Is the Ruby on Rails tutorial able to be finished?

Eddie,

I was thinking about posting a similar thread! I have some issues with the course too, not only on the technical side, but also on the whole project-first approach, which seems to mean going over things quickly without much explanations. The whole project is a good idea, especially to learn to integrate new technology like bootstrap and coffeescript to RoR. I think I'll enjoy it a lot if I have some backgrounds on RoR to get myself unstuck where needed. I decided the step back and learn Ruby on Rails fundamentals somewhere else before I come back to handle this project. Hopefully the course is updated by then. Thanks for making Treehouse aware of the issues.

The problem you're having with dependancies (I'm assuming) is you're trying to down grade over the top of your old gemset. Keep in mind any gems in your 'global' gemset can't be deleted from other gemsets. Switch to 'global' to delete any that are causing dependency errors.

Assuming you have RVM installed (which you should) download the code from the site for whichever stage you completed most recently, create a new gemset and run bundle install. Work from that point forward. if you're using sqlite and not trying to go your own way with postgres or mysql there shouldn't be an issue with databases because I believe the sqlite database is stored somewhere in the project folder.

This gemfile works just fine for me. I haven't had any issues with versions yet. For the record I have 2 other versions of rails all maintained in their own gemsets and it's all playing nice.

source 'https://rubygems.org'

gem 'rails', '3.2.6'

# Bundle edge Rails instead:
# gem 'rails', :git => 'git://github.com/rails/rails.git'

gem 'sqlite3'
gem 'devise'
gem 'simple_form'

# Gems used only for assets and not required
# in production environments by default.
group :assets do
  gem 'sass-rails',   '~> 3.2.3'
  gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 3.2.1'

  # See https://github.com/sstephenson/execjs#readme for more supported runtimes
  # gem 'therubyracer', :platforms => :ruby

  gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.0.3'
end

gem 'jquery-rails'

# To use ActiveModel has_secure_password
# gem 'bcrypt-ruby', '~> 3.0.0'

# To use Jbuilder templates for JSON
# gem 'jbuilder'

# Use unicorn as the app server
# gem 'unicorn'

# Deploy with Capistrano
# gem 'capistrano'

# To use debugger
# gem 'debugger'

This one is working fine for me but ideally if you're working with old versions you should specify the version. If you don't it will always install the newest version.

I have now completed the railstutorial using Rails 4. It´s definitely possible but not without going thru 2-3 additional challenges (for which you don´t get points :P). Luckily I found help here and browsing the web. Now that I am done I am glad I didn´t downgrade for this way I learned a lot of extra stuff.

It would be nice though if Treehouse could write down the workarounds (maybe below a video) for Rails 4.

Just as an update of my journey, I've recently restarted the course. This time around I used Nitrous.io as a form of booting up the box and installing RVM on it. This allowed me to control the versions of Ruby that I can use, and I installed it with Ruby 1.9.3 and it's been a lot easier with the transition. The only issues that I am having is with the twitter bootstrap and it's incompatibility with simple_form.

Incompatibility seems to plague this tutorial. If you can deal with it not being "exact" visually, then it should work. I am still not convinced that things are going to go smoothly, but I'm willing to give it another shot.

I went and did the code school and codeacademy versions, and you learn the basics, but this is the only one that allows you to actually make something that you can see of value, instead of just step-by-step runs that doesn't show the whole thing in a practical application. The intro tutorials on the other sites helped me understand what I am looking at, but at treehouse it's a more broad-picture tutorial.

I will continue to try, and I will update this thread.

Hey Jah, I am also signed up to Code School and Code Academy and started their Ruby courses, and I'll admit that this tutorial has definitely helped a lot to advance my into the "late" beginner stage. At the same time, I agree that much of the troubleshooting has been pretty much me crawling through the net, and albeit, that's pretty much what developers do when they are stuck, it's still not at a stage where I feel comfortable doing considering that I don't have the knowledge to discern what advice is crap, and what is useful.

I think that with something like RoR, they need to have it updated constantly to adjust for the newer versions. I don't know when they made these videos, but it must have been a while ago, because they are using 3.2.6 for rails. A long way from 4.0.0

I think you need to give Treehouse a bit of slack over this. Version 4 of Ruby was only released at the end of June so they haven't really had sufficient time to revisit this project. I believe Jason has said in the past that they wish to redo the project but that is likely to take a while. I'd suggest rolling back to an older version and completing the projects as it will give you a good understanding of the fundamentals. Or alternatively post some of the problems on here and I'm sure there will be some people who can give you some help with the problems you are facing.

