Automating Rails Development Environment Startup

I'm a fan of using Window Batch to automate repetitive tasks, so put together a little script that launches all the components of my Rails development environment.

On my system, all my Rails applications are stored in a base directory, along with a folder containing the following batch scripts. To launch the development environment for a particular Rails application, I can simply supply the batch file with the name of that application.

Each batch file contains the command to launch that component:

Starting up my Ruby on Rails Development Environment

1. Open a command prompt and navigate to project directory.
2. Start Spork server:
• bundle exec spork rspec
3. Open a second command prompt and navigate to project directory.
4. Start Autotest:
• bundle exec autotest
5. Open a third command prompt and navigate to project directory.
6. Start development server:
• rails server
7. Open a fourth command prompt and navigate to project directory, use this for Git operations while working.
8. Open code IDE/text editor of choice (mine's currently Komodo Edit 6.1)
9. Start working on RoR application!

I'm currently looking at ways to automate this startup procedure, possibly using a batch file or similar - any suggestions? Update: Post detailing startup using Windows batch scripts here

Ruby Learning Resources

A surreal, but seemingly useful tutorial:

• http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/

Creating a Rails Application from Scratch

1. Navigate to base Rails applications folder and execute:
• rails new newAppName -T
• The -T prevents rails generating Test::Unit files - we'll use RSpec
2. Copy/create three required files from a base application:
• .autotest

	require 'autotest/growl' # enable pop-up windows
	require 'autotest/restart' # optional: forces autotest to pick the changes to this file
	require 'autotest/timestamp' # optional: shows timestamps for test runs
	require 'win32console'
	#prevent triggering when certain files modified
	Autotest.add_hook :initialize do |at|
	%w{.svn .hg .git vendor public log .idea .komodoproject .komodotools}.each {|exception| at.add_exception(exception)}
	end
	# do not clear console before running tests
	Autotest::Growl::clear_terminal = false

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• .gitignore

	.bundle
	db/*.sqlite3
	log/*.log
	tmp/
	.sass-cache/
	*.log

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• Gemfile

	source 'http://rubygems.org'
	gem 'rails'
	group :development do
	gem 'sqlite3'
	gem 'rspec-rails','2.6.1'
	#annotate gem commented out as breaks deployment to Heroku. Uncomment and bundle install to use.
	#gem 'annotate',
	# :git => "git://github.com/jeremyolliver/annotate_models.git",
	# :branch => 'rake_compatibility'
	gem 'taps'
	gem 'heroku'
	gem 'therubyracer', :platform => :ruby #required for Rails 3
	end
	group :test do
	gem 'rspec-rails','2.6.1'
	gem 'webrat', '0.7.1'
	gem 'spork', '0.9.0.rc9'
	gem 'autotest' #4.4.6 or 4.2.10
	gem 'autotest-growl' #0.2.16 or 0.2.4
	gem 'autotest-rails','4.1.0'
	gem 'win32console'
	gem 'factory_girl_rails', '1.0'
	end
	group :production do
	gem 'pg'
	gem 'thin'
	end
	# Gems used only for assets and not required
	# in production environments by default.
	group :assets do
	gem 'sass-rails', '~> 3.1.4'
	gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 3.1.1'
	gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.0.3'
	end
	gem 'jquery-rails'
	# To use ActiveModel has_secure_password
	# gem 'bcrypt-ruby', '~> 3.0.0'
	# Use unicorn as the web server
	# gem 'unicorn'
	# Deploy with Capistrano
	# gem 'capistrano'
	# To use debugger
	# gem 'ruby-debug19', :require => 'ruby-debug'

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3. Install new gems with:
• bundle install