Launching Ruby on Rails projects: A checklist

Launching Ruby on Rails ApplicationsA CHECKLIST

Friday, July 24, 2009

Thanks Mark!

From our teamat Planet Argon, direct to you

Launching Ruby on Rails Applications

Best Practicesfor prepping your launch pad

Launching Ruby on Rails ApplicationsLaunching Ruby on Rails Applications

HOSTING

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HOSTING

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DATA HARVESTING

HOSTING

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DATA HARVESTING

FEEDBACK

HOSTING

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DATA HARVESTING

FEEDBACK

EXCEPTIONS

HOSTING

SEARCH ENGINES

DATA HARVESTING

FEEDBACK

EXCEPTIONS

PERFORMANCE

HOSTING

SEARCH ENGINES

DATA HARVESTING

FEEDBACK

EXCEPTIONS

PERFORMANCE

CLIENTS

HOSTING

SEARCH ENGINES

DATA HARVESTING

FEEDBACK

EXCEPTIONS

PERFORMANCE

CLIENTS

Have your cake and eat it too!

Checklist

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Watch for it on my blog: http://robbyonrails.com

1200+ respondents

More information at http://rails-hosting.com

Before we begin...

Working on your first Rails project?

Have you launched at least one Rails app?

2-5 Rails apps?

2-5 Rails apps?more than 5?

How many Ruby on Rails applications have you deployed?

SURVEY SAYS...

1-5 47%

None4%

Don’t wait until the last minute!

lots of topics

hosting

data harvesting

marketing

visual design

development

project managementinteraction design

quality assurance

client management

tracking errors

user feedbackpublic relations

teamwork

browser testing

testing code

search engine optimization

planning

brainstormingetc.

lots of topics

hosting

data harvesting

marketing

visual design

development

project managementinteraction design

quality assurance

client management

tracking errors

user feedbackpublic relations

teamwork

browser testing

testing code

search engine optimization

planning

brainstormingetc.

Launching Ruby on Rails ApplicationsHosting

Automate DeploymentsFriday, July 24, 2009

CHECKYOUR LIST

Create reusable tasks to release

new versions of the application.

Do you use an automated deployment tool?

SURVEY SAYS...

Yes77%

That means nearly one in four are still...

Manually uploading source code via FTP or SFTP

SSHing into the server

Manually running migrations

Manually restarting their application

Don’t Repeat Yourself!

Minimize Human Error

Knowledgeable Team

Make time to test deploymentsFriday, July 24, 2009

Know how to ROLLBACK when necessary

Testing gives your team confidence!

Hire a specialist who knows their stuff

CHECKYOUR LIST

Make sure your team knows how to test,

deploy & rollback when necessary.

Setup a Staging EnvironmentFriday, July 24, 2009

Practicein your production environment

Brand new Rails App

Deploy to staging!

Sign contractSetup git repositoryGenerate new Rails app

TIPFROMROBBY

Keep your application deployable at all times!

(Not just releasable)

Staging site to the rescue!Friday, July 24, 2009

Test the water...

... before diving in!Friday, July 24, 2009

Keep out the Peeping TomsFriday, July 24, 2009

HTTP Basic Authentication

Test your scheduled tasks... in a real hosting environment

Create a deployment guideFriday, July 24, 2009

TIPFROMROBBY

Put configuration files in Git

TIPFROMROBBY

Have a backup strategy!

CHECKYOUR LIST

Set up a staging environment as soon as the project is started.

Monitoring Your AppFriday, July 24, 2009

Do you use monit or god for server side monitoring?

SURVEY SAYS...

Other4%

God13%

Monit26%

Mongrel

memcached

backgroundDrb

Use Server Monitoring Tools for...

delayed_job

CHECKYOUR LIST

Setup monit or god.

“Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

Do you use any uptime monitoring tools in production?

SURVEY SAYS...

Other12%

Pingdom10%

Nagios18%

Use Client Side Monitoring Tools

do it yourself?

EXTRACREDIT!

Use Cucumber to test in production

EXTRACREDIT!

!Automate your deployments!Setup a staging environment!Server-side monitoring!Client-side monitoring

Be cool & confident... use best practices

Search Engines

<h1>Write Good Markup</h1>

<li>Page Titles</li>

<li>Permalinks</li>

<li>Important Elements</li>

Page titles are used in search results

Permalinks?

