I agree but I really don’t have much (even for development) and I don’t have Windows installed, so I’d like to ask anyone who has successfully installed Retrospectiva on a Windows server to take a few minutes of time to write a HOWTO (a section about installing SVN bindings might be a challenge).

Many thanks
Dimitrij

Would be nice if someone (who runs Windows) could help.

I’m re-opening this ticket because I’ve written a few lines about installation on Windows systems. Please note that I’ve never used Ruby+Gems+Rails before, so it is highly possible that I’ve made something the wrong way. Also, I encountered a few issues while configuring Apache+Mongrel (see step 4), it would be nice if someone could have a look and try to understand what’s wrong… I also don’t know how to install extensions on Windows.

INSTALL RETROSPECTIVA ON WINDOWS

1. Install Ruby, RubyGems and Rails (source)

Ruby Install Ruby as a regular application. You might need administrator privileges to install it successfully. Check the Ruby site for the latest version. The Ruby sites provides packages for all OS. Just follow their steps: http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/

To verify the installation, check the version of Ruby:

> ruby -v

Gems Download the latest RubyGem package from the offical ruby website: http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126 . To install, open up a console and navigate to the folder containing the gem file and the file setup.rb. To install the gems, type:

> ruby setup.rb

And wait until the prompt is ready again. To verify the installation, check the version of gems:

> gem -v

Rails Use the console to type

> gem install rails

This downloads and install all the needed components on your system. After the installation is done, verify the installation by checking if you have the latest version:

> rails -v

2. Configure MySQL (source)

Install MySQL (the usual way) and then the MySQL adapter:

> gem install mysql

It will give some “No definition for…” warning, but it seems to work fine anyway.

Download older MySQL client library, for example one from InstantRails: http://instantrails.rubyforge.org/svn/trunk/InstantRails-win/InstantRails/mysql/bin/libmySQL.dll Copy the downloaded file to C:\Ruby\bin (or wherever you installed Ruby). Restart MySQL server source.

3. Configure Retrospectiva (source)

Extract the latest Retrospectiva zip package.

Comment line 6 in file config/environment.rb, putting a ‘#’ symbol in front of it:

#RAILS_GEM_VERSION = '2.3.3' unless defined? RAILS_GEM_VERSION

Create a new database, executing the following SQL statement (change user and password with your data):

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS retrospectiva;
 GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON retrospectiva.*
   TO "user"@"localhost" 
   IDENTIFIED BY "password";

Configure the database by renaming the config/database.yml.todo file to config/database.yml . Now open the config/database.yml with a text editor and set the database, username and password names according to your database settings in the production section.

To install the missing gems, from the retrospectiva directory execute:

> rake gems:install

Load initial database content:

> rake RAILS_ENV=production db:retro:load

If you have configured your config/database.yml correctly, the database will be filled with the initial schema and content.

As a quick test, you can run Retrospectiva in the built-in Webrick web-server, simply by calling:

> ruby script/server -e production -p3000

4. Integrate Retrospectiva within Apache web server (source)

Since Passengers is not available for Windows, we need to use Mongrel. First istall it:

> gem install mongrel mongrel_cluster --include-dependencies

Then change directory into the Retrospectiva RAILS_ROOT and execute the following in your shell on the webserver you plan to deploy on:

> mongrel_rails cluster::configure -e RAILS_ENV -p 8000 -a 127.0.0.1 -N 3

Now start Mongrel Cluster. Still under the RAILS_ROOT of Retrospectiva execute the following in the shell:

> mongrel_rails cluster::start

This returned me this error:

c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel_cluster-1.0.5/lib/mongrel_cluster/init.rb
 :98:in ``': Exec format error - mongrel_rails start -d -e production -p 8000 -P
 tmp/pids/mongrel.8000.pid -l log/mongrel.8000.log (Errno::ENOEXEC)
         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel_cluster-1.0.5/lib/mongrel_cluster/init.rb:98:in `start'
         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel_cluster-1.0.5/lib/mongrel_cluster/init.rb:80:in `each'
         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel_cluster-1.0.5/lib/mongrel_cluster/init.rb:80:in `start'
         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel_cluster-1.0.5/lib/mongrel_cluster/init.rb:239:in `run'
         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5-x86-mswin32-60/bin/../lib/mongrel/command.rb:212:in `run'
         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5-x86-mswin32-60/bin/mongrel_rails:281
         from c:/ruby/bin/mongrel_rails:19:in `load'
         from c:/ruby/bin/mongrel_rails:19

But if I execute the above exec line:

> mongrel_rails start -d -e production -p 8000 -P tmp/pids/mongrel.8000.pid -l log/mongrel.8000.log (Errno::ENOEXEC)

It seems that everything is working:

** WARNING: Win32 does not support daemon mode.
 ** Daemonized, any open files are closed.  Look at tmp/pids/mongrel.8000.pid and log/mongrel.8000.log for info.
** Starting Mongrel listening at 0.0.0.0:8000
** Starting Rails with production environment...
The system cannot find the path specified.
** Rails loaded.
** Loading any Rails specific GemPlugins
** Signals ready.  INT => stop (no restart).
** Mongrel 1.1.5 available at 0.0.0.0:8000

BTW, there is a lot of documentation on using Rails+Apache+Mongrel on Windows, here: http://www.napcsweb.com/howto/rails/deployment/RailsWithApacheAndMongrel.pdf

If someone understands more than me, please let me know.

Thanks. I added a (shortened and updated) version to the Wiki: Installation On Windows. Please feel free to update it.

Thanks again, Dimitrij

Would it be possible for someone to create a guide on how to install/use Retrospectiva in a Windows environment with MS SQL and IIS? I don’t have the option of using MySQL and/or Apache, so I need it to work with SQL Server and IIS.

There are a few guides for IIS:

• http://www.codeplex.com/RORIIS
• http://mvolo.com/blogs/serverside/archive/2007/02/18/10-steps-to-get-Ruby-on-Rails-running-on-Windows-with-IIS-FastCGI.aspx

That should be fairly simple.

MSSQL should work as well (although not natively supported):

• http://nlakkakula.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/how-to-rails-with-sql-server-2008/

If you come across problems, post them here, we’ll find a way around them. If would be great if you could contribute a Windows Guide afterwards yourself.

Getting an error message at this step: > rake gems:install

rake aborted! No Rakefile found (looking for: rakefile, Rakefile, rakefile.rb, Rakefile.rb) C:/Ruby19/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2377:in `raw_load_rake file’ (See full trace by running task with —trace)

Suggestions?

Are you in the right directory?

I believe so.

C:\Retrospectiva\dim-retrospectiva-05b4a20

How many people have successfully installed Retrospectiva in a Windows environment? I want to evaluate the possibility of using Retrospectiva within our company but I would prefer if there was someone that had experience getting Retrospectiva to work in a Windows environment for me to ask questions.

Sorry, I have never tried it. I don’t even have Windows to try it. All I can do is follow and guide you (or some other brave person) through the installation. I am sure it can be done, it shouldn’t even be too tricky. It would also be great if a Windows guide would come out of this.