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
4. Generate files required by RSpec:
• rails generate rspec:install
5. Add switches to .rspec:
• --colour
• --drb
6. Bootstrap Spork:
• bundle exec spork --bootstrap
7. Initialise the Git repository:
• git init
• git add .
• git commit -m "Initial Commit"
8. Update the application README contents, then change to use the markdown extension:
• git mv README README.markdown
• git commit -a -m "Improved the README"

Optional:

1. Create remote repo - on GitHub, Unfuddle, etc. Push code to remote repo regularly.
2. Deploy app to Heroku:
• git push heroku master