#jimmydev

I use ssh identities to manage the ssh key pairs for pushing things up to bitbucket. Thus I only have to set up the key pair for a particular project once and then every subsequent time I push i just do git push This is super common, I’m not bragging. But, because I only do this once per project and I’m still new enough that I’m not starting projects all the time, I frequently forget the exact steps to set things up.

First off, make sure you’re using the right version of Ruby etc. My system is very particular because I have some configuration headaches that I just haven’t had the time and wherewithal to cure yet. So, for me, it’s important to run rvm use system right before I start my new project. This tells rvm to use the ‘system’ versions of Ruby and Rails (which on my system is the one that’s headache-free). You might use rbenv or some other system, but just do a little up-front checking to avoid configuration hell.

Next, generate that new project. Super simple rails g new project_name Check the rails guides if you need any help there.

Now, even before running any sort of scaffolding, you should initialize git and set up the remote repository.

git init ##always makes me think “gettin’ it!”

git add -A

git commit -m “initialize project” ## Feel free to change the message if you like. 

Here’s where we need to set up the remote repository, which I do through the bitbucket website interface. Log in at BitBucket.org. Navigate to Repositories > create repository. Give it a name and hit create. 

I have a single key that I use for most things. This will likely change when I have more serious projects, but for now I just use that one. If you haven’t done so yet, add yourself an SSH key. these instructions might help.

With the SSH key set up ahead of time, you still need to tell the ssh agent to use that key. Do ssh-add -l. If your key is somehow there already then you’re good to go. if not, do  ssh-add ~/.ssh/your_id where “your_id” stands for the SSH identity you want to use.

If that all works with no errors, we’re almost there. BitBucket suggests this sequence of commands for the initial push:

cd /path/to/my/repo

git remote add [email protected]:JDenman6/delete_me.git

git push -u origin --all # pushes up the repo and its refs for the first time`

git push -u origin --tags # pushes up any tags

Been a while between posts. I’ll have to work on that. Anywho, I’ve been struggling a bit with integrating APIs into my rails projects. There are lots of details to work out. There’s usually at least a little bit of new syntax. The biggest problem I’m hitting right now, though, is that when things go wrong --  and things will go wrong -- I’m not getting helpful error messages. Usually the error message reads “Something went wrong.” Not my favorite three words.

And that’s enough of the complaining for this post.

So here’s a couple helpful hints. 1) for an omniauth tuorial, the best I’ve seen to date is Chris Oliver’s GoRails tutorial here: https://gorails.com/episodes/omniauth-twitter-sign-in

That’s the first one I’ve gotten to actually work when it get’s to the point in the tutorial where the teacher says “And now when we refresh it should just work.” Super helpful, step by step guide to adding Omniauth to a fresh project. He gets into a fair amount of stuff that I had been missing. 

He gets into how and why to use either the `secrets.yml` file or system configuration to store credentials. My take so far is to use `secrets.yml` to hold secrets in development and `heroku config` to hold secrets in production. Security tip: always add `secrets.yml` to `.gitignore`.

Another brilliant thing from Chris Oliver’s tutorial is to raise a test exception when your working on an API to stop and look at where things are in the code, step by step. This is a technique I learned during my AppAcademy days but managed to fall out of the practice of using it while following the Hartl Rails tutorial (which is wonderful and helps you get through it by spoon feeding you all the code).

WARNING - I am a novice and I just tried this trick this morning. Safety not Gauranteed.

Yesterday I had lots of problems with dependency issues while trying to use `rails generate` commands. Found a solution this morning by running `rvm use system` this switched my ruby version to the system installed version. No big secret there (although I wish I could tell that to myself yesterday at noon). The trick I just did was to set my rvm default to system using `rvm -- default use system`.

I stayed up too late last night playing boardgames with friends, so I’ve been tired and frayed all day today. It sure was fun last night though :)

And I haven’t wasted the day, either. Tanya and I had a little scheduled time to talk about our upcoming wedding, discuss details, and get started on some of the to do items. Its a little stressful, but not too bad. We’re trying to do a little bit every weekend starting today. Tanya’s working on the save-the-dates and I’m working on our wedding website. 

Here’s the plan. I’ll build a wedding website that will let us display information for our guests and help us track RSVPs and such.

I’m going to stick close to the design of the Hartl Rails tutorial app, but diverge in a few important ways. I’m abandoning the micropost concept for now (although I will likely do something very similar for a guestbook feature as the website transitions to digital wedding scrapbook). I’m going to start off with static pages that display important information. Then I’m going to add users with Devise. As part of the user creation I’m going to add an optional field for an RSVP code. The RSVP codes will be sent out in the invitations. If a user adds an RSVP code, it will check with the user that they are who we think they are and update our RSVP records. 

Another idea I’d like to save for later is that I might add a QR code to the invitations that would bring guests right to their RSVP record. It would be a link with their RSVP code baked in. That’s sparking a lot of ideas, but I think there’s some other stuff to worry about before we get to that.

Quick note - to check what ENV (environment) variables you have set up for production in your heroku app use the command:

heroku config

It will show you all the variables you’ve set up so far. To set (or reset) a variable use this command:

heroku config:set

To check a specific variable use:

heroku config:get VAR_NAME (where VAR_NAME == the variable you’re interested in)

To get rid of an existing variable, use

I’m going to follow my own advice (and the advice I’ve heard from those whose footsteps I’m following) and get back to telling my story. After leaving AppAcademy, I was sort of sore and embarrassed. I knew I should have kept up with this blog, but I didn’t. Now, I’m putting together a talk on the importance of sharing your story for the Software Quality Group of New England and the podcasts I’ve been listening to have mentioned a few times how helpful it is to keep a blog. So I’m getting back to it. Hopefully, this will be equal parts journal and technical notes. So enough with the journal...

Stuff I learned recently:

you can build your own SSL certificates - https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/ssl-certificate-self

Restart a Heroku app from the command line with heroku restart -a example_app This only works if you type in the app's name. You can't just do it from within the project on your local machine. Which is good in case you accidentally enter the command from the wrong terminal window.

OmniAuth seems to be the way to do third party authentication. More on that as I get it to work.

Devise seems to be the way to set up custom authentication and authorization quickly and with less hassle. Note - if you're a beginner reading this - DO learn to build Devise (or at least the type of Auth it builds) before using Devise.

Questions I have

How to set up my environment so that dev/test use a port 3000 callback for third party authentication while production uses the actual site. Shouldn't be too dificult, but I haven't bothered to look yet

Plans for the near future

I want to set up the wedding site with Devise and get the static pages set up.

I want to set up an SSL certificat for SleepyOcean, get the authentication through third parties working, and refactor down to a single session#create action. (right now I'm hacked into a session#my_create to keep the original Auth working)