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One of the big disadvantages to using web frameworks like Rails or Django for open web applications is that the deployment is very tedious, at least compared wi

by kylec 16y ago

One of the big disadvantages to using web frameworks like Rails or Django for open web applications is that the deployment is very tedious, at least compared with something like PHP. Something that requires having root access to a *nix server and takes 25 steps to install is never going to be mainstream - you need something that a 13-year-old could put up on a shared hosting account (i.e. phpBB) to really get traction.

michaelchisari 16y ago
Yup. Appleseed is LAMP and built to work on shared hosts, and it installs in a few minutes. That was by design from the beginning. I considered using Python or Ruby at points, but PHP was the easiest way to satisfy those requirements
dazzawazza 16y ago
I deploy django+myapp+modules in to a virtualenv[1] without any permissions other than default user perms in a Unix box. The only 'tricky' bit is setting up the database, that requires more permissions (and for good reasons). It's completely possible to make to make it simple in any language. I agree with the point that currently the Diaspora installion instructions are a bit excessive though. [1]- http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv
- mcrittenden 16y ago
  But then you still leave the user responsible for getting the site up and running under mod_wsgi, etc., correct?
  - dazzawazza 16y ago
    yep, they can deploy via any modern web server but you're right I don't really have any control over that. I don't see the difference to PHP though, you still need to install PHP modules, additional php libraries (via PEAR maybe), set permissions etc.
diego 16y ago
Have you heard of Heroku? They were YC's largest exit to date largely due to solving exactly that problem! It doesn't get any easier than Heroku.
- michaelchisari 16y ago
  Heroku's great, but the cheapest plan they have is $36 a month. There are shared hosts out there that cost $1.99.
  - duck 16y ago
    Actually, their cheapest plan is $0 and it works great.
    - michaelchisari 16y ago
      Isn't that just for prototyping/development?
      - xiongchiamiov 16y ago
        That depends on your traffic. It includes one worker.
drdaeman 16y ago
You should be thankful the tutorial used pre-built Ubuntu packages and didn't include manual compiling. There should be simpler installation instructions with rvm. Or using Heroku. Or someone may provide pre-built EC2 images. I'm sure you could reduce those 25 steps to one-liner (although it would be cryptic). There are endless possibilities to automate the process, it's just that this exact article does everything by hand.

by kylec 16y ago

michaelchisari 16y ago

Yup. Appleseed is LAMP and built to work on shared hosts, and it installs in a few minutes. That was by design from the beginning. I considered using Python or Ruby at points, but PHP was the easiest way to satisfy those requirements

dazzawazza 16y ago

I deploy django+myapp+modules in to a virtualenv[1] without any permissions other than default user perms in a Unix box. The only 'tricky' bit is setting up the database, that requires more permissions (and for good reasons). It's completely possible to make to make it simple in any language. I agree with the point that currently the Diaspora installion instructions are a bit excessive though. [1]- http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv

mcrittenden 16y ago
But then you still leave the user responsible for getting the site up and running under mod_wsgi, etc., correct?
- dazzawazza 16y ago
  yep, they can deploy via any modern web server but you're right I don't really have any control over that. I don't see the difference to PHP though, you still need to install PHP modules, additional php libraries (via PEAR maybe), set permissions etc.

diego 16y ago

Have you heard of Heroku? They were YC's largest exit to date largely due to solving exactly that problem! It doesn't get any easier than Heroku.

michaelchisari 16y ago
Heroku's great, but the cheapest plan they have is $36 a month. There are shared hosts out there that cost $1.99.
- duck 16y ago
  Actually, their cheapest plan is $0 and it works great.
  - michaelchisari 16y ago
    Isn't that just for prototyping/development?
    - xiongchiamiov 16y ago
      That depends on your traffic. It includes one worker.

drdaeman 16y ago

You should be thankful the tutorial used pre-built Ubuntu packages and didn't include manual compiling. There should be simpler installation instructions with rvm. Or using Heroku. Or someone may provide pre-built EC2 images. I'm sure you could reduce those 25 steps to one-liner (although it would be cryptic). There are endless possibilities to automate the process, it's just that this exact article does everything by hand.