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Section :: Ruby In Steel Archives
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Ruby On Rails Support
by
Huw Collingbourne
What Rails development features do you want in Steel?
Friday 19 May 2006.
After the 0.6 release of Steel, which adds debugging, the next major feature we shall be adding will be support for Rails development. We are currently planning to add Rails-specific code colouring features and an integrated Rails project manager (to gather together all your files and directories in the project pane).
What are the other features that Rails developers really need? Now’s your chance to tell us. You can leave comments by clicking on the ‘Comment on this article’ link below. This will create a threaded discussion forum in which you can leave any ideas, suggestions or feature requests.
Note that comments won’t appear immediately – we have to click a button behind the scenes to put them on site. This is to avoid ‘comment spam’. Your email address won’t appear on the public part of the site.
OK, let the discussion begin…! Forum
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Question about source control
1 December 2006, by Bill
Will Steel integrate with subversion in any fashion?
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Question about source control
2 December 2006, by Dermot
I believe that it is compatible now - that is Subversion control files are not included in the project folders when you Synchronize the project (this was a problem in earlier versions). You should be able to use Subversion just as you would from a command prompt. I’ve tested this to some extent and I think it works ok.
We intend to fully support both Subversion and Visual Team Server source control within the GUI (the Solution Explorer) at a later stage - but not in V1.
Dermot
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27 October 2006, by Graham Pengelly
Hi
I am keen to have a look at Steel but I am afraid I am falling at the first. I have installed everything and configured the paths to MySql, Ruby etc correctly.
When I try to create a new Rails project I get an error message that states:
Rails project creation failed: MakeRailsFiles failed: exit code was 1
I am on VS2005 on XP Service Pack 2 with InstantRails
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance
Graham
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This error could be caused by any factor which prevents Rails from running. Have you verified that you can use Rails from the command prompt? The sorts of things that can prevent Rails from running are any generic installation problems, pathing errors, and naming errors on the creation of a new application. I am not sure if InstantRails is implicated here. I know that sets up its own little self-containing environment and it may be that this is causing problems.
When you encounter this error, can you look in the Output window (select the View menu then Output) and pick the General tab. This should contain more details about the error. If you can’t solve this, I’d be grateful if you would copy the text from the output window and mail it to us at support ( at ) sapphiresteel ( dot ) com.
Oh, and yes, we know the error message is terrible. It should be more descriptive in the next release ;-)
best wishes
Huw
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2 November 2006, by Graham Pengelly
THanks for your help off the list. I thought I had better post the solution here for anyone else with InstantRails. It turns out that InstantRails doesn’t add the Ruby bin folder path to the PATH environment variable. Add this and Steel works fine.
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Thanks. I’ll add this to the technical FAQ (which I am writing now). We are also working on more descriptive error messages which, I hope, will help to solve these kinds of problems in future.
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14 September 2006, by Aaman
Hi,
Great job with an important effort. I’m excited to be using the Visual Studio IDE for Ruby development.
I’m having a problem, though, and hopefully easily addressable.
I installed 0.75 of the Ruby in Steel package, and specified the correct locations for ruby, mysql and sql server. When I opened up Visual Studio 2005 and tried to create a new Ruby project, I get an error message stating
"Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: type"
What can be wrong, and how should I fix this?
Thanks,
Aaman
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14 September 2006, by Huw
It sounds as though you haven’t installed ProjectAggregator2.msi which is a MS program required for integration. If you run Setup.exe this is installed automtically. It is not installed if you run the rubyinsteel.msi program instead of Setup.exe. To fix it, just run ProjectAggregator2.msi which is in the installation zip.
best wishes
Huw
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13 September 2006, by Horatiu Cristea
Congratulation for the great work, i was looking for quite awhile for a good ide for ruby & rails. I’m using (or i was using radrails :P) on windows and because i came from the .net background i was almost extatic when i found this IDE. Having the same look & feel to something you are already very used to, gives you a very conforting feeling.
I’ve installed the Beta 0.75 and i would like to point out one thing:
You have to add more options in fonts and colors settings for rails & ruby.
I usualy dont use the default settings for the fonts & colors. I use a black background color theme for VS. My current color theme is ok for the .net projects files, .aspx, .html, .css, etc.. files but unfortuantelly when i open a .rhtml file the colors used to sysntax coloring the rhtml file cannot be set.
Rails tag and Rails Attribute are not enough.
Example: background color is black and the html tag delimiters are dark blue and i didnt find the rails settins to change the tag delimiters color.
The coloring in .rb files is ok.
I could send you the vsssettings file if is needed.
