**Course Title:** Ruby Programming: From Basics to Advanced Techniques **Section Title:** Deployment and Best Practices **Topic:** Preparing a Rails application for production As we approach the final stages of our Rails application development, it's crucial to ensure that our application is production-ready. In this topic, we will cover the essential steps to prepare a Rails application for production. ### 1. Environment Configuration Before deploying our application to production, we need to configure our environment settings. In Rails, we have three environments: development, test, and production. Each environment has its own configuration file in `config/environments/`. * `development.rb`: Configuration for the development environment. * `test.rb`: Configuration for the test environment. * `production.rb`: Configuration for the production environment. To configure our production environment, we need to update the `production.rb` file. We can customize settings such as: * `config.cache_classes`: Set to `true` to cache classes in production. * `config.eager_load`: Set to `true` to eager-load Rails modules in production. * `config.consider_all_requests_local`: Set to `false` to disable detailed error pages. * `config.action_controller.perform_caching`: Set to `true` to enable caching in controllers. Example: ```ruby # config/environments/production.rb Rails.application.configure do config.cache_classes = true config.eager_load = true config.consider_all_requests_local = false config.action_controller.perform_caching = true end ``` ### 2. Database Configuration In production, we need to configure our database settings. We can do this by updating the `database.yml` file. Make sure to set the correct database adapter, host, username, and password. Example: ```yml # config/database.yml production: adapter: postgresql encoding: unicode host: localhost database:_production_database username: production_username password: <%= ENV['PRODUCTION_DATABASE_PASSWORD'] %> ``` ### 3. Securing Credentials In Rails 5.1 and later, we use the `credentials.yml.enc` file to store sensitive data such as database passwords and API keys. Make sure to add the necessary credentials for your production environment. Example: ```yml # config/credentials.yml.enc production: database_password: <%= ENV['PRODUCTION_DATABASE_PASSWORD'] %> api_key: <%= ENV['PRODUCTION_API_KEY'] %> ``` ### 4. Optimizing Asset Pipeline In production, we need to optimize our asset pipeline by compiling and compressing our assets. We can do this by running the following command: ```bash rails assets:precompile ``` This command will compile and compress our assets, making them ready for deployment. ### 5. Bundle Configuration Make sure to update your `Gemfile` and `Gemfile.lock` to reflect the production environment. You can do this by running the following command: ```bash bundle install --without development test ``` This command will install the necessary gems for the production environment and update the `Gemfile.lock`. ### 6. Logging and Monitoring In production, it's essential to set up logging and monitoring to track errors and performance issues. We can use tools like [PaperTrail](https://github.com/paper-trail-gem/paper_trail) for logging and [New Relic](https://newrelic.com/) for monitoring. Example: ```ruby # config/environments/production.rb Rails.application.configure do config.paper_trail.enabled = true config.newrelic.enabled = true end ``` ### Conclusion Preparing a Rails application for production involves several steps, including environment configuration, database configuration, securing credentials, optimizing asset pipeline, bundle configuration, and setting up logging and monitoring. By following these steps, we can ensure that our application is production-ready and scalable. **What to do next:** * Review the [Rails documentation](https://guides.rubyonrails.org/) for more information on preparing a Rails application for production. * Set up a staging environment to test your application before deploying to production. * Explore different deployment options, such as Heroku, AWS, and DigitalOcean. **Leave a comment or ask for help:** If you have any questions or need further clarification on any of the topics covered in this section, please leave a comment below. Our instructors will respond to your query as soon as possible. In the next topic, we will cover **"Deployment options: Heroku, AWS, DigitalOcean"**, where we will explore the various deployment options available for Rails applications.