Difference between revisions of "CompostUs/DevTools"

OurWork

What (summary)

Integrate our dev boxes, aboutustest.org, and aboutus.org into a smooth process that allows development on multiple branches, test staging on aboutustest.org, and live beta staging on labs.aboutus.org

Why this is important

We need a place where users can try out new features before they get deployed on the live site. This is important for quality control and better communication between the DevelopmentTeam and their customers.

DoneDone

• branch create ... creates a new remote-tracking branch on nimbus
• branch retire ... retires the remote-tracking branch on nimbus
• branch stage ... on localhost
  • copies from www and checks out branch
  • databases branch_name_XXXX
  • dedicated compost
• rake db:populate ... populates the dev database with user accounts and dev content
• cap deploy ... specific to the branch
  • in the www branch, deploys to www.aboutus.org
  • in the labs branch, deploys to labs.aboutus.org
  • in taskXXX branch, deploys to taskXXX.aboutustest.org
• Describe how to import a cloned repository as a new branch

Steps to get to DoneDone

• Figure out how to detect the operating system uname
• figure out how to quit when there isn't an argument specified test string
• Branch the aboutusbot databases too
• Clean up the scripts so that the stages are more transparent (echos) and we can do one step at a time
• Change the locations to make more sense (/www/htdocs/branches and www/conf/branches)
• Put apache2.conf and branchtemplate.conf under version control (in the dev_tools repo)
• Make all of the commands accessible from the uber branch command
• Start using branches and cp -r rather than complete repositories
• Get it working to stage the live branch on Brandon's local machine
• stop the old apache, start the new one under /www
• make the new apache start by default
• explore /www and answer: where do sites live? where are the configurations files? How do we start/stop the server? How do we inspect php settings?
• make apache run the index.php file instead of showing its source
• make the localhost:phpmyadmin work
• inspect the database a new branch uses

A List of Current Problems

• auto load the site, via index.php
• "whosonline" template tag doesn't work correctly. It generates a database error.
  • the same goes for "shortrecentchanges" and "shortnewchanges" tags, sans db error.
• ImageMagick is not activated.

errors specific to railroad

• The skin won't save as default. LocalSettings? extensions/AboutUsSkin?
  • This is probably our skin resetter extension.
• The Search function doesn't seem to work correctly. Could be for all of till, not just railroad.
  • Search won't work without significant effort. Probably not worth is. 75.164.220.31 16:01, 4 September 2007 (PDT)