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30 August 2006, by Bob Pardoe
I have looked through all of the comments regarding future features and it seems that no one has mentioned migrations.
I see these as being a fundemental part of managing an application’s roll out and release cycles. RadRails has a lovely feature whereby when models are created, a correspondingly named migration file is created automatically.
You should also be able to create migrations in the same way as the other rails files (scaffold, models, controllers etc)
Please can we have mirations built into your plugin please
Many thanks
BOb
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Currently we have a blank text field in our Generate dialog into which you can enter any other script commands and parameters you would like to run. Can you give us an example or two of the kinds of commands you would like to see ’built in’ in order to make migrations easier? In the meantime, I’ll take a look at the RadRails feature you mention. In principle, we can add any feature that people need so if the automatic creation of migration files is something people want then we’ll certainly think about providing it ;-)
best wishes
Huw
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I posted my excitment on the other discussion page, also with the following suggestion.
I find establishing Database connections a real painful hit and miss affair. With Steel RoR I have got MySQL database and RoR Scaffold generated solutions up and going with ease. But with SQL Server, with SQL Server authetification (UID and password) I have been unsuccesful to generate Scaffold solutions, despite trying many different database connection combinations in database.yml. - My Connection settings seem to work easily in VS Server Explorer pain,
So my suggestion is some kind of Database Connection Test, before attempting to generate Scaffold generation etc.
Cheers
Jules
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Project files problem (unavailable)
18 July 2006, by Jim Peak
Hi all, I searched all over this site to find an answer to my problem without success. I’m following the instructions to create a rails project. Whether I try to import an old rails project of my own or create a new one, my project files appears "unavailable" in my solution. I checked the output window, everything looks fine.
I also have problem creating a new ruby project. Whenever I click Ok in the New Project dialog with Ruby project selected, the following error occurs: "Value cannot be null. Parameter name: type"
Has anyone face this problem before?
thanx in advance
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Project files problem (unavailable)
19 July 2006, by Dermot
This seems to be a common problem. It’s caused by not installing the ProjectAggegator2.msi file. If you just double click on this file (part of the download), it should fix the problem.
In the next release, I hope to have this installed automatically when Setup runs.
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Using Rails with SQL Server on a German machine
16 July 2006, by Rasmus
When I try to create a Rails project with SQL Server on my machine, the IDE hangs somehow. Stopping the SQLCMD.exe process, shows some error message like
Can not find file "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA\steelrails_development.mdf
On my system the folder Progam Files is called Programme. Seems to be a localization problem. Should I look into my configuration or is the path hardcoded somewhere in Steel?
Accessing the SQL Server works fine with a "normal" database project, generated via Visual Studio.
Thanks
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Using Rails with SQL Server on a German machine
16 July 2006, by Huw
This sounds as though it may be a pathing problem to SQL Server. You can change the path by selecting the Tools menu then Configure Steel. This will display a dialog in which you can set (or browse to) the directories for Ruby.exe, MySQL and SQL Server.
I’d be grateful if you could try this and let us know if it fixes the problem.
best wishes
huw
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Using Rails with SQL Server on a German machine
16 July 2006, by Huw
Oh, and one other thing that may be an issue: did you copy the file ADO.rb into the \DBD\ADO\ directory under Ruby?
e.g. ruby\lib\ruby\site_ruby\1.8\DBD\ADO\
This file is required for full SQL Server integration. You’ll find ADO.rb in the Steel 0.7 zip file and a bit more information in Readme.txt.
We’ll be adding more complete documentation on database driven development to this site in the next week or two. In the meantime, I hope this may solve your problem ;-)
best wishes
Huw
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Using Rails with SQL Server on a German machine
16 July 2006, by Rasmus Debitsch
Thank you for the answer. Yes I copied the ado.rb file. But it seems that there is something other wrong.
After installing Steel on my machine and starting VS, all menus and toolbars show up. The problem with the SQL Server connection is still there. SQLCmd hangs and after stopping the process, the database file not found problem is written into the log window.
Looking in the registry, the SQL Server path configuration seems to be correct.
After closing VS and starting again, the Rails menu is gone. Extras has no steel entries any more. After using the setup with repair, the menus come back.
One additional point: After uninstalling steel the VS splash screen still shows the steel icon.
Only to be sure: I have a German operation system and a German VS 2005.
Please let me know if you need more information. You may contact me via mail directly.
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Using Rails with SQL Server on a German machine
16 July 2006, by Huw
Someone will email you tomorrow (Monday) to try to get this sorted out.
