Super new to programming.
Anyway, let's say I have a script that does something simple, like tells you the number of words you typed into a box (upon hitting a submit button) written in Ruby using Sinatra.
If I wanted this text box to show up on a webpage, like mysite.com/simple_app how would I set that up?
I apologize for the super noob question, but I have no idea where to start with this.
I checked out this question (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9489803/how-to-turn-ruby-script-into-a-web-app) and since I already have working w localhost in Sinatra, I'm kind of wondering what's the next step.
I would very much recommend you try out Heroku.
As you're relatively new to programming, you don't want to mess with server stuff yet. Heroku handles most of the server configurations so you can focus more on your application.
It also offers a free account, with limitations of course. But it's very nice for beginners, compared to VPS solutions which normally cost 20 bucks a month.
Check out this great article on deploying apps with Sinatra and Heroku:
Sinatra + Heroku = Super Fast Deployment
And also how to deploy any Rack-based applications on Heroku:
Deploying Rack-based Apps on Heroku
If you want to just deploy it somewhere and don't want to mess about with servers, try pushing your Sinatra app to Heroku. They have some fairly comprehensive documentation to get you started.
If you have your own server, it's a bit more involved, although what you trade off for simplicity you gain in control. The simplest thing that would work would be to check out a working copy of your app on said server, then run it like you do on localhost.
Google ruby deployment. It's a bit of a minefield, although the options are much more attractive than they were 5 years ago. For the simplest thing(s) that work, do either of the above. For anything else, you're out there with the rest of us ;)
Related
i'd like to know what is the difference between heroku and openshift, for now i'm going to use the free package for my blog, i've noticed the openshift has more supported techs.
what about the limitation of each one of them
Both Heroku and OpenShift are open platforms.
Neither one has any 'lock in', so you can easily move your app in and out of each service with minimal hassle. They all use standard open source tools, and work as expected.
The main difference is ease of use. Heroku is quite a bit simpler to use that OpenShift. Heroku basically handles 100% of your application deployment. You basically write your code in a git repo, then say 'git push heroku master' and your code will magically be running on Heroku.
OpenShift, on the other hand, requires more work. It's not uncommon to setup and tweak your own web servers, infrastructure components, etc.
The honest answer is that you can't really go wrong either way. I've been using Heroku for years and love for both big and small apps, but OpenShift is fine as well.
I am a beginner trying to understand why do I or others need heroku or other cloud services for application development. I want to know for what sort of applications or scenarios, do we need heroku or similar services?
For example, if I am an application developer, I can write my application (windows or linux) on my machine, run and test it on my machine and then share it publicly on sourceforge.net or some other website for free or for some money. I mean all of us download and run applications and programs from all over the web e.g., notepad++ or skype. They come as binaries and we can install them on our machines easily. I want to know where Heroku or cloud comes into the picture and do I/we need it? and why?
Please let me know if you need more explanation.
Heroku and Other PaaS providers helps you in application deployment and gives hosting of your application and some other features like High availability, scaling, load balancing, monitoring and ready made environment to run your apps.
Now why they cost? PaaS providers runs your application on virtual instance and use some management and deployment tool in front of it to manage and monitor your application that taken care for you. Manging a server is not easy now a day for big application, you need a high level of expertise and enough time to monitor periodically(may be hours). If you go for free hosting, you will not get all these feature of PaaS. Again it's your choice. If you can't bear down time and any data lose, you should prefer PaaS else you can go for Free hosting.
First of all notepad++ is not an application users of which need to interact or share. So it is not a good choice for to give an example. Heroku and other cloud providers host cloud applications. Generally, these applications, as part of their nature, need scaling. And scaling requires more hardware. Setting up hardware to scale your application requires time, money and expertise, so it is expensive. Buying these as a service is more appropriate for most people. I would offer you to read about IAAS, PAAS, SAAS concepts to start.
For a beginner or an individual hobbyist, the charm of Heroku or a similar PaaS lies in the fact that Heroku (and others) do away with the complexity of building and deploying cloud/web/saas software.
A typical app developer just knows/needs to know about his/her app. That is it. Why should you have to worry about how many machines you need to run your app on or get charged for machine time when you are sipping coffee and your app isn't doing anything or you are just trying out new things and don't know if it works. You can just write code and push your app to Heroku (or other platforms like it) and let them worry about things like servers, availability and reliability of your app. Yes, you will need to make some simple choices but those are much simpler choices than planning for scalability or database backup. And like any software platform, you will learn with time as to what suits your needs best. You adjust your app and things work fine. And remember you pay only for what you use and that can go up or down when you do more or less with the platform.
Also, if your app turns out to be a really popular app and you need to scale the app to support your newly founded fame :), you can ramp up your infrastructure on the fly for some affordable price.
I'm new to RoR, so I understand that the way I should be deploying a rail app is using Passenger. But I've been unable to find a thread where someone did all their development using their webserver/host, it seems everyone develops their app locally, then deploys it. Is there a way to work and edit your rail app directly on the server it's going to be hosted on? I'm using Rubymine to work on my app. (I'm basically trying to see if there is a straightforward way that I can develop code side my app - upload to server, see the results keep developing)
Thanks for the help!
Usually, capistrano is used for such a task.
I've been reading about Node.js and doing some tutorials, and so far I'm liking it a lot, however I've been trying to find ways to implement it on an online server and so far I haven't found anything, is there any way to do this? Should it be installed the same way I installed it locally but on the online server?
Currently you need a VPS and setup Node like you would do it locally, you should also take a look at this article on how to make sure that your Node.js process runs all the time.
There are a couple of easy solutions coming up though:
Heroku, has announced a closed beta for Node.js support last April, but since then there haven't been any updates on the topic.
Joyent (which recently announced to support Node.js development) also has a closed beta at the moment, but it's full.
Last but not least, there's Nodejitsu, also in private beta at the moment, I don't have any further information on their status though.
As for when those three go public, no idea, but I guess Joyent will be the first to offer their service.
So, right now you'll have to go with the VPS solution and a hoster of your choice.
I am trying to find the best way to maintain a bug tracker and feature/upgrade requests for clients on web development projects. Ideally it would be an open source system we can have installed on a sub domain of our site.
This will then allow each client to login and add bugs/features/upgrade which we can hopefully keep track of.
I have been trying to use and implement trac but it just feels too "techy" and a little too complex for setup.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Shadi
UPDATE
Just to clarify, we do want a system to install on our servers, the trouble with trac is the install process in relation to what you get and how clients feel about it is a little poor. But if something is awesome but has a complex setup, that isn't a problem...
Mantis is another. Simple UI.
http://www.mantisbt.org/
If you have Linux boxes, trac is much easier to install. Config takes a bit, but wasn't a problem in my experience.
I've heard good things about FogBugz. :)
If you don't want to install it yourself they have a hosted solution also.
Have you taken a look a Bugzilla? Not sure if it meets all your needs but it is free but you can get paid support. It's an open source project AFAIK.