# Deploying my rails app to GoDaddy

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/deploying-my-rails-app-to-godaddy/185476>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 21, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/deploying-my-rails-app-to-godaddy/185476 "2010-03-21T02:09:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Butterson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@Butterson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Butterson)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/deploying-my-rails-app-to-godaddy/185476/1 "2010-03-21T02:09:31Z")

</div>

So I’ve written my first real-world RoR app and I’m now getting ready  
to deploy it. Unfortunately, my client decided to use GoDaddy as the  
hosting provider and based on what I’ve seen so far from the web, it’s  
not really the smoothest or ideal hosting for RoR apps. There were  
several posts here that I tried to follow but they were kinda old  
(2008, 2007). Most of them are talking about the dispatch.fcgi being  
in the public folder. Well I tried searching my app for those and I  
found them in the ‘vendor\rails\railties\dispatches’ folder instead.

I am hoping you folks have recently experienced deploying an app to  
GoDaddy. I followed the instructions and have already attempted it 3  
times and I still could not get my app to show. I kept getting ‘Page  
Not Found’. I’m not sure with what’s supposed to be in my .htaccess  
file for ruby app.

Here’s what I have right now for .htaccess.

RewriteEngine On  
RewriteRule !/public/dispatch.fcgi [QSA,L]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here’s dispatch.fcgi :

#!/usr/local/bin/ruby

RewriteBase /access  
RewriteRule ^$ index.html [QSA]

RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.html [QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST\_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteRule ^(.\*)$ dispatch.fcgi [QSA,L]

require File.dirname( **FILE** ) + “/…/config/environment”  
require ‘fcgi\_handler’

RailsFCGIHandler.process!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
Here’s what my environment.rb looks like:

# Be sure to restart your server when you modify this file

# Specifies gem version of Rails to use when vendor/rails is not

present  
#RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION = ‘2.3.5’ unless defined? RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION  
RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION = ‘1.1.6’ unless defined? RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION  
ENV[‘GEM\_HOME’] = ‘/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems-dev/1.8’

# Bootstrap the Rails environment, frameworks, and default

configuration  
require File.join(File.dirname( **FILE** ), ‘boot’)

Rails::Initializer.run do |config|

config.time\_zone = ‘UTC’

end  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I’m not sure what else I’m missing. I used the GoDaddy CGI Admin to  
create the rails directory where I uploaded my project. This also  
generated the .htaccess file.

I’d appreciate all the help and advice I can get. Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Butterson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@Butterson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Butterson)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/deploying-my-rails-app-to-godaddy/185476/2 "2010-03-22T17:12:34Z")

</div>

Butterson wrote:

> So I’ve written my first real-world RoR app and I’m now getting ready  
> to deploy it. Unfortunately, my client decided to use GoDaddy as the  
> hosting provider and based on what I’ve seen so far from the web, it’s  
> not really the smoothest or ideal hosting for RoR apps. There were  
> several posts here that I tried to follow but they were kinda old  
> (2008, 2007). Most of them are talking about the dispatch.fcgi being  
> in the public folder. Well I tried searching my app for those and I  
> found them in the 'vendor\rails\railties\dispatches' folder instead.
> 
> I am hoping you folks have recently experienced deploying an app to  
> GoDaddy. I followed the instructions and have already attempted it 3  
> times and I still could not get my app to show. I kept getting ‘Page  
> Not Found’. I’m not sure with what’s supposed to be in my .htaccess  
> file for ruby app.
> 
> Here’s what I have right now for .htaccess.
> 
> RewriteEngine On  
> RewriteRule !/public/dispatch.fcgi [QSA,L]
> 
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
> Here’s dispatch.fcgi :
> 
> #!/usr/local/bin/ruby
> 
> RewriteBase /access  
> RewriteRule ^$ index.html [QSA]
> 
> RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.html [QSA]
> 
> RewriteCond %{REQUEST\_FILENAME} !-f
> 
> RewriteRule ^(.\*)$ dispatch.fcgi [QSA,L]
> 
> require File.dirname( **FILE** ) + “/…/config/environment”  
> require ‘fcgi\_handler’
> 
> RailsFCGIHandler.process!
> 
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
> Here’s what my environment.rb looks like:
> 
> # Be sure to restart your server when you modify this file
> 
> # Specifies gem version of Rails to use when vendor/rails is not
> 
> present  
> #RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION = ‘2.3.5’ unless defined? RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION  
> RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION = ‘1.1.6’ unless defined? RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION  
> ENV[‘GEM\_HOME’] = ‘/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems-dev/1.8’
> 
> # Bootstrap the Rails environment, frameworks, and default
> 
> configuration  
> require File.join(File.dirname( **FILE** ), ‘boot’)
> 
> Rails::Initializer.run do |config|
> 
> config.time\_zone = ‘UTC’
> 
> end  
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
> I’m not sure what else I’m missing. I used the GoDaddy CGI Admin to  
> create the rails directory where I uploaded my project. This also  
> generated the .htaccess file.
> 
> I’d appreciate all the help and advice I can get. Thanks.

