This is a follow up instruction set from previous post, but this time, using MySQL
Getting Ruby
These steps are the same for Ruby 1.9 or Ruby 1.8, please feel free to download the installer from here
For this guide I’m going to use Ruby 1.9.1-p129, since it the coolest new version that all the guys are playing with 
Now, start a Command prompt with Ruby (under start menu, inside Ruby 1.9.1-p129).
Getting the right MySQL version
While building the MySQL/Ruby bindings, we found that mixing versions of the bindings with different versions of MySQL installations ended on undesired results (abnormal program termination, weird errors, etc.)
For this guide, and because we are going to use binary gems, we are going to stick to MySQL version 5.0.83.
Now is time to download MySQL. For this guide, I’m going to install the essentials version, which contains only MySQL and command line tools, no Query Builder or any other administrative tool.
Please go to this page and download Windows Essentials (x86). Once downloaded you will end with mysql-essential-5.0.83-win32.msi file. Execute it and install with defaults.
Configure MySQL
If you’re an advanced and savvy MySQL user, you can skip the following steps. For the sake of this guide, I’m going to list the simple options you must follow when installing it.
Once you installed MySQL, the installer should have started the Configuration Wizard page.
Inside of it, please apply the following options:
| Option/Screen | Value |
|---|---|
| Configuration Type | Detailed configuration |
| Server type | Developer Machine |
| Database usage | Transactional Database only |
| InnoDB datafile | Your option or leave defaults |
| Number of connections | Decision Support |
| Networking options | Check Add firewall exceptions |
| Character set | Best support for Multilingualism (UTF8) |
| Windows Options | Add to PATH if you want mysql available on every prompt |
| Security Options | Uncheck if you want root password be blank |
Once done with all this, on the summary screen, please click Execute to complete the configuration of MySQL Server.
Under some system, starting of MySQL server will fail during this wizard, but don’t be afraid, most of the times, this can be safely ignored.
To check everything was properly installed, please go to the Start Menu, and inside MySQL Server 5.0, click on MySQL Command Line Client
If you changed the root password, or, like me, leaved it unchecked, you can simply press enter when asked for the password and see that the server is running!
If you decided to add MySQL to the PATH, you will require to restart your computer so the PATH change is available to the system.
If you decided not to add MySQL to the PATH, please go, with Explorer to the location where you installed MySQL Server and copy libmySQL.dll into C:\Ruby19\bin
In my case, I found this file in C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin
Now, it is time to install the bindings.
Getting MySQL/Ruby
For this version of Ruby, there is no official binary gems for both Ruby 1.8 and 1.9. So we are going to install the specially built version from RubyInstaller gems repository.
At the Command Prompt with Ruby, please enter the following command:
gem install mysql --source http://gems.rubyinstaller.org
This is going to install the special version of MySQL bindings. This version works with Ruby 1.8 and 1.9, since bundles fat binaries. You should expect a similar output like this:
Successfully installed mysql-2.8.1.1-x86-mingw32 1 gem installed
Getting Rails
Now is time to install Rails and build our application. At the same command prompt, please enter the following command:
gem install rails
This is going to take a bit, since Rails and it’s dependencies takes around 2MB or so, and need to be downloaded and installed.
Once done, expect see at the screen something like this:
Successfully installed activesupport-2.3.2 Successfully installed activerecord-2.3.2 Successfully installed actionpack-2.3.2 Successfully installed actionmailer-2.3.2 Successfully installed activeresource-2.3.2 Successfully installed rails-2.3.2 6 gems installed
Creating a Rails application
Let’s name our application mysqlapp
rails mysqlapp --database=mysql
The --database option indicates to Rails that we want to use MySQL instead of the default database adapter (SQLite3).
Rails will output a lot of lines when creating your application structure, just an excerpt of what to see:
...
create config/database.yml
create config/routes.rb
create config/locales/en.yml
create config/initializers/backtrace_silencers.rb
create config/initializers/inflections.rb
create config/initializers/mime_types.rb
create config/initializers/new_rails_defaults.rb
create config/initializers/session_store.rb
create config/environment.rb
...
Configuring our Database
Now Rails have configured for us the name of the database we want to use, and you can verify it in config\database.yml
Rails will try to connect to mysqlapp_development, but that database do not exist in our fresh new MySQL server.
So, let’s create it:
cd mysqlapp rake db:create
Just that, simple db:create is going to connect to our MySQL server, and create the database for us.
Keep in mind that if you changed root password or want to use other MySQL user to connect to the database, you need to edit database.yml to reflect those changes.
Let’s verify that everything is in place, using the following command:
ruby script\about
And you should see something like this as result:
About your application's environment Ruby version 1.9.1 (i386-mingw32) RubyGems version 1.3.4 Rack version 1.0 bundled Rails version 2.3.2 Active Record version 2.3.2 Action Pack version 2.3.2 Active Resource version 2.3.2 Action Mailer version 2.3.2 Active Support version 2.3.2 Application root C:/Users/Luis/mysqlapp Environment development Database adapter mysql Database schema version 0
Now is up to you to create your models, controllers and views!
Some notes and considerations
On other post I’m going to guide you with steps on building the bindings against MySQL 5.1.36, since you will need to install the Ruby Development Kit and the development headers for MySQL.
If you find something wrong with the Ruby Installer, please report it here, but issues with your code, Rails or other are not responsability of RubyInstaller.
