Hi! It’s good news today for a lot of java, ruby and groovy developers – new version “Maia” (officially v9) was just released by JetBrains with a lot of new features (including faster environment, extensive Java 6 support, build-in Google App Engine and Grails projects support etc) – feel read full “What’s new” list.
There exists also not so good news – this time for PHP developers – support of PHP was removed from release of free (”community”) version of IDEA, so developers can stick with other completely free IDEs this time – for example NetBeans comes to my mind this time… as alternative… but after Oracle buy Sun, I not sure it is right choice… but this is “idea” for another post…)
Actually personally I don’t understand why “Community” version does not support PHP, Javascript, Python or Ruby as this languages are used by a lot (if not most) of “open source” developers that for some reasons does not feet into JetBrains licensing of commercial version of IntelliJ IDEA for open source projects. I think “vice versa” if compare to JetBrains – Commercial version must have extended support for Java development, while Community edition must support MORE other open source frameworks / languages, like Ruby, Python or PHP etc. Sure it’s only my “personal” opinion, but I think most of developers will agree with me – people that use IDEA for Java development (usually in enterprises) can (and will!) simply BUY commercial licenses, while a lot of potential IntelliJ users actually want to use it for small open source projects in non-Java languages stack and want to get IDE for FREE!
But totally – all new features show that JetBrains go in right direction – support for most “progressive” and “latest” technologies in IDEA (even if it is available only commercially )
Keep it going, JetBrains!
Ruby installation
Let’s start from Ruby installation. We can download Windows One-Click Installer from http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167, for example ruby186-27_rc2.exe
During installation, make sure that you select at least “Enable RubyGems” option:
You can leave default installation folder (C:\Ruby).
Ones you finish installation, you can run both “ruby” and “gem” from withing your command line.
So it’s time to install Rails, just type in command prompt:
gem install rails
and wait few minutes to finish installation.
JRuby installation
Download installation package from http://jruby.org/download. We will need binary Windows version, for example JRuby 1.4.0RC1 Binary .zip. Extract folder content to C:\JRuby folder and add path to the JRuby to your PATH variable:
Let’s test installation:
Now both Ruby and JRuby installed.
The problems starts when we will try to simultaneously use them (side by side)… First of all, make sure that you delete RUBYOPT environment variable (because it seems like JRuby gems did not work correctly if this variable setup). Now you can invoke each “gem” using following commands:
For Ruby: ruby -S gem
For JRuby: jruby -S gem
For example this is what I get on my machine:
Note: it is actually not a big problem that I had 2 different versions of Gem on my machine – both versions (1.3.1 and 1.3.5 works well for me… update of gem 1.3.1 fails for some reasons on my machine, so I decide to leave this for now…)
One small thing to do: it is possible that you have old version 1.3.1 of RubyGems like me (in the moment when I write this, latest version is 1.3.5 like was installed for JRuby). If we leave it, we can face some problems in future with IDEA etc, so let’s just update it:
Also, let’s install jruby-openssl (IDEA generate Error if this gem not installed):
Rails Installation
Next step is installation of Rails – just type following commands (it is better to just install Rails twice than to share same installation for both Ruby and JRuby):
ruby -S gem install rails jruby -S gem install rails
EvejobRoR and EvejobRoRG Project
We going to create 2 separate projects now:
EvejobRoR – will use Rails build in ActiveRecord + MySQL database
EvejobRoRG – will use App Engine hosting, datastore and Google Accounts for user authentication APIs
Let’s start from more simple EvejobRoR:
cd c:\evejob rails EvejobRoR -d mysql
Now let’s open this “template” project in IDEA:
File -> New Project -> Create project from scratch:
Change here “Project files location” to the “C:\evejob\EvejobRoR”, select “Ruby Module” and press next (see screenshot above)
Now you need to specify the Ruby SDK (current version of IDEA can’t detect SDK locations from environment variables). Press “Configure…” button and press “+” button in “Configure JDK” window:
Select “Ruby SDK” in popup and than select Ruby interpreter path:
I Hope you will get something like this:
If so, just press “OK” and continue IDEA project creation Wizard:
Select “Ruby on Rails” on next screen and press “More…” for Rails Facet configuration:
Make sure that you select “Use existing Rails application” and “Preconfigure for selected database” to “mysql” like (see picture above)
Now fill free to finish project creation Wizard. Done! We get EvejobRoR project loaded into IDEA.