Must admit haven’t tried to deploy to GoDaddy however in the dim &  
distant past I used to use site5 which used fcgi too.

Things I remember you need to be wary of:

- Make sure the shebang is the correct path to ruby as this can differ  
(the #!/usr/local/bin/ruby bit)
- Make sure your permissions are correct for the dispatch.fcgi &  
dispatch.rb files
- In your environment.rb file you’ll probably need to add  
ENV[‘RAILS\_ENV’] ||= ‘production’ at the top of the file to force your  
app into production mode

Debugging Help (assuming you have ssh access):

- Try cd’ing to your apps public directory and calling ./dispatch.fcgi  
to see if your page’s html is output or an error message.
- Try ‘ruby script/console production’ from your app root directory and  
doing a find on one of your models to ensure that your rails app isn’t  
bombing before even getting to the web-side of things.

I’m not 100% sure they are working the same but it would probably be  
worth checking out the site5/dreamhost support forums as I think they  
used to work a similar way.

Funnily enough just checked; see here - most of this is probably  
relevant:

[http://forums.site5.com/showthread.php?t=4406](http://forums.site5.com/showthread.php?t=4406)

Hope that helps

Cheers  
Luke

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Butterson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@Butterson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Butterson)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/deploying-my-rails-app-to-godaddy/185476/3 "2010-03-22T17:14:04Z")

</div>

Oh and one other thing - make sure you freeze your gems!

Cheers  
Luke

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Butterson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@Butterson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Butterson)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/deploying-my-rails-app-to-godaddy/185476/4 "2010-03-23T00:49:37Z")

</div>

Butterson wrote:

> I’d appreciate all the help and advice I can get. Thanks.

My advice for your future projects would be to discuss deployment issues  
with your client a lot earlier in the development cycle. I’d push this  
discussion to the first conversation with the client if it were me.

A less that ideal development choice has a strong potential to hurt your  
reputation in the long run. Any problems with the deployment environment  
is going to reflect negatively on you directly. Most clients will not  
differentiate server problems with problems with your application.

Just a little friendly advice. Sorry I can’t help you with your  
deployment issues to Godaddy, I just hope this serves as a lesson to get  
these issues nailed down with clients early in the negotiations.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Butterson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@Butterson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Butterson)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/deploying-my-rails-app-to-godaddy/185476/5 "2010-03-27T04:12:07Z")

</div>

Thanks all for the advice. I’ve completely given up on GoDaddy and  
signed up for Site5. I agree I should have discussed this earlier on  
with my client but since this is the first time I’m developing a Rails  
app, it’s still a learning process for me. The client also have signed  
up with Godaddy way before we talked about the project. Fortunately,  
the client is a friend of mine so I think it will be ok. I’m just  
disappointed that GoDaddy, given that they’re one of the big names out  
there does not have the capability to support a framework.