The binary gems provided at gems.rubyinstaller.org are based on our forks of mysql bindings, which can be cloned and explored here at GitHub.
Keep in mind that some gems would not work under Ruby 1.9, or you will need a compiler (DevKit) for it. See previous post with details how to get those from our download page.
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MySQL/Ruby 2.8.1 Released!…
I’m happy to announce the release of MySQL Ruby bindings version 2.8.1
This release is based on my GitHub fork from original Kevin Williams work.
For those who are not aware, Kevin’s gem is a Gem package of tmtm mysql-ruby bindings at RubyF…
[...] RubyInstaller: Getting Started with Rails and MySQL (similar to previous) [...]
[...] I had already installed XAMPP, which contains a MySQL server. For the most part, I followed Luis Lavena’s tutorial RubyInstaller: Getting Started with Rails and MySQL: [...]
17 Comments
Just a note. You recommend restart of system after changing of PATH environment variable, but that is not necessary. After change of PATH, it is enough to run new command line from start menu and the change should be already propagated.
Nevertheless, you are right that with restart, you are on the safe side
You’re correct Vit. Wanted to avoid explaining about logging off the session, closing the open command prompt windows, etc.
Depending on your Windows version, things work differently, so went the safest road
Thanks for your comment!
This worked wonderfully on a windows 7 install. Many thanks!
One thing though–the installer did not add c:\ruby19\bin to my path–I had to do that myself. Not sure if that’s intentional or not, or a win7 thing.
Also–you’re missing the actual command “ruby script/about”. It was easy enough to refer to the sqlite walkthrough, but you may want to correct that.
Thanks again for all your work! It’s great to know that windows isn’t going to be an orphaned platform for ruby.
@Roy: Thank you, updated the instructions, missed that little snipped.
The new installers do not alter your PATH, as I mentioned in this blog post and over ruby-talk
The reason for that is that you require Administrator or Power User privileges, which limits the access of the installer. That’s the reason we went the Start Command Prompt with Ruby way, in similar fashion than tools like Visual Studio which do not alter your PATH, following Microsoft guidelines.
Thank you for your kind words!
Cheers.
“Let’s verify that everything is in place, using the following command:”
…seems to have a bit of text missing here.
As far as I can see, you run “ruby script\server” then browse to “http://localhost:3000/” and click on the “About your application’s environment” link.
Apart from that thanks – finally I’m on the way to 1.9 with Windows
To rifraf: No, I’ve used
script\about, not started the server.The command was
ruby script\about, and if you refresh, should be there (need to start using a more code block friendly wordpress theme).Thanks Luis. One problem. When I click the “About your application’s environment” link, I get an error. Also when I run “rake db:create”, because it says “mysql with password => nil, ” so how do I change the defaults?
Pimple: Did you check connecting to your local mysql worked? You must check that mysql password is empty (a empty space in your database.yml)
If it says nil, then means there is no space in the configuration file. Please check that and search Google for hints.
I installed Ruby 1.86 with Rails 2.3.2 and MySQL 5.0. The command ruby script/dbconsole throws ab error:
…dbconsole.rb:61 in ‘exec’: No such file or directory
mysql.exe.
I have compared dbconsole.rb and database.yaml to those in older version installations where the command did work and can find no differences. I believe my path statement is complete including the mysql/bin folder.
Stumped! Can anyone help?
@ITGuy:
For mysql to work from command line (what is doing dbconsole in the background) you need MySQL in the PATH.
For that, you need to add it manually or during MySQL installation check that option.
I think the error is clear, Windows cannot find MySQL in the PATH.
Followed this to the letter and still getting this error:
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/mysql_adapter.rb:585: [BUG] Segmentation fault
ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24) [i386-mswin32]
Any ideas? While we’re at it… I’ve seen lots of posts for this segmentation error using MySQL on Windows and various voodoo fixes, but has anyone actually figured out what the root problem is?
@Dan: All the segmentation faults in relation to MySQL are because the internals of
libmysql.dllYou need to check if either in system32 or any other folder in your PATH the above mentioned DLL is from a different version.There is no Voodoo fixes, the root and the solution is the ones I commented:
I just want to say thanks. Installing MySQL 5.1 was my first mistake. I really appreciate this post – you saved me a lot of time. Regards.
thanks so much, i have been trying to get RoR working for a couple of days before I came across this, now I’m all set.
Thanks Luis for taking the time and making the effort to make all this possible. As a complete noob I finally have Ruby on Rails working on XP.
An old installation of mysql 5.1.3 left some files after uninstalling it before installing 5.0.88. Once I deleted them, I ran into a problem because I used a password in the mysql setup step. This should have been no big deal, but when I edited the password field in database.yml, I didn’t leave a space between password: and beginning of password. Some hair pulling later and I now have rails talking to mysql.
Hope this might help someone in future… leaving out the space in the password line will cause syntax error on line 24, col 2: ‘host: http://localhost’; Its not a problem with that line of database.yml, but the password line before. Leave out the space, and it won’t work.
Thanks Lui, You’ve done Very good job. But I wonder where can I find your help in installing RoR with MySQL 5.1……
@Bond: I promised a followup with instructions about compiling the mysql-ruby bindings using DevKit.
I’m working on updating RubyInstaller right now, but will do the tutorial soon.