RubyMine: Rails server launcher wasn't found in the project

Question

After importing an existing project into RubyMine, I encountered "Rails server launcher wasn't found in the project" when I Run/Edit Configuration.

I've checked this Cannot start the debugger in Rubymine. Rails server launcher wasn't found in project, but deleting the .idea directory and re-open is not helpful.

I can rails server in the Terminal successfully and the rails server runs. So I guess it's likely a RubyMine related thing.

Thanks, Allen

Bracteate

I've found that since I migrated to a new computer AND upgraded to the latest Rubymine, I usually have to go into preferences -> Languages and Frameworks -> Ruby SDK and Gems, and set my preferred ruby version. Until I set that, Rubymine will use an old version of Ruby. I need to dig in and set my default in Rubymine one of these days. – Missi

@Missi you are right. But I've already set that configuration to the ruby version that works for me... The rails server launcher missing problem persists.... Frustrating... Maybe I should ask in the JetBrain community – Bracteate

When you go into the folder on the command line and do a ruby -v, does the version match the version you set in Rubymine? – Missi

@Missi I believe so. The ruby -v shows ruby -v ruby 2.2.2p95 (2015-04-13 revision 50295) [x86_64-darwin14]. which matches the ruby version in RubyMine. – Bracteate

If you find an answer over at the JetBrains community I hope you will come back and answer your own question for future users. I'll up-vote it. – Missi

@Missi Sure. Will do! – Bracteate

Answer 1

I upgraded from RubyMine to IntelliJ Ultimate IDE 2017.1.5 and I encountered the same error "Run Configuration Error: Rails server launcher wasn't found in project". I was using Ruby v2.4.0 with Rails 5.0.2.

It took me an entire day to solve the issue, so I've written a detailed explanation with screenshots to guide others.

It occurred when I tried to Run or Debug my Rails server from within IntelliJ. Other solutions also didn't fix the error. I tried deleting my .idea/ folder, trying different Ruby or Rails versions (i.e. Ruby v2.3.0 or latest Rails 5.1.2), and even starting a brand new project from scratch. But I could run the Rails server fine using Terminal (outside the IDE) with rails s.

SOLUTION approach:

First I opened Run > Edit Configurations but "Choose SDK from module" didn't have any Project Modules available to select from the drop-down, so I had to create one as follows:

I went to File > Project Structure

Then I clicked Modules, and clicked the icon "+", and selected "Import Module".

Then I navigated to my Rails project's root directory "'/Users/my_username/code/apps/_murmur/skag_server_rails" and clicked Open, which displayed the following.

I then selected "Create module from existing sources" and clicked "Next", and it showed the following, with a blue checkbox shown next to my Rails project root directory that it found, so I clicked "Next" again:

It then showed the following window, and I clicked "Finish".

I'd now finished importing the Rails project I was working on as a Module, and it showed the following, so I clicked "Ok", as I was now ready to try and run my Rails server again:

So I went back to Run > Edit Configurations window and click on "Rails > skag" where I could now use "Choose SDK from module" since there was now my "skag_server_rails" Module available in the drop-down that I just created, and no errors were apparent, as shown below:

I was then able to click Ok to save the Run/Edit Config

I was then able to run the server Run > Run, which displayed:

I was then able to successfully open the Rails app in the browser open http://localhost:3000

But then when I tried to Run > Debug so I could debug using breakpoints, it gave me the following errors:

I solved this by running the following in the Terminal (outside the IDE):

gem install debase --pre
gem install ruby-debug-ide

Then finally I could run Run > Debug and it allowed me to trigger breakpoints as shown below:

Important Note:

The initial approach that I took that DID NOT end up fixing the error involved choosing to use "Use other SDK" within the Run > Edit Configurations window to load my Ruby Gemset into the debug configuration (instead of using a Module).

UPDATE: I encountered the same error again more recently on 2nd September 2017 and followed these steps to overcome it:

• Go to Menu > File > Project Structure > Project Settings > Modules > Click "+" and select "New Module"
• Select "Ruby on Rails" from the left hand side list
• Choose for "Module SDK" label your "RVM: ruby-2.4.1 []"
• Click for "Rails Version" label the "Install Rails Gem..." drop-down
  • Select a Rails version for it to download and wait (i.e. 5.0.0)
  • Do not select a Rails version that causes the tooltip "This version is not fully supported" to appear below (i.e. selecting a Rails version >5.1.2 causes this to occur)
• Click for "Rails Version" label the version that finished downloading from the drop-down (i.e. 5.0.0)
• Enter "Working Directory" label value of "../"
• Enter a "Module Name" (i.e. videotube-5.0.0)

• Click "Apply" and "Save"

• Go to Menu > Run > Edit Configurations

  • Change any directories that do not point to root folder of app
• Go to Menu > Run > Debug

Implosion

It is 2020, using IntelliJ 2020.1.1 and the bug still exists - a Rails project is not meaningfully imported by default and is not runable. This walk-through helps! All the gems detected, gem statements show no errors and the rails server can be started. Thanks! – Germany

This answer helped, thanks. If when you get to the 'Import Module' step it mysteriously doesn't detect routes.rb, I'm told that removing node_modules and trying may resolve. Weird bug, not sure why it's not been fixed by now – Panettone

While this did not solve my issue, this is the most detailed and best answer I've ever seen on this site. – Thermoplastic

Answer 2

The easiest way to fix it:

1. Close project
2. Remove .idea folder from project folder
3. Open project

Bingo!

