How to deploy "Day Log App" in Heroku

• projects • php • laravel • notes • heroku • deployment • daylogapp

The Day Log App is currently hosted by Heroku. This article will show the steps I performed in order to successfully deploy the application.

Table of Contents

Deploy existing project to Heroku

The steps to deploy to Heroku are still the same except for the initial Laravel project creation.

The following are the commands I used and their resulting logs during my actual run through as additional reference.

Create Heroku application

Create Procfile

> echo web: vendor/bin/heroku-php-apache2 public/ > Procfile
> git add .
> git commit -m "Profile for Heroku"

This Procfile should contain something similar to:

web: vendor/bin/heroku-php-apache2 public/

Initialize application

> heroku create
Creating app... done, ⬢ your-app-name
https://your-app-name.herokuapp.com/ | https://git.heroku.com/your-app-name.git

Set APP_KEY variable

> heroku config:set APP_KEY=$(php artisan --no-ansi key:generate --show)
Setting APP_KEY and restarting ⬢ your-app-name... done, v3
APP_KEY: base64:<APP_KEY>

push source to Heroku

> git push heroku master
Counting objects: 854, done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (783/783), done.
Writing objects: 100% (854/854), 819.50 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
Total 854 (delta 507), reused 0 (delta 0)
remote: Compressing source files... done.
remote: Building source:
remote:
remote:  !     Warning: Multiple default buildpacks reported the ability to handle this app. The first buildpack in the list below will be used.
remote:             Detected buildpacks: PHP,Node.js
remote:             See https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/buildpacks#buildpack-detect-order
remote: -----> PHP app detected
remote: -----> Bootstrapping...
remote: -----> Installing platform packages...
remote:        - php (7.1.3)
remote:        - ext-mbstring (bundled with php)
remote:        - apache (2.4.20)
remote:        - nginx (1.8.1)
remote: -----> Installing dependencies...
remote:        Composer version 1.4.1 2017-03-10 09:29:45
remote:        Loading composer repositories with package information
remote:        Installing dependencies from lock file
remote:        Package operations: 34 installs, 0 updates, 0 removals
remote:          - Installing doctrine/inflector (v1.1.0): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing erusev/parsedown (1.6.1): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing jakub-onderka/php-console-color (0.1): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/process (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/polyfill-mbstring (v1.3.0): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing psr/log (1.0.2): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/debug (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/console (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/translation (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing nesbot/carbon (1.22.1): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing vlucas/phpdotenv (v2.4.0): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/css-selector (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%
remote:          - Installing tijsverkoyen/css-to-inline-styles (2.2.0): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/var-dumper (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/routing (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/http-foundation (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/event-dispatcher (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/http-kernel (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing symfony/finder (v3.2.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing swiftmailer/swiftmailer (v5.4.6): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing paragonie/random_compat (v2.0.9): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing ramsey/uuid (3.5.2): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing mtdowling/cron-expression (v1.2.0): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing monolog/monolog (1.22.1): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing league/flysystem (1.0.35): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing laravel/framework (v5.4.15): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing facebook/webdriver (1.3.0): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing laravel/dusk (v1.0.10): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing nikic/php-parser (v3.0.5): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing jakub-onderka/php-console-highlighter (v0.3.2): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing dnoegel/php-xdg-base-dir (0.1): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing psy/psysh (v0.8.2): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing laravel/tinker (v1.0.0): Downloading (100%)
remote:          - Installing laravelcollective/html (v5.4.1): Downloading (100%)
remote:        Generating optimized autoload files
remote:        > Illuminate\Foundation\ComposerScripts::postInstall
remote:        > php artisan optimize
remote:        Generating optimized class loader
remote:        The compiled services file has been removed.
remote: -----> Preparing runtime environment...
remote: -----> Checking for additional extensions to install...
remote: -----> Discovering process types
remote:        Procfile declares types -> web
remote:
remote: -----> Compressing...
remote:        Done: 27.5M
remote: -----> Launching...
remote:        Released v4
remote:        https://your-app-name.herokuapp.com/ deployed to Heroku
remote:
remote: Verifying deploy... done.
To https://git.heroku.com/your-app-name.git
 * [new branch]      master -> master
Manage branches

The current Git branch during the deployment above was performed in master. master -> master simply referes to the Git master branch pushed to the Heroku master branch.

However if you wish to use another branch then the output will be similar to:

To https://git.heroku.com/your-app-name.git
 * [new branch]      your_custom_branch_name -> master

I used a different branch in this case because the local and production have different configurations (mainly in the database connection settings). This is a convenient way to separate Heroku-related changes from the rest of the source code.