Same steps we need to made for EvejobRoRG project, with small difference that this time we need to add JRuby SDK, instead of Ruby SDK like before and that we don’t want to support mysql as we are going to use Google App Engine API instead.
So, first type:
cd c:\evejob rails EvejobRoRG
Then same like before, create new project in IDEA, put here “C:\evejob\EvejobRoRG” path and in “Specify the Ruby SDK” press “Configure…” and add JRuby SDK:
After made same steps like was done for EvejobRoR project, just make sure that you unselect “Preconfigure for selected database” check box in Rails Facet Settings dialog and process steps like before to finish Wizard.
Hopefully you get EvejobRoRG project opened in IDEA!
Prepare JRuby / Rails for Google App Engine
Google App Engine runs Java applications, so we need to make sure that we can assemble our JRails applications into a Java Web Archive (.war). To do such tasks easy, let’s first install “warbler” gem:
jruby -S gem install warbler
Now it is time to check that you add Java JDK path to windows PATH environment variable (because “warbler” gem use JDK):
Next step, to run following commands from application root folder (c:\evejob\EvejobRoRG):
jruby -S warble pluginize jruby -S warble config
(make sure you type “warble”, not “warbler” that is just Gem name)
Now you can just check that “Warbler” works:
jruby -S warble
As result you must see EvejobRoRG.war file generated in application root folder (c:\evejob\EvejobRoRG)
We can’t use this .war file directly for Google App Engine for few reasons, but at least we see that we can get some .war file
I specially not use all appengine-jruby project gems for few reasons:
But what I do use is one of the gems from appengine-ruby project – “appengine-apis”, so let’s install it:
jruby -S gem install appengine-apis
Read this for now to get more information about Rails and Google App Engine specific things:
http://olabini.com/blog/2009/04/jruby-on-rails-on-google-app-engine/
http://www.railshacks.com/2009/4/25/run-your-ruby-on-rails-app-on-google-app-engine
We will get back to this later…
Let’s start with installation and configuration of the IntelliJ IDEA IDE for RoR / GoG / Django and Google App Engine development.
At the time I write this article, version 8 is available and version 9 (Maia) only at pre-release stages… So we start development in version 8 (but with really huge interest we will wait for version 9!). Also please note that community version of IDE is lack some important functions, so we going to use commercial version (30 day trial will be enough to start)
So go to http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/, download and start installation of Windows version of IntelliJ IDEA. During installation you need to select the plugins to enable. Made following selection (I am going to use Git and Subversion version controls systems in Evejob project)
On next screen, when IDEA will ask you about Web/JavaEE plugins I recommend to leave all options selected (unless you know that you not going to use some of Java technologies in near future) dues to the fact that when we move to Grails development, some of this plug ins will be in used.
On “Select Application Server Plugins” I also recommend to leave all options, as probably we will want to test hosting of application on as much Web Servers as possible (unless you know specific server requirements) – it is exactly way I am going to develop Evejob!
Same way, I recommend to leave all HTML / JavaScript development Plugins and Other Plugins selected (unless you know for sure which one you going to use and which one not… seems effort to enable them later can be more then performance issues in case if you just leave everything enabled, at least on latest hardware).
In case if you have only one developer machine, on next screen with “IDEA Server Account details” you can just select “Do not login”, press “Skip”
and move forward to the end of installation.
Finish!
But wait – it’s not all – we need also to install plugins for RoR, Django and even Google AppEngine (Grails support build in to IntelliJ IDEA 8)…
Let’s start: - go to File / Settings - in Settings window found at left list box “Plugins” item and select it.
- open tab Available
- wait few seconds, until get a list of all available plugins in JetBrains database.
- in search box, start typing “Python”.
- select “Python” plugin in filtered list
- right click and press “Download and Install” link
Plugin will be downloaded and installed for you (usually takes few minutes)!
Now it is time to install same way “Ruby” and “Google App Engine” plugins…
After you install all 3 plugins, press “Apply” button and answer “Yes” to the question about restart IDEA to activate changes in plugins.
That’s it with IntelliJ IDEA installation!