URLs are part of the UI

Use markup to create structure

Search bots like structure.

<h1>Get in Touch</h1>...

<h2>Visit Us</h2>...

<img src=”studio.jpg”

alt=”Planet Argon Studio” />

<a href=”/who-we-are”

title=”Who We Are”>...</a>

I see possible issues with AJAX

and Javascript

Search engines may not be able to access some content

Degrade Gracefully

Create an XML Sitemap

Automate the generation of your sitemap

Notify these guys when you have an updated sitemap

Google Webmaster Tools

Sign up for...

Data Harvesting & Analytics

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Identify your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

What are some example KPIs?

Example KPIs

• Page views (per day / per visit)

Example KPIs

• Newsletter subscriptions

Example KPIs

• Successful orders

Example KPIs

• Abandoned shopping carts

Example KPIs

• Abandoned shopping carts

• Homepage bounce rate

Collect & Segment

Sign up for Google Analyticsand make sure your Clients have access

Setup your primary conversion goals

Usage testingnot the same as Usability testing

Crazyegg

CrazyEggHeatmaps and usage patterns

Clicktale

ClicktaleScreencasts of real visitors on your site

Look for patterns

Get rid of the guesswork

Test your ideas

Data Harvesting

DataDataLaunching Ruby on Rails Applications

User Feedback

Who is responsible for responding to

feedback?

User VoiceCustomers vote on ideas

TenderCreate a support center

zendeskSupport tool for small companies

GetSatisfactionMake it easy for your users to send you feedback

Exceptions

Do you catch and track Application Exceptions in production?

SURVEY SAYS...

Yes69%

exception_notification

http://github.com/rails/exception_notification/tree/master

hoptoad

Exceptional

Default

500Friday, July 24, 2009

Helpful 404 Page

Helpful 500 Page

Performance

Page load is king

Google Page Speed

Benchmark against staging

Do you use any performance monitoring tools in production?

SURVEY SAYS...

Yes36%

FiveRuns

New Relic

Is your source code efficient?

are the database queries efficient?

Are your database queries efficient?

are the database queries efficient?

Are your database queries efficient?missing indexes?

What are your slowest controller actions?

negatively impacting our KPIs?

What are your slowest controller actions?

TIPFROMROBBY

Use data to drive your optimization efforts

Stop guessing!

Clients Holding their hands

Be a coachFriday, July 24, 2009

manage expectations

TIPFROMROBBY

Make sure you are managing your client’s

expectations

Launch is the starting lineFriday, July 24, 2009

On-going maintenance is a necessity

Budget for a reliable hosting solution

Be ready on Launch Day

Celebrate!Friday, July 24, 2009

Celebrate!

Share some champagne...

...or Scotch. ;-)Friday, July 24, 2009

Have a plan ready forthe road ahead

Analyze your KPIsKeep up on user feedbackPush out bug fixes early and often

Summary

Let’s do a quick review

CHECKYOUR LIST

Don’t postpone preparation until

the end

CHECKYOUR LIST

Keep your application

deployable at all times

CHECKYOUR LIST

Pace yourself

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Prepare for the unexpected

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Solve the right problems

Have Fun.

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Have fun!

Thank you

Where’s Robby?

• blog: http://robbyonrails.com

• company: http://planetargon.com

• twitter: @robbyrussell

• email: robby@planetargon.com

PLANET ARGONDESIGN // DEVELOPMENT // DEPLOYMENT

More information at http://planetargon.com

Launching Ruby on Rails projects: A checklist

database queries

slowest controller

manually running

user feedbackpublic

rails applicationsa

search engine

project managementinteraction

rails applicationslaunching

Technology

Ruby On Rails - 2. Rails Introduction

BCR Ruby on Rails - Boston Computing Review : Ruby on Rails

Ruby Beyond Rails

Ruby + Rails

Formação Ruby & Redu :: Ruby on Rails

Ruby e Rails

Ruby (on Rails)

Ruby de Rails

Java, Ruby & Rails

Chinaon Rails Free Ruby Rails Books

Ruby (on Rails)

Ruby over Rails

Ruby On Rails - 3. Rails Addons

Ruby&Rails For Rails Side

Ruby Rails Overview

Ruby versus Rails