Best wishes
Huw
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Using Rails with SQL Server on a German machine
20 July 2006, by Dermot
Thanks to Rasmus for finding the problem with the SQL server.
There are really two problems here.
1) the installation is not properly localised (in fact it’s not localised at all). So everything expects Windows to be where is usually is (C:\Windows) and the program files to be in C:\Program Files. If this isn’t the case, then you will have trouble either getting the package to load into the IDE or running various programs.
2) The progam files directory is hard coded into the SQLserver.sql script which is used to configure the SQLServer database. Again if your SQL Server is somewhere else, this will cause problems. The solution is to edit the SQLServer.sql file to point to the correct location.
I will fix these problems for the next release.
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Is there some way to allow other database chooses besides the top three, even if it means having an "Other..." selection and you type in the database name.
The reason I’m asking for this is because your tool looked like it was going to be a great winner for me to use...until you locked me into what "you" think are the best databases for me you use.
I may want to use PostgreSQL or an ODBC/ADO accessible database.
If at all possible, don’t lock us into "your" top 3.
Thanks
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That’s a good point.
Initially, I’ve restricted the ’wizard’ to MySQL and SQL Server, because we need to test out the basic functionality. However, the front end just creates the database.yml file and builds the databases. You can always do this yourself, so the Steel IDE doesn’t lock you into any particular database.
The SQL Server integrates best because MS have (unsurprisingly) built a good front end into this. You can access MySQL via OBDC, but you are limited to how good or bad the ODBC drivers are (a bit variable in my experience). MySQL are building an integrated front end for VS, so that should improve matters. I think Oracle have something as well, though I didn’t have time to investigate this properly.
We’re planning a 0.7.5 beta in a few weeks to incorporate feedback and to get some things in that we didn’t have time to do in this one. I’ll put ’Other’ in there then.
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Not sure if anyone has suggested it yet, but mongrel support would be nice. It has just been added to edge rails for the script/server and will probably supplant WEBrick. WEBrick has some caching issues that can be a real headache (as outlined in linked blog entry). Mongrel is also a lot faster than WEBrick, even in development mode.
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The integrated Ruby console line is fabulous - I’ve been waiting a long time for a Ruby IDE to realize this was important. However, its annoying to use because you can’t start typing on a new blank line. For example, type in anything, say 7. It will output 7, but won’t put a newline in. So when you type the next line, it will start with 7.
I would also get rid of the seperate Ruby console and instead reuse the immediate window since that is what Visual Studio uses as a command line.
Thanks,
Charlie
http://cfis.savagexi.com
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Yes - I’ll fix the Ruby Console so that it does start on a new line after a return. That will be in the next version (0.7).
On the Immediate Window, that’s a different thing really. VS uses the IW to evaluate expressions and communicate with other windows. So you can type ’>cmd’ and you’ll move to the Command Window for eaxmple. I don’t want to mess with the basic operation of the IW: the Ruby Console really does something quite different.
However, I’ve now fixed the IW so that it does interact properly with the debugger. If in (0.7) you type a Ruby expression in the IW, it will be evaluated correctly and the result displayed. It sort of works now in (0.6), but there are some problems, because I wasn’t handling the IW correctly.
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30 May 2006, by Mischa Kroon
Support for generators, plugins, server: start / stop, switching between view / controller.
database.yml —> data explorer entry.
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Ask any VS developer what is the best feature of the IDE and most of them will tell you it’s the intellisense (all the way from VS6 to VS2005). In my opinion, this is the feature why so many people have such an easy time starting development on the Win32 platform.
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It’s coming, I promise you, it’s coming ;-) (But Rails support is coming first...)
See the Road Map here for more details.
best wishes
Huw
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21 May 2006, by James Moore
Add my voice to the requests for testing support. I’d love debugger support as well, but testing would be more important.
Next on my list would be code completion and integrated documentation.
I stopped using emacs in favor of RadRails because of the testing support. I’d consider Steel too if it has interesting run-time features.
Unfortunately, I think basic code editing is almost completely uninteresting; if you don’t have some other really useful bits, just doing things like code coloring and syntax error checking is a waste of your time. I understand that they’re temping (low-hanging fruit and all that), but I just don’t see the point.
Hmm, having said that here’s how I’d prioritize things:
1. Integrated doc. It’s probably the feature that’s straightforward to implement and doesn’t exist yet in the other environments.
2. Code completion. Limited support in Radrails (but it’s very high on their list)
3. Debugging. RadRails doesn’t have it yet.
4. Testing. It’s really important, but other people are already there. You’re playing catchup.
I’d take coloring code and syntax checking off the list. In six months they may be worth working on, but not now.
