Monday, January 21, 2008

Four steps to deployment

Here are the things I need to do to deploy the 0.5 app on my shared hosting provider:
  • Install Capistrano and get it working
  • Upgrade my application stack to Rails 2.0
  • Switch my app from a subdirectory deep within another CVS module to its own Subversion module
  • Move the app to Dreamhost
But what order should I tackle this in? My temptation is to try deploying to Dreamhost via Capistrano, since I'm eager to get the app on a production server. Fortunately for my sanity, however, I read part of Cal Henderson's Building Scalable Websites this weekend. Henderson recommends using a staging site. While he probably had something different in mind, this seems like a perfect way to isolate these variables: get Capistrano scripts working on a staging location within my developent box, then once I really understand how deployment automation works, then point the scripts at the production server.

As for the rest, I'm not really sure when to do them. But I will try to tackle them one at a time.

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