Rails Sample App on OpenShift

Quickstart rails application for openshift.

The easiest way to install this application is to use the [OpenShift Instant Application][template]. If you'd like to install it manually, follow these directions.

OpenShift Considerations

These are some special considerations you may need to keep in mind when running your application on OpenShift.

Database

Your application is configured to use your OpenShift database in Production mode. Because it addresses these databases based on OpenShift Environment Variables, you will need to change these if you want to use your application in Production mode outside of OpenShift.

Assets

Your application is set to precompile the assets every time you push to OpenShift. Any assets you commit to your repo will be preserved alongside those which are generated during the build.

By adding disable_asset_compilation marker, you will disable asset compilation upon application deployment.

Security

Since these quickstarts are shared code, we had to take special consideration to ensure that security related configuration variables was unique across applications. To accomplish this, we modified some of the configuration files (shown in the table below). Now instead of using the same default values, your application will generate it's own value using the initialize_secret function from lib/openshift_secret_generator.rb.

This function uses a secure environment variable that only exists on your deployed application and not in your code anywhere. You can then use the function to generate any variables you need. Each of them will be unique so initialize_secret(:a) will differ from initialize_secret(:b) but they will also be consistent, so any time your application uses them (even across reboots), you know they will be the same.

Development mode

When you develop your Rails application in OpenShift, you can also enable the 'development' environment by setting the RAILS_ENV environment variable, using the rhc client, like:

$ rhc env set RAILS_ENV=development

If you do so, OpenShift will run your application under 'development' mode. In development mode, your application will:

• Show more detailed errors in browser
• Skip static assets (re)compilation
• Skip web server restart, as the code is reloaded automatically
• Skip bundle command if the Gemfile is not modified

Development environment can help you debug problems in your application in the same way as you do when developing on your local machine. However, we strong advise you to not run your application in this mode in production.

Modified Files

File	Variable
config/initializers/secret_token.rb	Railsapp::Application.config.secret_token
config/initializers/session_store.rb	Railsapp::Application.config.session_store

Manual Installation

1. Create an account at http://openshift.redhat.com/

2. Create a rails application

   rhc app create -a railsapp -t ruby-1.9
   

   Note: To support Ruby 1.8,

   +++ config/initializers/wrap_parameters.rb
   @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
    
     # Enable parameter wrapping for JSON. You can disable this by setting :format to an empty array.
      ActiveSupport.on_load(:action_controller) do
      -  wrap_parameters format: [:json]
      +  wrap_parameters ({:format => [:json]})
       end
   

1. Add database support to your application

  ```
  rhc cartridge add -a railsapp -c mysql-5.5
  ```

  or

  ```
  rhc cartridge add -a railsapp -c postgresql-9.2
  ```

1. Add this upstream Rails quickstart repository

  ```
  cd railsapp
  git remote add upstream -m master git://github.com/openshift/rails-example.git
  git pull -s recursive -X theirs upstream master
  ```

1. Push your new code

  ```
  git push
  ```

1. That's it! Enjoy your new Rails application!


[template]: https://openshift.redhat.com/app/console/application_types/rails

License
-------

This code is dedicated to the public domain to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, pursuant to CC0 (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)