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20 September 2006, by richtext
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20 September 2006, by Huw
RADRails is a good IDE. For Visual Studio users, however, we hope that Ruby In Steel may have at least one or two attractions ;-) .
In terms of debugging, we are developing a completely new and much faster debugger for the commercial Developer Edition of Ruby In Steel. The current, more leisurely-paced debugger, will be retained in the free edition.
best wishes
Huw
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I agree that test running support would be very important. Do you use a xUnit testing framework, and have you looked at RDT and RadRails? They both hook into Eclipse’s unit test running framework and give you a GUI based runner, complete with green-bar success and red-bar failure.
But here’s my #1 request: Fast Rails debugging. I haven’t used your debugger yet, but hopefully it’s faster than the default Ruby debugger. Running Rails applications with the default Ruby debugger is painfully slow; RDT integrates with the default debugger to give some Rails debugging support in the Eclipse, but again this is slow. Arachno has a fast debugger but the IDE lacks most of the features I want.
Here are the ideal situations:
Put breakpoints anywhere in my Rails app and run my tests with the Test::Unit GUI runner, hit my breakpoints, and enjoy debugging bliss.
Start the WebBrick server in Steel in debug mode (it’s a ruby app itself so this should come ’free’) with breakpoints throughout my Rails app. Then, fire up my web UI, navigate around my app, and hit my breakpoints, all with minimal performance degradation for being in debug mode.
Other requests:
Refactoring support (at least rename method and extract method)
Debugger call-stack "drop to frame" — If you don’t already have this, one of the best Java IDE features is the ability to select any entry in the call stack and "drop" to it, giving the developer the ability to start running from that point.
Intelligent code completion/suggestions — You might already have this, but if I’ve have code reading "user = User.new(’Bob’)", the IDE should be smart enough to figure out that "user" is an available variable of type "User.class".
Finally, I posted a caffeine-driven blog post about you guys... I hope you aren’t offended by my use of Old Dudes. Don’t worry, I’m getting there myself.
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"Old dudes" egad? Seems like only yesterday that we were dancing the night away to Glenn Miller and His Orchestra while pondering on how to program a steam-driven Time Machine with the help of an object oriented abacus. :-) Ah, how time flies...
Seriously though, many thanks for the interest. We’re doing our best to get out a good Ruby IDE; but, that said, we really don’t want to raise too many expectations that this is all going to happen quickly. We’ve seen too many sad examples of software that promised everything up to and including the kitchen sink and then failed to deliver. That’s why we are releasing well defined ’bits’ of Steel with each release - to make sure that we deliver, test, debug and improve one thing at a time.
As for the answers to your specific technical queries... wait just a while and I’ll see if I can get Dermot to reply in more detail.
best wishes,
Huw
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Hi Huw —
I think that releasing Steel bits at a time (shavings, perhaps?) is a great idea: get high-quality pieces of the software out into the user base quickly and get feedback, while improving the lives of developers. Once I get a copy of VS2005 I’ll start playing around with Steel, and if I think it would work in our office then you’ll have a team of hard-to-please IDE enthusiasts pounding away at it.
I’ll be following your progress!
— Joe
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The debug support in Steel is of the slow variety, unfortunately. The reason it’s slow is that it’s derived from the Ruby trace mechanism, which means that an event is generated for each line of Ruby code, whether you want to look at it or not. Performance wise, it sucks.
There will be a faster version (hopefully *much* faster), but I’m working on getting the Visual Studio goodies out of the door first.
On a different note, one of the advantages of having been around the software biz a bit is that I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t (mostly the latter, sadly). I’m determined *not* to overcommit and give people unrealistic expectations. The other mistake I’ve seen over and over is that people ship a pile of crap prematurely and then get sucked into having to support it, with the consequent loss of development time for new ideas. You can’t afford to do that if there’s only a very limited developer resource - hopefully we’ll try and avoid that error.
So the plan is a steady release of new beta versions (we’ve got plans for three more betas before 1.0) incorporating what people tell us they would most like.
But after 1.0 - that’s when the fun really starts! We’ve got some really interesting (and I think innovative) ideas in the pipeline.
Dermot
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Rails comes out of the box with a unit testing framework, with tests that can be run from the command line. What I’d like is the ability to run the tests from the editor. There would be two ways to run tests:
1. Click a "run tests" button, which then says "tests passed" or "tests failed" then tells you which ones failed.
2. The tests are run in the background, whenever a file is saved, and if a test fails, you get told about it.
The second one is called "zero click" testing :-)
Douglas
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