rails

CloudFront with an S3 Origin

2014-11-10

In a previous post, I covered how to setup CloudFront as an asset host for a Rails application using the same site as the origin. It is also possible to use an S3 bucket as the origin. The easiest way I know of to make this work with Rails is to use the asset_sync gem. …

Web Fonts with CloudFront

2014-11-09

In my last post, I may have been a little cavalier when I said it is a “no-brainer” to use CloudFront to serve assets for your Rails application. In truth, there are a few issues that can make things more complicated. One of those is the ability to serve web fonts. …

Using CloudFront to Speed up your Rails Application

2014-11-06

Update: November 9, 2014. A few people asked me how to handle serving web fonts using CloudFront. I created a new post here that covers a few options. Moving your static assets (images, css, javascripts, etc.) to a Content Delivery Network is a quick, easy, and impactful win for the performance of your Rails application. CDNs are designed to distribute your content to multiple geographic locations and to serve it up to your users in the most optimal way possible. Using a CDN also lets you reduce the number of requests your web servers need to handle. This is especially important when you are hosted on platform like Heroku. …

Automated Rails Deployments with Jenkins and Capistrano

2014-10-27

Continuous integration and continuous deployment are two important elements of building successful web applications. Frequently merging code together and running automated tests tends to result in a healthier code base and improves the ability and speed in which a development team can release features and fix bugs. And, by automating the deployment process, you can ensure that your team can deploy confidently and quickly. In this post, I am going to summarize a quick way to achieve a simple continuous deployment workflow for a Rails application using Capistrano and Jenkins. …

11 Capistrano Plugins To Simplify Your Rails Deployments

2014-10-12

The Rails deployment story has improved dramatically since the early days, but it can still be challenging. Compiling assets, running migrations, achieving zero-downtime deployments, and load balancing your application servers are some of the tasks that you’ll want to handle as part of your deployment strategy. Many deployment processes still tend to be a mixture of automation and manual work. The goal is to have a fully automated, repeatable and fast deployment process. Sounds simple on paper, but as many of us already know, this process is time consuming, error prone and has the tendency to make you want to rip your hair out or throw your keyboard out the window. …