Deploying Ruby on Rails as J2EE application

Posted January 1, 2008

If you haven’t tried Ruby on Rails because was too busy developing your J2EE applications, now you have no more excuses! It’s possible (and surprisingly simple) to deploy a RoR application in your favorite J2EE server just by following these few steps:

1) Install JRuby on Rails

Get JRuby and install the Ruby on Rails gem:

gem install rails --include-dependencies --no-rdoc --no-ri

2) Create a simple test application

Run the following commands to set up your new application:

rails test_app
cd test_app

You’ll have to edit the first line of the created scripts (’script‘ directory) to use JRuby:

#!/usr/bin/env jruby

And at this point you’re ready to test your application:

script/server

Open http://localhost:3000 and check if your application is running as it should.

Now let’s create some functionality. First, edit your config/database.yml file, defining your development and production database as it follows. Note that we don’t need the test database and we can use the same database for both development and production for the scope of this example:

adapter: mysql
database: test_app
user: root
password: xxx
host: localhost

Create a scaffold:

script/generate scaffold Dog name:string
rake db:drop:all
rake db:create:all
rake db:migrate

At this point you’re already able to point your browser to http://localhost:3000/dogs and start playing with with your database.

3) Install the JDBC adapter and change your application

In order to deploy as a Java web application, you’ll have to replace the database adapter by a JDBC one. To achieve this, first you need a new gem:

gem install activerecord-jdbc-adapter --no-rdoc --no-ri

You also need to copy your mysql driver (JAR file) to your JRUBY_HOME/lib directory and edit your database.yml once more:

adapter: jdbc
driver: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
url: jdbc:mysql://localhost/test_app
username: root
password: xxx
host: localhost

Restart your server and, since we just changed its configuration, everything should be still working exactly as before.

4) Install Goldspike and create your WAR file

In your application directory, install the plugin:

script/plugin install http://jruby-extras.rubyforge.org/svn/trunk/rails-integration/plugins/goldspike

To include your database driver in the generated archive, you have a few options (Maven is one of them), but for now let’s just copy it to the ‘WEB-INF/lib’ directory of the application:

mkdir WEB-INF/lib
cp $JRUBY_HOME/lib/mysql-connector-java-5.0.5-bin.jar WEB-INF/lib

You also need to edit the app/controllers/application.rb file and include the line:

protect_from_forgery :secret => '6dc47d156f8f3724e4634c37bc0f9f94'

Finally, to create your WAR file, run:

rake war:standalone:create

Deploy the generated file in your favorite J2EE server like Tomcat or WebLogic.

Conclusion

The integration between Ruby on Rails and Java is easier than most people would expect, and it may become a new option to develop your next web application. That may be also a great motivation to learn JRuby and start taking advantage of its integration with existing Java code.

5 Comments so far

  1. Matias on March 28th, 2008

    Hi.
    Everything went fine ’till the test with the new database.yml (using the jdbc) configuration. My JRUBY_PATH its ok too (I’m under WINXP).
    But, when I start de Webrick I get this annoying message:

    “C:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.0.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:231:in `establish_connection’: Please install the jdbc adapter: `gem install activerecord-jdbc-adapter` (no such file to load — java) (RuntimeError)”

    But I’ve already installed the jdbc adapter and copied the “mysql-connector-java-5.1.6-bin.jar” to JRUBY_HOME/lib

    Any sugestion?

    Thanks in advance! :)

  2. Matias on March 28th, 2008

    Oh, I forgot, my PATH it’s ok too. I can use jruby in my command window as well, so, I think, there isn’t any problem with the ’script‘ directory.

  3. Ivan Sanchez on March 28th, 2008

    If you’re sure the activerecord-jdbc-adapter gem is installed correctly, try taking a look in the script files generated by rails. Are they pointing to Ruby or JRuby?

  4. Matias on March 28th, 2008

    Yes, I’ve set all files in the script directory to use jruby. I’ve got the same error again. Looks like the jdbc-adapter isn’t installed… But it is, at least in the C:\ruby (do i need to install it in the jruby directory too?). Netbeans IDE found it when i’ve checked in the gems configurations….

  5. Ivan Sanchez on March 28th, 2008

    Aha! There you go… While you’re following this article you should forget you have Ruby installed in your machine. All the gems should be managed by the gem script provided by JRuby.

    Try removing Ruby from your PATH and installing the gem again. Shout if you have any problems ;)

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