Getting set up with node.js and Heroku

Source Tim Taylor

Resources

• GitHub
• NVM (Node Version Manager)
• NPM (Node Package Manager)
• Node
• Getting Started with Node.js on Heroku/Cedar
• Express - node web framework

1. Install NVM

NVM - Node version manager

• nvm will allow for switching versions of node and the packages installed with that version.
• Heroku pins the version of node at 0.4.7.
• Current version is 0.6.8

Pre-requisites

• git
• bash
• Xcode, gcc, or other C++ compiler

Install NVM https://github.com/creationix/nvm#readme

git clone git://github.com/creationix/nvm.git ~/.nvm

Add this line to ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile

. ~/.nvm/nvm.sh

2. Install Node v0.4.7

nvm install v0.4.7
# downloads and compiles Node
nvm alias default v0.4.7
nvm use v0.4.7
node --version
# v0.4.7

NOTE: If using Ubuntu and you get an error that OpenSSL is not installed or available, one solution that has worked is to install/reinstall OpenSSL prior to installing Node v0.4.7 using nvm.

sudo apt-get install libssl-dev

Install NPM

curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh

I needed to sudu the sh in order to write to usr/bin

curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sudo sh

2. Install Heroku CLI

Pre-requisites:

• Heroku account - https://api.heroku.com/signup
• Ruby

Download Heroku CLI

• http://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/node-js#local_workstation_setup

Login to Heroku. You only have to do this once.

heroku login

Clone Meetup project

git clone git://github.com/dennisburton/a2node-starter-heroku.git
cd a2node-starter-heroku

Install Node modules required for project

npm install

NPM installs dependencies for our project that are declared in package.json. Each time we add a dependency to package.json we will re-run npm install.

Run locally

foreman start
# 16:29:15 web.1     | started with pid 35445
# 16:29:15 web.1     | Listening on 5000

Visit http://localhost:5000/

4. Review Node.js Project Structure

a2node-starter-heroku
├── .git
│   ├── ...
├── .gitignore
├── Procfile
├── README.markdown
├── package.json
└── web.js

Excercise

• Change "Hello World" to "Hello, {You}", e.g. "Hello, node monkey"
• Restart foreman, see your change locally
• Commit your changes git add web.js git ci -m 'personalized greeting'

5. Deploy!

Create new Heroku app in your account. You do this once per app. Important: specifying Cedar is important. The original Heroku stack was Ruby only.

heroku create --stack cedar
# optionaly: heroku create --stack cedar friendly_app_name
# Creating sharp-rain-871... done, stack is cedar
# http://sharp-rain-871.herokuapp.com/ |

git@heroku.com:sharp-rain-871.git # Git remote heroku added

Check out the placeholder app:

heroku open

Deploy your code:

git push heroku master
# ...

Your app!

heroku open

6. A little front-end

Add in express.static(...) for static file serving.

Exercise

• Change Procfile to point to web.static.js
• restart Foreman and test out locally
• Change the message displayed and test locally
• Deploy to heroku
• test remotely