Grails Installation
To install Grails follow steps:
1) Download and install JDK from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads. Make sure that you use following version
Note: You don’t need Bundles packages. Also make sure that you download Windows x64 version of JDK, like on screenshot bellow:
Let’s assume that you download and install JDK to following default location: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_16
2) Download latest stable Grails Binary ZIP Release from http://www.grails.org/Download, for example: grails-bin-1.1.1.zip. We not going to install Grails from sources (build it) due to the fact that Grails support “grails update” command, which can update your Grails version to latest one.
3) Extract Grails archive to the following folder: C:\Grails
4) Create JAVA_HOME environment variable that points to the path where you have installed JDK and create a GRAILS_HOME environment variable that points to the C:\Grails folder:
Note, make sure you enter your system path to JDK and JDK version that you install before.
5) Append %GRAILS_HOME%\bin to the PATH variable:
6) Check that Grails installed successfully - just type “Grails” in command prompt and check that you get a help message like:
OK, installation of Grails finishes here, let’s move to the next task…
EvejobGoG and EvejobGoGG projects configuration
So let’s start to create EvejobGoG project that is build on Grails and EvejobGoGG also build on Grails but specially adjusted to be hosted by Google App Engine.
First Start IntelliJ IDEA, open “Create New Project”, select “Grails Application” and enter project files location as “C:\evejob\EvejobGoG”:
Press Next and on Grails SDK window, press “New” to add new one and in “Select Path” window select “C:\Grails” folder (where you install Grails before):
You will get something like this (your version of Grails can be different):
Press “Next” and on next window (Select the desired technologies) leave all options unselected. After you press “Finish” you will get new Grails project opened in IDEA (if during this phrase IDEA will ask you about some updates in Grails Tool Window, press “y” to do so):
Now you can repeat same steps to create EvejobGoGG project that will use Google App Engine.
But first let’s install Google App Engine SDK for Java.
Go to the http://code.google.com/appengine/downloads.html#Google_App_Engine_SDK_for_Java and download Zip file that contains SDK (usually file have name like “appengine-java-sdk-1.2.6.zip”). Than create folder C:\Google\google_appengine_java_sdk and unzip archive content to this folder. That’s it – Google App Engine Java SDK installed.
Let’s setup environment variable which is used by Grails plugin to locate App Engine Java SDK – APPENGINE_HOME (in our system we install it to C:\Google\google_appengine_java_sdk folder):
Let’s reload IDEA so environment changes takes effect (we will use APPENGINE_HOME variable in a second).
Now let’s continue with IDEA and setup EvejobGoGG project same way like we create and setup EvejobGoG (all step exactly same like above).
IntelliJ Idea provide great support of Grails development build-in. For example it is very simple to install Grails Plug-ins directly from IDE (make sure that you select EvejobGoGG project in IDEA window):
Ones you open Grails plugins window, probably you will need to press “Reload Grails Plugin” button, to get a full list of available plugins:
Type “app” in search box and select “app-engine” plugin (”Grails AppEngine plugin”). Check check box “Enable” and press “Apply Changes”. Than select latest release version of the plugin, for example:
OK, let’s back to plugin installation – press “OK” on plugin installation window and in Grails window you will probably get question “Do you want to use JPA or JDO for persistence”. Let’s for now just answer “jpa” and finish plugin installation.
Finished… Ah, ups… Let’s just check that project structure is OK – go to “File / Project Structure” window:
Sometimes (looks like due to some bug in IDEA currently???) you will not get Project SDK configured:
If you in this situation (hopefully not, but just in case), press “New” button, select “JSDK” in drop down and browse to your JDK path:
After, press “Apply” and you will add JDK to EvejobGoGG project.
Do the same check (and probably fix) for EvejobGoG project.
“Evejob” is a Web 2.0 style Social Job Board Open Source web application developed in few frameworks / programming languages simultaneously and released under GPLv2 license.
Why another job board application?
First – every developer understand naturally such business domain because at least one time in his live he was a “Job Seeker” and some day probably also become (will or already) an “Employer”. So I (and readers) will not spend time to learn business domain in developing Job Board application! (sometimes really huge amount of time team or independent developer just learn business domain of application… It’s actually wrong to think about this as “time waste” because as much developers understand the business as more better software they usually made!).
