparty
$ heroku info
=== qparty
Web URL:        http://qparty.heroku.com/ 
Git Repo:       git@heroku.com:qparty.git
Repo size:      484k
Slug size:      248k
Data size:      0K in 0 table
Owner:          xxx@yyy.com

That’s it. You have connected to your git repo, uploaded code to Heroku and deployed your application to Heroku in a snap.

I found this great screencast that shows how easily you can install SQLite3 on Windows. So, here you go:

Beginner Books

• Agile Web Development with Rails Edition 3
• Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications by Patrick Lenz

Advanced Books

• Advanced Rails Recipes: 84 New Ways to Build Stunning Rails Apps, by Mike Clark
• The Rails Way
• The Ruby Way by Hal Fulton

Free eBooks

http://freecomputerbooks.com/langRubyBooks.html

But, I would also suggest you check out these other free resources which keeps up to date with the technology.

Screencasts and Podcasts

• Railscasts by Ryan Bates – http://www.railscasts.com
• Learning Rails – http://www.buildingwebapps.com/podcasts
• Peepcode Screencasts – http://www.peepcode.com

Learning Sites

Ruby Learning Hub – http://www.rubylearning.org/class/ by Satish Talim. They have a lot of free courses on various subjects but one should do the Ruby course first.

Magazines

Rails Magazine – www.railsmagazine.com

Top Blogs

• http://www.loudthinking.com/ by David Heinemeier Hansson (creator of Rails)
• http://www.rubyinside.com/ by Peter Cooper.
• http://mephistoblog.com/ by Rick Olson and Justin Palmer
• http://hivelogic.com/ by Dan Benjamin
• http://redhanded.hobix.com/ by _why the lucky stiff
• http://nubyonrails.com/ by Geoffrey Grosenbach
• http://errtheblog.com by PJ Hyett and Chris Wanstrath
• http://www.slash7.com by Amy Hoy
• http://weblog.rubyonrails.org by the Rails core team
• http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/ by Jamis Buck
• http://www.railsenvy.com/ by Gregg Pollack

There has been such an uproar of web frameworks nowadays. It has challenged the minds and spurred creativity. Such a framework is SproutCore – an MVC web app framework for developing apps in JavaScript that run inside a web browser. Go on and read about it on the SproutCore Wiki.

So, why did I get excited about a JS-based web framework? Well, one it is a web framework and I am in the business of building web applications. Secondly, the creation of a SproutCore application has a feel of creating Rails applications. You will see what I mean in a minute.

Next, I will create a small demo application that will demonstrate the characteristics of a SproutCore application. The demo application will be build in a series of posts, so do come back for the whole series. Now, let’s get started.

Part I – Getting Started

Step 1: Install SproutCore: I am on Windows Vista and I installed SproutCore using the following command:

$ gem install sproutcore

You can look at the SproutCore download page to find instructions for your OS.

You can make sure you got SproutCore installed properly by checking it’s version:

$ sproutcore -v
sproutcore 0.9.23

You can get a different version number based on when did this exercise. That takes care of the install.

Step 2: Create our demo application: We will create a Favorites application, which is nothing but a simple list of favorites (nothing as fancy as del.icio.us), but kind of the same concept. So, we go ahead and run the following command:

$ sc-init scfavlist
      create
      create  clients
      create  frameworks
      create  lib
      create  public
      create  log
      create  README
      create  sc-config
  dependency  client
      exists    clients
      create    clients/scfavlist
      create    clients/scfavlist/english.lproj
      create    clients/scfavlist/core.js
      create    clients/scfavlist/english.lproj/body.css
      create    clients/scfavlist/english.lproj/body.rhtml
      create    clients/scfavlist/english.lproj/strings.js
      create    clients/scfavlist/main.js
      readme    ../README
Your new SproutCore client application has been created.  To access your application, just
 start sc-server and visit your client name in the web browser.

If you want to change the deployment settings for your application edit the sc-config file
 to get started.

