Installing ruby with cucumber on a windows machine

From Test Automation Wiki
Revision as of 15:22, 13 March 2017 by MartijnP (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search


Installing Ruby

Winstall-ruby.png
  1. Download and the latest version of Ruby for windows 32 bit on http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/.
    • We're installing Ruby 32 bit version because it's more reliable than the 64 bit version
  2. Accept the terms
  3. Install Ruby in the default directory (for example Ruby version 2.3.3 will be installed in C:\Ruby23)
  4. Check all 3 checkboxes


Installing DevKit

  1. Download and open the latest Devkit for Windows 32 bit on http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/
  2. In your ruby directory create a new Folder with the name: devkit
  3. Extract the Devkit into the newly created folder
    • Winstall-devkit.png
  4. Open command prompt
    1. Go to Run (Windows Key + R)
    2. Write CMD
    3. Press enter
    • Winstall-runcmd.png
  5. In CMD go to your ruby directory (for example write the following cd C:\Ruby\devkit)
  6. Write ruby dk.rb init
  7. Write ruby dk.rb install
    • Winstall-devkit-console.png


Installing the necessary plugins

Now the installation of Ruby is complete, we can start installing the necessary plugins. These are so called “Gems” in Ruby. (A ruby is a gem, so the creators decided to call their plugins gems)

Copy the code written below and paste it in the CMD (right click, paste)

gem update --system
gem install lapis_lazuli --no-ri --no-rdoc

While you're installing, do not copy any other text onto your clipboard or let your computer go to sleep. If you do so, CMD will stop installing after the last line of text.


Installing the necessary drivers


Installing ANSICON which gives colored output in CMD

When ANSICON is installed the test results in CMD will be colored. This will greatly improve the readability when working with Cucumber

  • Download and extract the files | ansi166.zip
  • Open CMD and navigate to the directory
    • Navigate to x64 (if you have a 64 bit machine) otherwise navigate to x86
    • To go to the directory write something like cd C:\ANSICON\x64
  • Type ansicon.exe -i and ansicon will be installed.

More information can be found here | source:

That's it! You're now ready to start setting up your cucumber project. You can read more about this in the next article.

Extra information

This section is for you to have a better understanding of what is happening during the installation. And what the commands we're using in console actually mean.

When we installed ruby, we checked a checkbox saying "Add ruby executables to your PATH". What we did here, was making ruby commands globally accessible in the console.

Now because these commands are global, we can go to devkit folder and write "ruby dk.rb install". Where we are actually saying: "Hey Ruby! I want you to look at this file dk.rb I have here and install it".

Same thing happens with "gem install lapis_lazuli": "Hey Ruby, I want you to do something with a gem, which is installing and the name is lapis_lazuli". After which Ruby is going to look online in their software system looking for a gem called lapis_lazuli.