Question : using Ruby on Rails w/ Apache/MySQL already installed

Hi,

I already have the wamp server (Apache & php w/ mysql) installed and want to use Ruby on Rails (RoR) with it.  I installed everything fine (Ruby, Rubygems, Rails), but how do I get RoR to use the Apache server instead of starting the Webrick server that installed with it?

Also, is there any benefit to using sqlite over mysql in development since deployment will be using a mysql db?  Seems like I'd have to go through a lot of trouble to migrate, so I should just develop in mysql. Correct?

Thanks!

Answer : using Ruby on Rails w/ Apache/MySQL already installed

Mongrel:
http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/

"Mongrel is a fast HTTP library and server for Ruby that is intended for hosting Ruby web applications of any kind using plain HTTP rather than FastCGI or SCGI."

The ease of webrick, but fast!

Proxy:
If you set up a mongrel server, you'll have this instance of mongrel running your rails on on some port (3000 being the default). If you host your app on your own server, people would have to go to mysite.com:3000 to get to it.  Ugly!

So, you set up a proxy in Apache (assuming the rest of your website is hosted by Apache).  The proxy might say that your app is "app.mysite.com" (using the subdomain) and so any requests for that should be sent to port 3000.  So, your users don't need to use the port 3000 anymore.  Plus, you'll have your apache running on 80 to handle static HTML or PHP or whatever else.

You don't need to worry about this yet!  Install mongrel.  Calling "ruby script/server" will use mongrel by default.  

One of my clients has ... 8 or so rails apps running behind an Apache server, using mySQL, so when you're ready to deploy just ask and I'll help you get the server configured.