First thing to note is the similarity to creating a Rails application. I told you so. Gives me a warm feeling. The application generator creates a basic app structure for us. Not only that, SproutCore makes it even better as the application can be run immediately, by running the following command:

$ cd scfavlist
$ sc-server

Running SproutCore Build Tools v0.9.23Welcome to SproutCoreLoading SproutCore bundles in c:/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/scfavlistmerb : worker (port 4020) ~ Starting Mongrel at port 4020merb : worker (port 4020) ~ Successfully bound to port 4020

And, voila, you should be good to go. If you see the above screen, skip the next section and jump to Step 3, otherwise read on…

But, hold on. . I did not have a smooth experience as above. Not that you will have a similar issue, but if you do, I have a solution. First, let’s retrace back and see what problem I got:

$ cd scfavlist
$ sc-server
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/extlib-0.9.11/lib/extlib/time.rb:26:in `remove_method': met
hod `to_time' not defined in Time (NameError)
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/extlib-0.9.11/lib/extlib/time.rb:26
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original
_require'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `require'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/depende
ncies.rb:156:in `require'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/depende
ncies.rb:521:in `new_constants_in'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/depende
ncies.rb:156:in `require'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/extlib-0.9.11/lib/extlib.rb:22
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original
_require'
         ... 9 levels...
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/depende
ncies.rb:156:in `require'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sproutcore-0.9.23/bin/sc-server:13
        from c:/ruby/bin/sc-server:19:in `load'
        from c:/ruby/bin/sc-server:19

Wow! I did not expect that. Looking carefully it was evident that something was wrong with extlib-0.9.11 gem. A quick google search revealed that downgrading the extlib gem to 0.9.10 would make SproutCore happy. So, here is what I did next:

$ gem uninstall extlib

You have requested to uninstall the gem:
        extlib-0.9.11
merb-core-1.0.11 depends on [extlib (>= 0.9.8)]
rhodes-1.0.2 depends on [extlib (>= 0)]
templater-0.5.0 depends on [extlib (>= 0.9.5)]
rhodes-build-1.0.2 depends on [extlib (>= 0)]
rhodes-generator-1.0.2 depends on [extlib (>= 0)]
rhodes-framework-1.0.2 depends on [extlib (>= 0)]
If you remove this gems, one or more dependencies will not be met.
Continue with Uninstall? [Yn]  y
Successfully uninstalled extlib-0.9.11

First I uninstalled the extlib gem version 0.9.11. Usual warnings told be what all other dependencies would be affected. None was explicitly dependent on the 0.9.11 version, so I said yes to uninstall. Now, to install the 0.9.10 version, I did the following:

$ gem install --version '0.9.10' extlib -V
GET 200 OK: http://gems.rubyforge.org/specs.4.8.gz
GET 200 OK: http://gems.github.com/specs.4.8.gz
GET 200 OK: http://gems.rubyforge.org/quick/Marshal.4.8/extlib-0.9.10.gemspec.rz
Installing gem extlib-0.9.10
Downloading gem extlib-0.9.10.gem
GET 302 Found: http://gems.rubyforge.org/gems/extlib-0.9.10.gem
GET 200 OK: http://rubyforge.iasi.roedu.net/gems/extlib-0.9.10.gem
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/extlib-0.9.10/LICENSE
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/extlib-0.9.10/README
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/extlib-0.9.10/Rakefile
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/extlib-0.9.10/History.txt

****** removed for sake of brevity ******

c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/extlib-0.9.10/spec/virtual_file_spec.rb
Successfully installed extlib-0.9.10
1 gem installed

Now, with fingers crossed, I re-ran the sc-server command as below:

$ sc-server
Running SproutCore Build Tools v0.9.23
Welcome to SproutCore
Loading SproutCore bundles in c:/MyStuff/SvnCode/GitRepo/scfavlist
merb : worker (port 4020) ~ Starting Mongrel at port 4020
merb : worker (port 4020) ~ Successfully bound to port 4020

Now, it worked and I could see the server running. Again note the similarity between this command and the Rails server command i.e. script/server. The sc-server command also takes parameters similar to mongrel!

Step 3: Run our application: Now, open up a Firefox or Safari web browser (I know it doesn’t work for IE yet!) and type in the url http://localhost:4020/scfavlist. Boom, you should see the basic SproutCore application up and running in its glory. Instant gratification. Love it.

The articles next in this series are:

Part II – Writing the application logic

Part III – Building the application and deploying

It is well documented as part of gem help that using the following common options:

-p, –[no-]http-proxy [URL]      Use HTTP proxy for remote operations

will allow gem to use the proxy server for remote operations. While this has worked for me before, but recently for some reason I have been getting errors. So, the other alternative that works for me is to set the environment variable HTTP_PROXY as such:

set HTTP_PROXY=http://[proxy url]:[port]

Actually this option is convenient. I have set the above environment variable permanently for the machines that I use at work which are behind proxy servers.