META: Heroku

[adambray]

2015-01-13

• figure out tasks needed to set up fully running instance
  • setting RAILS_HOST_NAME (get application name somehow?)
  • cron jobs
• write up guide on the wiki page
  • include guide to changing user credentials and app configs
  • include distinction between Heroku button and regular deployment
• set up heroku button

---

Things we need to fix to use heroku:

• email (including smtp settings)
• file uploads to aws S3 instead of local
• devise branch merging
• remove any references to sub-uri deployments
• create config/settings.yml that initializers load from
• how to handle Application.config.secret_token in open source

[orenyk]

We should review this list, but until the non-CAS authentication issue is solved (#2) this isn't really relevant. Also, see #110 for past work on Heroku compatibility.

[mnquintana]

I'm not 100% sure on this, but it's possible some of these are no longer relevant (since Heroku has introduced a lot of changes since 2012) - for instance, they have MySQL now so we wouldn't have to switch to postgres.

[orenyk]

Yup, I was going to add the PG requirement but then remembered that it wasn't relevant anymore. I think that after 4.0.0 and our dependency / Gemfile revamping (#585, #600) we can see what's left to do.

[orenyk]

This is going to be a critical step in exporting the app; moving it to v4.2.

[orenyk]

Ok, started making some progress! Here's what I've done so far:

1. Included the pg gem for the database
2. Set up the Rails bin/ folder (see here)
3. Tried to deal w/ broken assets (looks like the rails_12factor gem was necessary for now, not sure if everything's working properly yet)

We're getting a few weird errors:

1. fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
2. The version number seems to be broken
3. ffaker is missing so we can't do rake db:seed, I think it's just in the development group

All in all, it seems like we're pretty close to Heroku deployment, so that's pretty fantastic :-). Other people should definitely try getting it set up and see if they have any suggestions!

EDIT Some more useful links about assets here and here.

[orenyk]

Also, we can't forget to deal with all the Yale dependencies! In the short term, the next step should be setting up a Heroku button, even if it will only be for Yalies at the moment.

[orenyk]

Ok, so we'll start this from scratch after we get #2 dealt with (and maybe #175 as well). Things to remember (based on today's discussion w/ @caseywatts):

1. set up default login credentials (and default authentication scheme) such that demo apps are fully usable w/o CAS
2. run rake app:setup automatically with dummy data so demo users can immediately start adding equipment, users, etc.
3. make sure to provide instructions as to how to seed the database (e.g. heroku run rake db:seed demo=true or something like that)

[orenyk]

WOOO figured it out :-D

heroku config:set RAILS_HOST_NAME=$(heroku info -s | grep web_url | cut -d/ -f3) (h/t SO)

[orenyk]

no idea how I closed this... whoops!

[orenyk]

Woot e-mail is working :-D. Testing the scheduler now, then I think it's time to move on to the button!

[orenyk]

Scheduler works, sends e-mails as expected (with working links!). Button time!

[orenyk]

Damn, so when you set up config parameters in the app.json file, they are required before deployment. However, I was able to derive them from Heroku toolbelt commands post-deployment (see comment above). Not sure how best to proceed... if I make them optional then any action that sends an e-mail will fail. Maybe I'll add instructions via config descriptions to tell them how to set RAILS_HOST_NAME; the mandrill parameters will have to be set after-the-fact via the Heroku website.

[orenyk]

Ok, we're going to require them to do some post-deployment configuration via the Heroku website but with the exception of e-mail and cron jobs, our Heroku button now works! The future wiki page is here, now I just have to flesh out the content with screenshots and I think we're good to go!

[orenyk]

I started adding things to the wiki page but I need to upload the screenshot images somewhere; I'll probably stick them in the gh-pages branch and then link to them. The Heroku button instructions are mostly done, I'll get the Heroku toolbelt deployment instructions done later.

[orenyk]

Wiki page is finished with screenshots and instructions for both Heroku button and toolbelt deployment. Once the PR is reviewed this is done!

[orenyk]

On a separate note, once we're happy w/ the customized buildpack (see here) we should transfer ownership over to @YaleSTC.

[mnquintana]

Any chance you could link the images too? (Looks awesome btw! 😃)

[orenyk]

Which images? The ones in the wiki page? Where should I link them to?

[mnquintana]

Yeah! Link them to their source URLs (so people can see the full-size images more easily)

[orenyk]

Good point!

[orenyk]

Done! That seemed very daunting in Markdown, but then I copied the page into ST3 and was able to do it in a few keystrokes. Pretty awesome :-)