This is what i’ve got so far
Tip#1: How to get to a Production lobsters clone:
- git branch 'clone_name' && git checkout 'clone_name'
- read through the readme, and follow those steps
- bundle with sphinx and mysql commented out (for now)
- delete indices folder (or add to .gitignore)
- change the domain name in application.rb
- add .env file to track envirionment variables
- sort out .gitignore (add .env, comment out secret.rb, unicorn config)
- create a secret token, store in .env
- create a config/unicorn.rb file
- disable https/ssl (to test in production)
...
- get a domain, set that up
...
- get an SSL cert, re-enable SSL
- add sphinx back, for search
deploy to heroku with: git push heroku clone_name:master
to avoid pushing normal lobsters to your heroku app
this way you can pull any changes to the lobsters codebase, and then rebase your clone_name to the updated master branch
questions i have so far:
How do users create new tags on the website? I’m able to do this from the console, but can’t figure it out on the submit story form
I briefly went through this a few months ago, but haven’t had time to revisit it yet. If you’re doing heroku, you’ll run into the following issues assuming the codebase nor heroku hasn’t significantly changed since ~Nov2013:
Heroku rails apps still only work with postgres, not really mariadb/mysql
The lobsters source (back in nov. 2013) used some mariadb/mysql specific calls, I sorta tried to fix them here to work on postgres/heroku: https://github.com/seltzered/journaltalk and did a bit more details on it here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12427648/mysql-to-postgres-conversion/19624041#19624041 , but the code there is pretty much at your own risk. We ended up setting up a DO instance for future work.
More heroku-ish stuff:
3- If you want to use sphinx on heroku, you can use the thinking-sphinx heroku add-on. I think the cost is ~10/month
4- For ssl on heroku, you’ll also need to setup an ssl endpoint.
tl;dr - double check on point #1 before really trying to use lobsters on heroku. And feel free to prove me wrong on this stuff, I haven’t been doing rails much these days.
what broke under postgres? at the very least, i’ve got the site to boot, and basic use cases seem to work fine (submitting a story, voting)
sphinx is just off for now, no point in having search for a brand new site that’s tiny
SSL should probably be on, we’ll need to get a cert before we launch
thanks for the tips, and the link btw
What are you trying to create another lobster clone for?
I’d assume they want to use it for something other than tech news.
I, for example, have opened a lobster clone for Russian developers https://develop.re/
that’s a great domain name
We have a small dev community in Hawaii, and we deployed our own lobster clone because we wanted a place to share and discuss links/events. We also wanted something we could customize a bit (so that ruled out reddit, also reddit is generally too public for the type of discussion we wanted), so rather than NIH another link-sharing site we started with the lobsters codebase.