Rails 5

Creating a Ruby on Rails 5 API

To create a new Rails 5 API, open a terminal and run the following command:

rails new app_name --api

The following file structure will be created:

  create  
  create  README.rdoc
  create  Rakefile
  create  config.ru
  create  .gitignore
  create  Gemfile
  create  app
  create  app/assets/javascripts/application.js
  create  app/assets/stylesheets/application.css
  create  app/controllers/application_controller.rb
  create  app/helpers/application_helper.rb
  create  app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
  create  app/assets/images/.keep
  create  app/mailers/.keep
  create  app/models/.keep
  create  app/controllers/concerns/.keep
  create  app/models/concerns/.keep
  create  bin
  create  bin/bundle
  create  bin/rails
  create  bin/rake
  create  bin/setup
  create  config
  create  config/routes.rb
  create  config/application.rb
  create  config/environment.rb
  create  config/secrets.yml
  create  config/environments
  create  config/environments/development.rb
  create  config/environments/production.rb
  create  config/environments/test.rb
  create  config/initializers
  create  config/initializers/assets.rb
  create  config/initializers/backtrace_silencers.rb
  create  config/initializers/cookies_serializer.rb
  create  config/initializers/filter_parameter_logging.rb
  create  config/initializers/inflections.rb
  create  config/initializers/mime_types.rb
  create  config/initializers/session_store.rb
  create  config/initializers/wrap_parameters.rb
  create  config/locales
  create  config/locales/en.yml
  create  config/boot.rb
  create  config/database.yml
  create  db
  create  db/seeds.rb
  create  lib
  create  lib/tasks
  create  lib/tasks/.keep
  create  lib/assets
  create  lib/assets/.keep
  create  log
  create  log/.keep
  create  public
  create  public/404.html
  create  public/422.html
  create  public/500.html
  create  public/favicon.ico
  create  public/robots.txt
  create  test/fixtures
  create  test/fixtures/.keep
  create  test/controllers
  create  test/controllers/.keep
  create  test/mailers
  create  test/mailers/.keep
  create  test/models
  create  test/models/.keep
  create  test/helpers
  create  test/helpers/.keep
  create  test/integration
  create  test/integration/.keep
  create  test/test_helper.rb
  create  tmp/cache
  create  tmp/cache/assets
  create  vendor/assets/javascripts
  create  vendor/assets/javascripts/.keep
  create  vendor/assets/stylesheets
  create  vendor/assets/stylesheets/.keep

This file structure will be created inside a new folder called app_name. It contains all the assets and code needed to start your project.

Enter the folder and install the dependencies:

cd app_name
bundle install

You should also start your database. Rails uses SQLite as a default database. To create it, run:

rake db:setup

Now run your appplication:

$ rails server

When you open your browser at https://localhost:3000, your shiny new (empty) API should be running!

How to install Ruby on Rails 5 on RVM

RVM is a great tool to manage your ruby versions and set up your working environment.

Assuming you already have RVM installed, to get the latest version of ruby, which is needed for these examples, open a terminal and run:

$ rvm get stable
$ rvm install ruby --latest

Check your ruby version by running:

$ ruby -v
> ruby 2.3.0p0

To install Rails 5, first create a new gemset using the latest ruby version and then install rails:

$ rvm use ruby-2.3.0@my_app --create
$ gem install rails

To check your rails version, run:

$ rails -v
> Rails 5.0.0