Another reason why I decide to create another job board open source application(s) is absence of such project developed in true MVC architecture (at least by now). Try to search open source Job Board software? You will found huge amount of poorly written PHP scripts (most are not open source) and for sure you will not found any good ASP.NET MVC or Ruby on Rails implementations… Social Job Board software have a huge “potential” and I don’t want to lost opportunity to develop good open source version of such application (and even more – first few versions powered by different platforms!).
Last reason which I want to list here (in reality I have much more reasons for sure), is that I have some cool ideas how to make really SOCIAL Job Board and want to at least try such ideas on practice!
Evejob Application Versions
So, there will be few major versions of Evejob applications:
All versions will be developed and updated in parallel with comparisons between frameworks / languages features, platforms and even IDEs in the way …
Why I will release project as Open Source? Sure primary reason because I want other developers will get benefits from it, like I now get benefits from all open source software that I use every day. Another reason – I want to made this application better, so I need feedback, and not only from end users, but also from other developers! In my case, because I get used few different programming languages, I will probably get really huge feedback – at least few times more then if i will write code using one language! I will get feedback from developers with different cultures (Unix vs Windows environment), different preferable coding styles (dynamic language or static) etc… Think project will benefit from this (and actually I never see something like this before so it will be at least interesting to get a try … ) !
Agile Development
As you probably understand by now, I am a huge fun of Agile development (and even Agile life).
What this means for selected project:
Integrated Development Environments
One thing where I really don’t want to go most simple way is usage of Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) … While all development can be done using even simple text editors (notepad, vim, Emacs etc) I decide to implement this project using rich IDEs available for selected platforms.
Reason – most of developers DO use IDE at work (companies simply buy it) and I think this will help developers to make total compare of PLATFORMS, not just frameworks or programming languages. While a lot of people can argue that IDE does not make any difference (and probably they are right in some cases), I think usage of IDE can significantly decrease developing time ones you get use of functionality they have and sometimes even improve discipline (with tools like ReSharper for C# for example) of developers.
So here is the list of IDEs I am going to use:
Why I choose IntelliJ IDEA, but not Eclipse or Netbeans (really good free alternative to IDEA) or Wing or Komodo etc? For .NET development, Visual Studio is STANDARD and Express Edition that available for free simply “for users other than professional software developers, such as hobbyists and students.” (but even so Express Edition should also work for you). Because my goal is to be at least “professional software developers” (and readers I think also) I must use at least Standard version of Visual Studio that is not free (except cases when Microsoft give it for free for start-ups etc, like on http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ for example)… So to make fair comparison I must use something not free for other versions also… This means that great tools like Netbeans or Eclipse simple can’t be used in this case (as both are completely free). Sure if you going to made your own projects you can use Netbeans or Eclipse because both have good support for both Ruby on Rails and Grails development and even Django (with some additional external tools / plugins). Regarding Komodo / Wing etc, they are too specific for selected languages or does not support all frameworks I need (at least by now). While it is available free IntelliJ IDEA version for open source developing, because I (and readers) some day going to make a money, it’s make sense to compare versions for commercial development.
Application Hosting
Hosting… Yes, while I can leave this decision for later in theory, in practice it can (and will) effect our architecture… So let’s made it clear now: I am going to host Grails, Django and Ruby On Rails versions of Evejob application in Google AppEngine. Google AppEngine support Python natively so we can run Django here. Also last version of AppEngine support Java as programming language. So because Grails leverages Groovy (which written on Java), we can also run Grails applications in AppEngine. Same for Ruby On Rails – it is available JRuby implementation of Ruby on Java so we can run Ruby On Rails applications in Google App Engine. To host ASP.NET MVC application in I am going to use latest Microsoft Azure platform.
Operation System
I am going to make all development under Microsoft Windows 7 64 bit Operation System (OS). Visual Studio 2008 does not work on any other non-Windows operation system directly (and I don’t want to use virtualization for such case – IDE must work on operation system for which it was written to get maximum performance… but, while IDEA works on almost any OS, Visual Studio does not!). Even so, It is still exists option to use Mono (cross platform Open Source development framework) to run ASP.NET MVC on other OS except Windows, and to use MonoDevelop instead of Visual Studio for example. Unfortunately I decide to port application to Mono AFTER development will be completed. (primary because I just want to wait until Microsoft legally allow to use Mono or finally will just “close” it, so I will not need to release another version for this wonderful framework).
Project sources, links and documentation
