Installing the Depot Test App

We use a test application called Depot. It is a book store web application.

We install it using a technology called called Instant Rails. This allows us to install the test app and all supporting components (including MySQL) without making any permanent changes to your system.

  1. If you already have MySQL installed on your system, you will need to first stop the service. From Windows Start Menu → Administrative Tools → Services. Right click on mysql services and select stop. (If you have apache running, you might also want to stop this. This is optional, and will prevent some error messages from appearing.)
  2. Run InstantDepot.exe.
  3. Enter a path on your hard drive where the software will be extracted to. We recommend using ”c:\depot”. Make sure the installation path does not contain any space characters. Click “extract”. This will take several minutes and may appear appear stalled at times. Be patient.
  4. Open the new “c:\depot\InstantRails” folder on your hard drive and start InstantRails.exe.
  5. Instant Rails will detect that it is being started from a new directory and ask if you want to regenerate the configuration file… Just say yes. You may get a security alert about Apache: you should unblock this.
  6. In the InstantRails main menu (click the black I), select Rails Applications → Manage Rails Applications…
  7. Check the checkbox next to the “depot” application.
  8. Click on the Start with Mongrel button. A console window will appear. This contains the depot web app being served by the Mongrel server… You may get a security alert about Ruby: you should unblock this.
  9. Wait a few seconds to make sure the depot web app is fully initialized, open your browser and go to: http://localhost:3000/store

The Depot app is now running and ready to use. Note that if you close this console window, the Depot application server will shut down.

Next > Install Ruby

Background Information

Depot is the sample application from the book Agile Web Development with Rails.