This is a simple Node.js application that can be instantly deployed on Heroku and provides an out-of-the-box experience for local development.
Once you've deployed this app on Heroku you can fetch the source for your deployed application by visiting https://download-heroku-source.herokuapp.com. After downloading the source simply run gulp or gulp.exe to download all of the necessary components, launch the local server, and run the Atom code editor.
This application uses the gulp build tool, making it easy start a local server, run the Atom code editor, and deploy changes to Heroku. The gulp build definition lives in the gulpfile.js file. The local server is powered by Express and the code to start the server and handle requests lives in the app.js file.
Gulp builds have tasks that can be run from the command line or via Atom (with the gulp-control package). This project has four tasks:
server - Starts the local Express server, automatically reloads it on changes to app.js, and notifies the LiveReload browser plugin
atom - Downloads the Atom code editor (if needed), installs the gulp-control and heroku-tools packages, and runs Atom
heroku-deploy - Deploys this app to Heroku
heroku-login - Logs into Heroku
The gulp.exe and gulp executables can be run from a UI file explorer by double-clicking in Windows or for Mac ctrl-click and then select Open. This runs the default gulp tasks atom and server causing Atom to be download and run, and the local server to be started. The command line can also be used with tasks specified as command parameters, for instance:
$ ./gulp server
With the local server up and running, check out the app in your browser: http://localhost:5000
Now in Atom (or your preferred code editor), edit the app.js file and change hello, world to hello, earthlings and refresh your browser. You should see your change.
Once you are ready to deploy your changes back to Heroku, you can use the heroku-deploy gulp task. Before running this task, it needs to know how to authenticate with Heroku and which Heroku application is being deployed.
The authentication info is stored in a $HOME/.netrc file. (Note: The Heroku command-line client also uses this file for authentication info.) To login via Atom, select the Heroku menu, then Login, and after you login the credentials will be stored for the heroku-deploy gulp task to use. To login from the command line run ./gulp heroku-login on Mac or gulp heroku-login on Windows.
The target Heroku application to deploy to can be set as a HEROKU_APP_NAME parameter in a .env file or the directory name for this project will be used. (Note: If you downloaded your source from https://download-heroku-source.herokuapp.com then the directory should already be named correctly.)
The heroku-deploy gulp task can be run from within Atom or from the command line. In Atom, select the Packages menu, then gulp-control, then Open, then click on heroku-deploy and the app will be deployed. Or from a command line run ./gulp heroku-deploy (Mac) or gulp heroku-deploy (Windows) to deploy the app.
If you are familiar with the git SCM tool then you can use Heroku's typical git workflow to deploy your changes. If you project is on GitHub then you can have Heroku deploy changes whenever you push them to Github.