Main Motivation & Function

Like many of you I tried to deploy a rails application in a Windows environment only to be met with many options that either did not work or were not viable. What I wanted was a simple easy to use Window server that would have the following characteristics:

• Can be start and stopped like a window service
• Restarts when the server is rebooted
• Does not need an external web server since there is already one provided by rails.

How to Install

Follow these simple steps to get you going.

• Download the installer here.
• Install the Service.
• Launch you service console (start/settings/Control Panel/Admin tools/Services) and verify that the RailsAppLauncher service is there.

How to Configure and use

Complete these simple steps to get you going.

• Once your service is installed. Go to the "C:\Program Files\MA\Rails App Launcher" folder.
• Edit the RailsAppLauncher.exe.config file.
• Set the port. Usually this is something else than 80 because IIS runs on 80 by default.
• Set the location of your rails application.
• Make sure you have no other rails application running on the server.
• Go to your service console and Start the RailsAppLauncher Service.
• you can now go to http://[servername]:[port]/ to see your rails application running.
• Next time your server reboots the service will automatically start with it.

Asumptions

• Windows XP/2003 server. (Not yet tested on 2000 and vista)
• a working ruby/gem/rails installation.
• A working rails application and path.