In order to do this, git push heroku master should not be used; instead use:

git push heroku <your_custom_branch_name>:master

NOTE: The content of https://git.heroku.com/your-app-name.git is the same as the branch where the code was pushed

Migrate database

Once the source code has been pushed, we can visit its URL provided in the logs. For example:

remote: -----> Launching...
remote:        Released v4
remote:        https://your-app-name.herokuapp.com/ deployed to Heroku
remote:
remote: Verifying deploy... done.

If we visit https://your-app-name.herokuapp.com we will be greeted by the following page:

Laravel Heroku 404 page

This is because we do not have the database set up yet. Heroku’s free database add-on ClearDB was used to perform the set up.

Add ClearDB to your application

> heroku addons:create cleardb:ignite
Creating cleardb:ignite on ⬢ your-app-name... free
Created cleardb-angular-25571 as CLEARDB_DATABASE_URL
Use heroku addons:docs cleardb to view documentation

Get database URL

> heroku config | grep CLEARDB_DATABASE_URL
CLEARDB_DATABASE_URL: mysql://<username>:<password>@<host_name>/<database_name>?reconnect=true

Set database URL

Just set the value of CLEARDB_DATABASE_URL in:

heroku config:set DATABASE_URL='CLEARDB_DATABASE_URL'

This should result to:

> heroku config:set DATABASE_URL='mysql://<username>:<password>@<host_name>/<database_name>?reconnect=true'
Setting DATABASE_URL and restarting ⬢ your-app-name... done, v6
DATABASE_URL: mysql://b5de37b05f01e6:a2bafc81@us-cdbr-iron-east-03.cleardb.net/heroku_1d6b4ea8b701a5e?reconnect=true

Now we have a registered Heroku database.

Migrate Laravel migrations

Set database configuration

We need to parse the variable CLEARDB_DATABASE_URL and set it to our database configuration file. In config/database.php, add the following before the return line:

$url = parse_url(getenv("CLEARDB_DATABASE_URL"));

$host = $url["host"];
$username = $url["user"];
$password = $url["pass"];
$database = substr($url["path"], 1);
Run command

Our migration is now ready. Just perform:

> heroku run php /app/artisan migrate
Running php /app/artisan migrate on ⬢ your-app-name.. up, run.9914 (Free)
**************************************
*     Application In Production!     *
**************************************

 Do you really wish to run this command? (yes/no) [no]:
 > yes

Migration table created successfully.
Migrated: 2014_10_12_000000_create_users_table
Migrated: 2014_10_12_100000_create_password_resets_table
Migrated: YYYY_MM_DD_HHMMSS_create_daylogs_and_tasks_tables

Congratulations! Now you can use the Day Log App in Heroku.

Miscellaneous

Rename application

Heroku provides randomly-generated names for its application. We can change this by executing:

> heroku apps:rename your-new-app-name
Renaming your-old-app-name to your-new-app-name... done
https://your-new-app-name.herokuapp.com/ | https://git.heroku.com/your-new-app-name.git
Git remote heroku updated
 ▸    Don't forget to update git remotes for all other local checkouts of the app.

This will update both the local and deployed URLs of your application.

View content of database

There is no native online feature in Heroku to see the content of our database similar to phpMyAdmin (as far as I know). Fortunately there are other ways to achieve this as explained in the ClearDB dashboard page.

Just go to the “Overview” tab of your project and click the “ClearDB MySQL” link under the “Installed add-ons” panel.

Heroku "Installed add-ons" panel

On the page we will see the following message [Alternative reference]:

Managing Your Databases

If you want to manage the tables, data and other settings in your ClearDB database, we recommend that you use commonly known Graphical tools such as Oracle’s MySQL Workbench, Sequel Pro for Mac OS X, or Navicat. You can also use any of the bundled MySQL tools, such as the mysql and mysqldump command-line utilities.

Just use one of those tools compatible to your system and refer to the structure of the generated ClearDB URL:

mysql://<username>:<password>@<host_name>/<database_name>?reconnect=true

Resolve “max key length” error

This is an optional step.

During my first migration I did not encounter any problems but after that this particular one occurred multiple times and I cannot trace what could have caused it because I did not make any changes in related codes and deployment steps.

Whenever I execute the migrate command, I get this exact message:

[Illuminate\Database\QueryException]
  SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1071 Specified key was too long; max key
   length is 767 bytes (SQL: alter table `users` add unique `users_email_unique`(`email`))

The working solution in my case is to override the default maximum string length in app\Providers\AppServerProvider.php:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

public function boot()
{
    Schema::defaultStringLength(191);
}

This occurs on < 5.7.7 MySQL databases because of a change in character set. The documentation has an explanation for this issue.

References

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