Part 0 (B): Preparation: deploy to the cloud

RottenPotatoes stores its movies in a database, so deploying it means running your code on a cloud host and giving that host a production database. The instructions below cover two platforms: Render first, then Heroku at the bottom of this page. Follow the one you were told to deploy on.

For CHIPS 5.3, you will need to complete the deployment to your own individual app, not your team app. Even if you are pair programming, you should complete a deployment on your own.

Render

Render deploys from GitHub: you connect your repo once, and every later push to the branch you chose rebuilds and redeploys the app. If you don’t have an account yet, sign up at https://render.com with your GitHub account, which connects your repos in the same step.

Render will deploy from main, which is also the branch Parts 1-3 merge your work into, so the production configuration below belongs on main too. First commit the work you already have on your branch (you probably have a change in the db folder):

git status # make sure you're on your new branch
git add [..] # stage the updated files
git commit -m [..] # write a message
git push origin <YOUR_BRANCH>

Then switch to main to make the two edits that follow:

git checkout main

Point the production database at PostgreSQL

As in “Hello Rails”, production on Render means PostgreSQL rather than the SQLite database you develop against. The pg gem is already in the :production group of your Gemfile, but config/database.yml still points production at a local SQLite file, which will fail on Render. Replace its production: section at the bottom of the file with:

production:
  adapter: postgresql
  pool: <%= ENV.fetch("RAILS_MAX_THREADS") { 5 } %>
  url: <%= ENV['DATABASE_URL'] %>

DATABASE_URL is the connection string Render hands your app; you’ll set it in the dashboard below.

Add a build script

Render’s free tier gives you no production terminal, so migrations and seed data have to run during the build phase, which happens every time you push. Create a file bin/render-build.sh containing:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# exit on error
set -o errexit

bundle install
bundle exec rails assets:precompile
bundle exec rails assets:clean

bundle exec rails db:migrate
# Seed only when the table is empty, so redeploys don't duplicate the movies
bundle exec rails runner 'Rails.application.load_seed if Movie.count.zero?'

Make the script executable:

chmod +x bin/render-build.sh

Generate your app’s credentials

Rails signs the session cookie that Part 3 relies on with a secret called secret_key_base, and it refuses to boot in production without one. Your app doesn’t have one yet, so generate it now (substitute your preferred editor for nano):

EDITOR=nano bundle exec rails credentials:edit

That creates two files and opens the new credentials in the editor. Save and exit without changing anything (in nano: Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X); Rails has already filled in a random secret_key_base for you.

  • config/credentials.yml.enc holds your encrypted secrets, and your app can’t boot in production without it, so commit it.
  • config/master.key is the key that decrypts them. It is already listed in .gitignore and must never be committed. You will paste its contents into Render instead.

Now commit and push all three changes:

git add config/database.yml bin/render-build.sh config/credentials.yml.enc
git commit -m "Configure the production database, Render build, and credentials"
git push origin main

Create the database and the web service

  1. Log in to the Render Dashboard, click New + at the top right, and select Postgres.
  2. Give it a Name (e.g. chip-5-3-YOUR_NAME), choose the Free plan, and click Create Database.
  3. Once its status is “Available”, find the Connections section and copy the internal connection URL: the one whose label starts with “Internal” and whose value starts with postgresql://. Do not use the external one.
  4. Back on the dashboard, click New +, select Web Service, and connect the GitHub repo for this assignment.
  5. Fill out these settings:
    • Name: chip-5-3-YOUR_NAME (this becomes part of your public URL, https://<name>.onrender.com)
    • Language: Ruby
    • Branch: main
    • Build Command: ./bin/render-build.sh
    • Start Command: bundle exec rails server
    • Instance Type: Free
  6. Under Environment Variables, add these two:
    • DATABASE_URL = the internal connection URL you copied in step 3
    • RAILS_MASTER_KEY = the contents of your local config/master.key, which is the one line of text in that file. Unlike Heroku, Render won’t supply a secret for you, and Rails won’t boot in production without one.
  7. Click Deploy Web Service.

Render now clones your repo, runs your build script (installing gems, precompiling assets, migrating and seeding the database), and starts the app with Puma. Follow along in the build logs; when the service goes Live, open the https://<name>.onrender.com URL shown at the top of its page. If a build fails because you forgot to push a file, push the fix, or use the Manual Deploy drop-down and choose Clear build cache & deploy.

Note: free Render services spin down after 15 minutes of inactivity, and the first request after that takes about a minute to answer. That is normal, not a broken deploy, but do warm your app up before a demo or a submission.

From here on there is no separate deploy command: pushing to main is the deploy. Run git checkout <YOUR_BRANCH> to get back to your feature work.

Note: don’t proceed past this point until you are able to complete the above successfully, or you won’t be able to receive a grade for this assignment!

Heroku

If you were told to deploy on Heroku rather than Render, follow this section instead of the Render one above.

Initial Heroku Deployment

Log in to your Heroku account by typing the command: heroku login -i in the terminal. Provide your berkeley.edu (or approved alternative) email but when it asks for a password, instead you must find your API Key from the bottom of the Account Settings page on Heroku. Copy and paste this value in for the password.

For CHIPS 5.3, you will need to complete the Heroku deployment to your own individual Heroku app, not your team app. Even if you are pair programming, you should complete a deployment on your own. We have created a Heroku app for you based on your email address, and it can be found by running the heroku apps command in your shell:

heroku apps -t esaas # "esaas" is the name of the Heroku team your app is in

Find the name of your personal app, then use it in the commands below. We’ll add Heroku to your git repo as a remote named heroku, as we have done in the past, so you can deploy to the app.

heroku apps:favorites:add -a <HEROKU_APP_NAME>
heroku git:remote -a <HEROKU_APP_NAME>

A “stack” is a term that describes the operating system and default software that you application is running on. Heroku has a large set of stacks you can select from. In this case, heroku-24 includes the right versions of rails.

If you haven’t yet made a commit to your new branch, do that now (you probably have a change in the db folder):

git status # make sure you're on your new branch
git add [..] # stage the updated files
git commit -m [..] # write a message

Now, push your current branch to the Heroku remote’s main branch:

git push heroku <YOUR_BRANCH>:main

(You may see the following warning the first time - it’s fine. Answer “yes”, and in the future you shouldn’t see it anymore:)

The authenticity of host 'heroku.com (50.19.85.132)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 8b:48:5e:67:0e:c9:16:47:32:f2:87:0c:1f:c8:60:ad.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
Please type 'yes' or 'no':

Is the app running on Heroku? If you navigate to the heroku URL that is printed above the blue text at the end of the results from git push heroku master you’ll get a “We’re sorry, but something went wrong.” error in the browser.

As with the previous assignment “Hello Rails”, heroku logs tell us that the movies table doesn’t exist. So, as before, run the initial migration and import the seed data:

heroku run bundle exec rails db:setup
# or, if that doesn't work:
heroku run bundle exec rails db:migrate
heroku run bundle exec rails db:seed

Since you’re starting from a fresh Heroku app, the deployment should have detected your Postgres dependency and added the Postgres addon for you. If not, though, you’ll get an error from the rake commands, and you should attach the addon manually:

heroku addons -a <HEROKU_APP_NAME> # make sure the postgres addon doesn't already exist
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql -a <HEROKU_APP_NAME> # if necessary

Now you should be able to navigate to your app’s URL.

Note: don’t proceed past this point until you are able to complete the above successfully, or you won’t be able to receive a grade for this assignment!

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