Deploy Rails to Heroku

Background

After developing a Rails app locally, the next step is to put it online. After developing a Rails app and previewing it locally on your computer, the next step is to put it online so others can see it. This is called deploying your app.

Heroku is a popular hosting service that is free to start using. Here’s how to deploy your Rails app to Heroku.

Instructions

1. Create a new Heroku account.

2. Install the Heroku Toolbelt on your computer.

3. In the terminal, log in using the email address and password you used when creating your Heroku account:

   $ heroku login
   
   

4. In Gemfile, add the pg gem to your Rails project. Change:

   gem sqlite
   
   

   to

   gem 'sqlite3', group: :development
   gem 'pg', '0.18.1', group: :production
   
   

5. In Gemfile, add the rails_12factor gem::

   gem 'rails_12factor', group: :production
   
   

6. In the terminal, install the gems specified in the Gemfile:

   $ bundle install
   
   

7. Ensure config/database.yml is using the postgresql adapter. Change:

   production:
     <<: *default
     database: db/production.sqlite3
   

   to

   production:
     <<: *default
     adapter: postgresql
     database: db/production.sqlite3
   

8. Commit your changes to git:

   $ git add .
   $ git commit -m "Heroku config"
   
   

9. In the terminal, create an app on Heroku:

   $ heroku create
   
   

10. Push your code to Heroku on the main branch:

    $ git push heroku main
    
    

Note: If you’re unable to push your code, you may have skipped a step or have a differently named branch. 11. If you are using the database in your application, migrate the database by running: bash $ heroku run rake db:migrate 12. If you need to seed your database with data, run: bash $ heroku run rake db:seed 13. Get the URL of your app and visit it in the browser: bash $ heroku apps:info In the output, copy the address in the Web URL field. Open a new tab in your browser, and visit your app.

Check out Heroku’s Rails docs for more information.