WarpSpeed Ruby Rails Sample Application
Rails is a high-level Ruby Web framework. WarpSpeed makes it incredibly easy to deploy Rails and other Ruby based projects. This guide will help you get up and running with Rails and WarpSpeed.
Each of the WarpSpeed sample projects is a simple "To Do" list. All of the projects, regardless of language or framework, have the same basic functionality. If you are new to a particular language or framework, just compare the code to a language example that you are familiar with and you will be able to catch on quickly. A preview of the deployed project is show below:
Vagrant Development Environment
This guide assumes that you are using the WarpSpeed Vagrant development environment. Doing so will help you follow best practices and keep your development and production environments as similar as possible.
Throughout this guide commands will need to be run either from within your Virtual Machine (VM) or your local machine environment (outside the VM). Each set of commands will be clearly marked regarding where they should be run. Anytime you need to access your WarpSpeed Vagrant VM, perform the following:
# RUN THESE COMMANDS ON YOUR LOCAL MACHINE
# open a terminal and cd to your warpspeed-vagrant directory
cd ~/warpspeed-vagrant
# make sure your VM is running
vagrant up
# SSH into your VM
vagrant ssh
Fork and Clone the Sample Project
The best way to begin using this project is to fork the repository to your own GitHub account. This will allow you to make updates and begin using the project as a template for your own work. To fork the repository, simply click the "Fork" button for this repository.
Once you have forked the repository, you can clone it to your development environment or use pull-deploy to deploy it directly to a server configured with WarpSpeed.io.
To clone the repository to your local machine (not in your VM), perform the following:
# RUN THESE COMMANDS ON YOUR LOCAL MACHINE
# access your Sites directory
cd ~/Sites
# clone the forked repository, specifying a name for the directory
git clone git@github.com:YOUR_USERNAME/ruby-rails-sample.git warpspeed-rails.dev
Create a Database
The sample project uses a MySQL database. This can easily be swapped with an SQLite or PostgreSQL database. To create a MySQL database and user with WarpSpeed, do the following:
# RUN THESE COMMANDS IN YOUR VM
# run the db creation command
warpspeed mysql:db tasks_db tasks_user password123
# you will be prompted for the mysql root database password. It is "vagrant".
This will create a database named "tasks_db" along with a user, "tasks_user", that has access via the password "password123". Feel free to change the values to suit your needs (hint: perhaps choosing a better password would be wise).
Create a WarpSpeed Site
We need to create the appropriate server configuration files to run the site. To configure Nginx and Passenger, perform the following:
# RUN THESE COMMANDS IN YOUR VM
# run the site creation command
# notice that --force is used because the site directory already exists
warpspeed site:create ruby warpspeed-rails.dev --force
Install Ruby and Gemfiles
Ruby is not installed natively, but through the ruby environment you can specify and install the proper version of ruby. All of the needed dependencies listed in the Gemfile can then be installed with the bundler.
To install ruby and gemfiles, perform the following:
# RUN THESE COMMANDS IN YOUR VM
# make sure you are in the home directory
cd ~/
# install ruby 2.4.1
# expect this to take several minutes...
rbenv install 2.4.1
# make sure you are in your project directory
cd ~/sites/warpspeed-rails.dev
# set the local ruby version to 2.4.1
rbenv local 2.4.1
# use the bundler to install gemfiles
bundle install
Configure your App Settings
The Rails app needs certain configuration settings that are sensitive, such as an application secret key and your database credentials. These should not be stored in GitHub for obvious reasons. To avoid this, you can use environment variables that get referenced in your app settings. The sample app comes pre-configured this way, so all you need to do is add some new variables into your ruby environment.
# RUN THESE COMMANDS IN YOUR VM
# make sure you are in the correct directory
cd ~/sites/warpspeed-rails.dev
# if you need a new secret key, you can use rake to get a new random key
rake secret
# create the file for the environment variables
nano .rbenv-vars
# add the following lines
DB_NAME="tasks_db"
DB_USER="tasks_user"
DB_PASS="password123"
SECRET_KEY=YOUR_SECRET_KEY_HERE
# save and exit
Now all of your application's environment variables will be available so you can do things like run migrations, etc.
Run Migrations
We need to create the required tables in the database. With ruby, we can just load the schema instead of running migrations (though running migrations is still possible). To do so, perform the following:
# RUN THESE COMMANDS IN YOUR VM
# make sure you are in the proper site directory
cd ~/sites/warpspeed-rails.dev
# load the schema into the database
rake db:schema:load RAILS_ENV="production"
# if you get a ProtectedEnvironmentError
rake db:schema:load RAILS_ENV="production" DISABLE_DATABASE_ENVIRONMENT_CHECK=1
If the schema is not loaded successfully, it is likely that you have not configured your environment with your database credentials. Please see the "Configure your App Settings" section above for details.
Add a Hosts File Entry
To access your new Rails site, you will need to add an entry to the hosts file on your machine (not in your VM). To do so, perform the following:
# RUN THESE COMMANDS ON YOUR LOCAL MACHINE
# open a terminal and run the following command (for Mac)
sudo nano /etc/hosts
# using git bash or similar, must be run as admin (windows)
notepad /c/Windows/System32/Drivers/etc/hosts
# using command prompt, must be run as admin (windows)
notepad C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
# add a line that looks like this to the end of the file
192.168.88.10 warpspeed-rails.dev
# save and exit
Now, whenever you access "warpspeed-rails.dev" in your web browser, you will be directed to your Rails site within your VM.
Restart your Site and Celebrate
Finally, we need to reload the site configuration to make all of the changes we made take effect. Perform the following:
# RUN THESE COMMANDS IN YOUR VM
# reload the site configuration
warpspeed site:reload warpspeed-rails.dev
Now, you can access http://warpspeed-rails.dev on your machine to view the site.
Troubleshooting
If you have issues and need to troubleshoot, you should view the Nginx log file or the Rails logs for clues. To do so, perform the following:
# RUN THESE COMMANDS IN YOUR VM
# to view the Nginx log file
sudo nano /var/log/nginx/error.log
# to view the Rails log file
sudo nano ~/sites/warpspeed-rails.dev/log/production.log
License
This sample project is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.