Before you begin, you'll need to install a number of software packages:

Ruby:           http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads
Git:            http://git-scm.com/download/win
PostgreSQL 9.2: http://www.enterprisedb.com/products-services-training/pgdownload
nodejs:         http://nodejs.org/download

During the installation of the PostgreSQL database, you'll need to choose a database password. Anything is fine, just note what you choose somewhere.

Once you are ready, create a new folder to hold this and any other git repositories. As an example, let's pretend you've chose C:\git, and made that folder writable by your user account.

Open a command prompt ("cmd.exe"), and navigate to the folder you chose. Then use the gem command (which is part of Ruby) to install Ruby on Rails.

    cd \git
    gem install rails -v 4.2

Now you are ready to clone the Metamaps git repository:

    git clone https://github.com/metamaps/metamaps_gen002.git --branch develop
    cd metamaps_gen002
    bundle install

The third `bundle install` command downloads and installs the rubygem dependencies of Metamaps.
  
At this point you should be in C:\git\metamaps_gen002, or whatever equivalent directory you've chosen. The next step is to set up your database configuration. From the metamaps_gen002 directory, run

    start config

This command will open a Windows Explorer window of the "config" directory of Metamaps. Copy database.yml.default, and rename the copy to database.yml. Edit the file and set the password to be whatever you set up with postgres earlier. Once you're done, then move back into the command prompt. The next few commands will fail unless database.yml is correctly configured and Postgres is running.

    rake db:create
    rake db:schema:load
    rake db:fixtures:load

And you're set up! At this point, you should be able to run the server at any time with only one command; you don't need to repeat any of the previous steps again. The command to run the server is:

    rails s
  
Navigate your browser to localhost:3000 once you have the server running

Sign in with the default account

email: user@user.com

password: toolsplusconsciousness

OR create a new account at /join, and use access code 'qwertyui'

Start mapping and programming!