If you haven’t used mod_rails (aka Phusion Passenger) it’s a drop-in Apache Module that works in a pretty simple matter - as long as an apache DocumentRoot is pointed at the public directory within a Ruby on Rails application, it will serve it up.
Thus, making a module for InterWorx to support it would be fairly simple - it would just need to give users the ability to make a change to their domain.com.conf DocumentRoot setting to specify an alternate path (for their Ruby on Rails application) instead of the standard public_html.
Indeed, mod_rails works flawlessly - and it truly is as easy as cake to setup…
I’m running Ruby Enterprise Edition and Phusion Passenger, which are released by the same company. Getting Ruby on Rails up and running on an InterWorx install literally takes about 5 minutes. It would just be nice to automate the process of changing the DocumentRoot so that customers can enable or disable Ruby on Rails on their own if they decide to try it out. In addition, the ability to setup subdomains w/ Ruby on Rails would be nice.
Just an example of a quick hack I did with the configs for a customer –
www.espressohq.com - Loads using the normal espressohq.com.conf DocumentRoot (public_html) on a SiteWorx account (no changes there)
*.espressohq.com - Loads using a copied version of espressohq.com.conf (I named it espressohq.com.wildcard.conf so it would stand out) with the DocumentRoot changed to the public directory within their Ruby on Rails application. Thus, any subdomain of their domain will load via Ruby on Rails. Example at http://sliqua.espressohq.com