Deployment issue

Rails
1

hi everyone, being new to ROR, i am facing some problem with
deployment.

i don’t know but going through various books and online tutorials, i
am feeling that deploying ROR application is not that easy.

basically i use shared hosting where i get only a FTP, SMTP access.
This time i managed SSH access also. but restarting apache server or
modifying configuration files( for example httpd.conf) is not possible
for me. i think ROR application deployment is not that easy as copy
pasting the application folder. isn’t it be easy if the configuration
was project level rather than server level. in php or asp.net i just
need to copy the files without changing server behavior.

i want to ask you guys, is there something i am missing? is there an
easy solution for me or i have to go through it if i want to use full
features of ROR ( for example : plugins).

thanks in advance.

2

Hi CodeMaker

Which platformare you deploying to, Windows or LInux ?

3

linux, my hosting is in Dreamhost

4

hmm, thanks for the reply.

my host does support ROR, i just didn’t know that i have to enable it
from
control panel to let it know about my application. i have shell access,
but
i don’t have a control panel, as i am using shared package from a local
distributor, may be he has the control panel access, i will ask him. my
host
also has FastCGI but it uses Apache server. ok lets see what can i do.

5

Dreamhost has a wiki that covers deployment of Rails apps. It’s not
easy…
there are lots of steps. Rails on Dreamhost is very possible and does
work
well for my small apps but it’s not as easy as deploying a Rails app to
a
machine under your own control.

6

Jalal J. wrote:

hi everyone, being new to ROR, i am facing some problem with
deployment.

i don’t know but going through various books and online tutorials, i
am feeling that deploying ROR application is not that easy.

It’s not hard at all, just a different paradigm from deploying PHP or
ASP.NET applications which really are self-contained files.

basically i use shared hosting where i get only a FTP, SMTP access.
This time i managed SSH access also. but restarting apache server or
modifying configuration files( for example httpd.conf) is not possible
for me. i think ROR application deployment is not that easy as copy
pasting the application folder. isn’t it be easy if the configuration
was project level rather than server level. in php or asp.net i just
need to copy the files without changing server behavior.

Ask your host if they support RoR. If they do, and if you’ve got a
control panel, then you should be able to flip a switch and say “This
directory is a Rails app. Go run it.” and it should fire up a Rails
application server.

If your host doesn’t support RoR and you don’t have shell access, then
you’re out of luck.

–
Roderick van Domburg
http://www.nedforce.com

7

I have two rails projects on dreamhost (nothing fancy or worth bragging
about) and they work… a little slow but they work.

Getting everything started took a lot of learning. I estimated over 50
hours
of time the first time through. I don’t have a programming background
and
everything had to be read through several times. I even used the wrong
user
login through ssh and the dreamhost support guy had to fix the
permissions
once.

That said my second project was up and running in about 45 minutes, not
including a few minutes to make a database and delete the old stuff that
was
on the domain.

My super simple instructions (meaning complicated unless you understand
a
bunch of other stuff):

create subdirectory or clean out an existing domain (rails likes to run
at
the root, it is easier this way)
make a database through the panel (this is several steps in reality)
ssh in as USERNAME
Create an empty app on their server with “rails DOMAIN NAME” in theory
this
gets some of the configuration stuff to match up with the way their
servers
are running
Next you move files up and edit a few things (I use Fetch FTP and can
edit
text files using Textmate with it) Changed the database configuration
changed environment.rb to production
FTP up everything in “app”
FTP up “vendor” if you have anything there
FTP up “public/images” and “stylesheets” delete the standard index.html
page
in there.
FTP up “db/migrate”
FTP up “lib”
edit the .htaccess .cgi to point to .fcgi
– At this point all your files are up on the server (unless I forgot
something)
run rake db:migrate to make your database
change the home directory for the site to “public” in the panel

From what I can remember this is fairly complete. I would welcome
additions
or corrections. The instructions to check out the DH wiki is a very good
idea.

Sunny