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



HOSTING

SEARCH ENGINES



HOSTING

SEARCH ENGINES

DATA HARVESTING



HOSTING

SEARCH ENGINES

DATA HARVESTING

FEEDBACK



HOSTING

SEARCH ENGINES

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

CHECKYOUR LIST

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


http://robbyonrails.com



1200+ respondents

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


http://rails-hosting.com

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...

5+38%

1-5 47%

110%

None4%

Q.


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...

No23%

Yes77%

Q.


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







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...

No57%

Other4%

God13%

Monit26%

Q.


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...

No60%

Other12%

Pingdom10%

Nagios18%

Q.


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>

<ul>

<li>Page Titles</li>

<li>Permalinks</li>

<li>Important Elements</li>

</ul>

<p>Hire a UI guru!</p>


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

BOOM!


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


CHECKYOUR LIST

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...

No31%

Yes69%

Q.


exception_notification

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




hoptoad


Exceptional



Default

404

Default

500Friday, July 24, 2009

Helpful 404 Page


Helpful 500 Page



Performance


Page load is king


YSlow


Google Page Speed


Benchmark against staging


Do you use any performance monitoring tools in production?

SURVEY SAYS...

No64%

Yes36%

Q.


Scout


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


CHECKYOUR LIST

Prepare for the unexpected


CHECKYOUR LIST

Solve the right problems


Have Fun.

CHECKYOUR LIST

Have fun!


Thank you


Where’s Robby?

• blog: http://robbyonrails.com

• company: http://planetargon.com

• twitter: @robbyrussell

• email: [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]



http://planetargon.com


mailto:[email protected]

PLANET ARGONDESIGN // DEVELOPMENT // DEPLOYMENT

More information at http://planetargon.com




Date post:	19-Oct-2014
Category:	Technology
View:	27,024 times
Download:	1 times

Launching Ruby on Rails projects: A checklist

Technology