If you use the version of rails, ruby, and bootstrap that is used in the videos it is easy to complete. If you choose to use a newer version such as rails 4 or bootstrap 3, you will most likely have to read more documentation that you would like, but thats a risk that you take. If you want a tutorial that uses rails 4, this tutorial is very good and is probably better than the ones on treehouse

Stone, I've tried to scale back. Every time that I install the older one, by default it installed 4.0.0 and then when I downgrade, whenever I migrate the DB, it brings up errors, because you will have to go back and change about 10 different things. You have to downgrade the sass-rails, the railsties, and about 5 other gems, just to get rails server to work. Then you have to find the right version that will allow it to work with the devise. On top of it, you need to adjust the strong params on most of the the already generated code in order for it to register some type of authentication system.

Trust me.. I've tried more ways than one to fix it to how they have their version. It's also not easier when running it on a windows machine and you can't just clone your Git code so easily. You have to install a program, log in and then clone, and then copy it to the folder you are working in. They took it from a linux/mac side ONLY, and it's pretty frustrating as well.

So, as to Tony, the version of RUBY is only one behind, but the update within that was about 4 back. But it's not Ruby that I was complaining about. RAILS is the infrastructure that we are using to run most of this. THAT is what I am talking about. Ruby is relatively the same except for a few modular changes which is adaptable. Rails, is the issue that is causing the majority of the incompatibility problems.

I work with Ruby developers and they agree with me that this tutorial is messed up. I have had to consult them as to why certain things haven't been working and they have walked me through steps that are 2 levels above the understanding of anyone WANTING to take this tutorial. One of the dev ops guys that is VERY experienced in Ruby told me that if the issues to overcome were part of the beginner's tutorial they have succeeded in making people into at least intermediates, skipping Novice altogether. Treehouse created a tutorial and left it high and dry for those to fend for themselves. Ruby/Rails move and evolve at a much faster pace than CSS, HTML(5), and most other things taught here. They need to revamp or they will get left behind too.

I should have been a bit more specific with my answer. It was Ruby on Rails that was released in June. The newest version of ruby which is 2 is suppose to be backwards compatitable which as you said shouldn't be throwing up so many problems.

The point I was trying to make was that it takes time for them to see the changes for themselves. Then they have to replan, script, record and reproduce the content. I agree it's important that they get a newer version up which I'm sure they are working on but unfortunately the turn around time means that we just have to be patient for now.

Well, they need to take their own advice here: http://teamtreehouse.com/library/business/how-to-market-your-business/social-media/conversations-communities

Because one of the reasons I signed up and joined was because of the Ruby track. The iOS and Android tracks are the other reason. If I can get through those by the end of my time here, I might not renew. Those other courses so far were helpful and interesting, along with the Business stuff. But I'm look specifically for good Ruby tutorials.

Kinda resurrecting this thread on purpose three months later to say, "Me, too!" (The key point being, ahem, it's three months later and the problem is exactly the same.)

The Build a Todo List Application with Rails 4 is pretty nifty so far.

I was eyeballing that one just now, thanks.

Travis... if you want, after I created this thread I took a break and came up with a gameplan to get through it. I then logged the places where I was confused, in trouble, and/or stuck. I then was able to figure out each solution. I detailed it in this topic here: https://teamtreehouse.com/forum/unofficial-guide-to-actually-finishing-the-ror-intro-tutorial

I hope that helps you a little bit. I know that the new one that came out if for Rails 4, and am about to try it out myself, so I will do the same with that one to see if I have any struggles and chronicle them into a tutorial as well.

Travis... if you want, after I created this thread I took a break and came up with a gameplan to get through it. I then logged the places where I was confused, in trouble, and/or stuck. I then was able to figure out each solution. I detailed it in this topic here: https://teamtreehouse.com/forum/unofficial-guide-to-actually-finishing-the-ror-intro-tutorial

I hope that helps you a little bit. I know that the new one that came out if for Rails 4, and am about to try it out myself, so I will do the same with that one to see if I have any struggles and chronicle them into a tutorial as well.