NOTE: this workaround seems to no longer work with 2017.2. See RUBY-20144

Banderillero

Did this, but it unfortunately states Rails server launcher projects/acme/spec/dummy not found in the project. – Bennettbenni

As ridiculous as it sounds, restarting OSX made it work. I resisted, but the guy next to me insisted. I did it and no problems. I hate it when "restart your computer" is the fix. – Bennettbenni

Although this works it also blats any other run configurations that you may have, so make sure you have a backup first! :) – Alanaalanah

This answer should be accepted as most correct. Works like a charm :) – Industrious

After half an hour of Google-ing found this ...and worked for me – Wallinga

this one should be the most acceptable answer for the question, it worked fine for me. – Acumen

Thanks Skydan! Just worked for me on RubyMine 2019.3 – Affricative

had this problem, probably because I had a project where I moved it from intelliJ community edition to RubyMine 2023. Deleting the folder fixed this issue. – Ultimately

Answer 3

My variant to solve same problem.

Create new run configuration, but use "Ruby" template instead of "Redmine":

Ruby script field set to path to your redmine rails bin path and Script arguments set to "server -b 127.0.0.1 -p 3000 -e development" for ex.

Gasteropod

I have tried this. Initially my rails server was not even starting. I had posted the question here as well #71602655 But now, I am getting, NameError: uninitialized constant ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::MysqlAdapter error – Duomo

Answer 4

This worked for me

• Remove the .idea file
• Invalidate the cache and restart the ide

Birthright

Yep, this is generally a good thing to try when Jetbrains is doing strange stuff that you can't figure out. – Shrewmouse

Answer 5

Ok, this RubyMine has some serious issues. My day started out peaceful and then ended as a nightmare, courtesy of RubyMine. All I did was git checkout to a certain version of my repo. Well, when I did that, suddenly the folders in RubyMine disappeared. Yes, that is the first bug. I git checkout 8d4fbd1b5dfce0a3daa16896a603903a And then I open RubyMine and folders are gone! I closed and reopened. Still no folders. I restarted computer and still no folders.

I had to go to Project > File Structure and delete the Module. And then create a new Module. Now the project folders appear. But then I get this obscure error Rails server launcher wasn't found in the project. I have no idea what it means. I go online and they say delete .idea directory in your project. So I do that. And now again I have to delete and recreate the module.

This time it says "overwrite directory" since I have an existing project. I select "Yes" and then I open project and my secrets.yml is gone! Now I had to use secrets.yml I had backed up. And then finally it works.

Seriously, all this just because I wanted to checkout out a specific git commit? Come on.

UPDATE After further investigation, I understand what is going on. There are three critical Intellij Idea files with regards to the Ruby plugin:

/.idea/
MyProject.iml
/MyProjectGemset/

These three files should not be checked into git and should be consistent across the different branches of your project. You might have another *.iml in the project. Delete that and make sure you are using the same .iml throughout the branches.

These two files pertain to your SDK:

 MyProject.iml
/MyProjectGemset/

This file pertains to general configuration:

/.idea/

Infanticide

Answer 6

I've came across this same problem, and a way I found to solve it was to properly defining the root folder of the project when opening it in the first time with RubyMine.

As far as I can understand, ideally you should open the project by pointing the RubyMine to the project's root folder:

my-workplace/
|-- rails-project-name/  <-- point RubyMine here when openning
|   |-- app/
|   |-- bin/
|   |-- config/
|   |-- db/
|   |-- lib/
|   |-- log/
|   |-- public/
|   |-- test/
|   ...

Minorite

Thanks, one problem with that is that a rails engine is the root folder, and the dummy app often lives in spec/dummy or test/dummy – Bennettbenni

Answer 7

if you follow the solution from Artyom Blagoda on the Windows with ruby installed on the WSL (Ubuntu) you'll get into situation when wsl path (\wsl$\Ubuntu) of ruby script (rails) could not be found by remote (Ubuntu) ruby interpreter. to make it work you need to add path mapping on:

Settings -> Ruby SDK and Gems -> Your remote ruby or RVM -> then click the folder icon above, you'll find a new window where you put:

Local Path: //wsl$/Ubuntu/PATH_TO_YOUR_RAILS_BIN

---

Remote Path: PATH_TO_YOUR_RAILS_BIN

hope it helps ;)

Atony