Rails - Jun 2006 - Best Approach to a ''Down for Maintenance'' Page?

What is the best way to implement a ''Down for Maintenance''
page across
your Rails app?

Ideally I would like to have a button in my admin section that toggles 
the display of a ''currently under maintenance'' page to every
public
request to the app (possibly with some dynamic content like estimated 
down-time)

except for: -
- requests from a specified IP address (so I could access the live site 
from while developing/debugging and use the site as normal while 
everyone else sees the ''down'' page)
- the admin section (so I''m not locked out!)

What is the best strategy to achieve this? I''ve been looking for stuff 
online but it''s fairly thin on the ground concerning this idea - by 
which I mean I can''t seem to find it :0)

Any ideas or advice very gratefully received,
Chris

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Chris,

I''d highly suggest you take a look at some of the Capistrano tasks for
this.  For example, you could take your site down to the public and  
still be able to do some administrative things, such as access the  
console and such.

I''m thinking specifically of the ''disable_web'' task. 
It can be found here:
http://manuals.rubyonrails.org/read/chapter/103#page279

Josh




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The ghetto/bootleg way to do it is just add a file called index.html to your
public directory...

On 15 Jun 2006 17:30:36 -0000, Joshua Schairbaum <
devlists-rubyonrails@devlists.com> wrote:
>
> Chris,
>
> I''d highly suggest you take a look at some of the Capistrano tasks
for
> this.  For example, you could take your site down to the public and
> still be able to do some administrative things, such as access the
> console and such.
>
> I''m thinking specifically of the ''disable_web''
task.  It can be found
> here:
> http://manuals.rubyonrails.org/read/chapter/103#page279
>
> Josh
>
>
>
>
> --
> Posted with http://DevLists.com.  Sign up and save your mailbox.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>


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> I''d highly suggest you take a look at some of the Capistrano tasks
for
> this.  For example, you could take your site down to the public and
> still be able to do some administrative things, such as access the
> console and such.
> 
> I''m thinking specifically of the ''disable_web''
task.  It can be found
> here:
> http://manuals.rubyonrails.org/read/chapter/103#page279
Josh,
Thanks for the link, and that''s certainly something I will investigate 
more, the problem with that is it seems to be dependent upon using 
Apache, whereas I am using Lighttpd (and would like to continue using if 
possible). Therefore I was hoping to develop a strategy/receipe that 
would just involve a basic rails app without recourse to plugins, gems 
or external scripts etc.

Will go and do some reading on capistrano though, might give some clues 
how to implement my own version.


Submimage,
Whilst this would work it wouldn''t block visitors with bookmarked
links,
or those following links from search engines - but yes it would work to 
a degree!


Thanks guys,
Chris

PS - Anyone else got any other suggestions?




-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Capistrano is webserver-agnostic. You might(?) have to modify the recipe 
to run lighttpd startup and shutdown commands, but Capistrano''s your 
friend either way as long as you''re serving off something Unixy.

Another way to redirect things might be a different routres.rb file for 
downtime, with pretty much everything mapped to your "Sorry" page. 
Capistrano would still be a super way to automate switching it in and 
out.

Chris wrote:
>> I''d highly suggest you take a look at some of the Capistrano
tasks for
>> this.  For example, you could take your site down to the public and
>> still be able to do some administrative things, such as access the
>> console and such.
>> 
>> I''m thinking specifically of the
''disable_web'' task.  It can be found
>> here:
>> http://manuals.rubyonrails.org/read/chapter/103#page279
> 
> Josh,
> Thanks for the link, and that''s certainly something I will
investigate
> more, the problem with that is it seems to be dependent upon using 
> Apache, whereas I am using Lighttpd (and would like to continue using if 
> possible). Therefore I was hoping to develop a strategy/receipe that 
> would just involve a basic rails app without recourse to plugins, gems 
> or external scripts etc.
> 
> Will go and do some reading on capistrano though, might give some clues 
> how to implement my own version.
> 
> 
> Submimage,
> Whilst this would work it wouldn''t block visitors with bookmarked
links,
> or those following links from search engines - but yes it would work to 
> a degree!
> 
> 
> Thanks guys,
> Chris
> 
> PS - Anyone else got any other suggestions?

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

On 6/15/06, Chris <chris@firegoby.com> wrote:
> PS - Anyone else got any other suggestions?
Just something I pulled out of my ... well ...  Regardless, what would
be the downsides/upsides to just setting a flag in a "configs" table
(or even hardcoded if you''re worried about speed) and using an
application "before_filter" to redirect based upon whatever
conditions?

before_filter :application_mode_redirect

def application_mode_redirect
  #test conditions
  #redirect to "currently down" notification if appropriate
  #pass-through for admins
end

I doubt the speed hit would be too bad...  If so you could "cache" the
check condition and only check it once every few minutes or
something....  :: shrug ::


-Curtis

>
> Thanks guys,
> Chris
>
> PS - Anyone else got any other suggestions?
>

Chris-

	You might be able to put a conditional before_filter in  
application.rb. Maybe something like this:


before_filter :check_for_maintenence

protected

def check_for_maintenence
    if File.exist? "#{RAILS_ROOT}/maintenence.html"
      return render( :file =>  "#{RAILS_ROOT}/maintenence.html")  
unless current_user.is_admin?
   end
end


	Of course that means that every hit to your app will always check  
for the maintenence.html page. File.exist? is pretty fast thouhg.  
Certainly faster then a database lookup. Then you would just need to  
make sure you have a current_user object setup and an is_admin?  
method to telkl whether the user is an admin or not. This way  
everyone else that hits the app will get the maintenence page expect  
the admin who will have normal access.


Cheers-
-Ezra

Couldn''t you just add something in your routes that would make all
requests go to the temporarily down page?  Then comment this out when
you wanted the site back live?

On Thu, 2006-06-15 at 12:39 -0700, Ezra Zygmuntowicz wrote:
> >
> > Thanks guys,
> > Chris
> >
> > PS - Anyone else got any other suggestions?
> >
> 
> 
> Chris-
> 
> 	You might be able to put a conditional before_filter in  
> application.rb. Maybe something like this:
> 
> 
> before_filter :check_for_maintenence
> 
> protected
> 
> def check_for_maintenence
>     if File.exist? "#{RAILS_ROOT}/maintenence.html"
>       return render( :file => 
"#{RAILS_ROOT}/maintenence.html")
> unless current_user.is_admin?
>    end
> end
> 
> 
> 	Of course that means that every hit to your app will always check  
> for the maintenence.html page. File.exist? is pretty fast thouhg.  
> Certainly faster then a database lookup. Then you would just need to  
> make sure you have a current_user object setup and an is_admin?  
> method to telkl whether the user is an admin or not. This way  
> everyone else that hits the app will get the maintenence page expect  
> the admin who will have normal access.
> 
> 
> Cheers-
> -Ezra
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

Charlie Bowman
http://www.recentrambles.com
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Ezra Zygmuntowicz wrote:
> 	You might be able to put a conditional before_filter in
> application.rb. Maybe something like this:
> 
> 
> before_filter :check_for_maintenence
> 
> protected
> 
> def check_for_maintenence
>     if File.exist? "#{RAILS_ROOT}/maintenence.html"
>       return render( :file => 
"#{RAILS_ROOT}/maintenence.html")
> unless current_user.is_admin?
>    end
> end
> 
Curtis & Ezra, Thanks very much to both of you, i think this proves 
great minds think alike since you both posted at the same time! This 
method looks like it''ll work a perfectly, I didn''t realise I
could do a
before_filter on application.rb - there''s an added bonus if using
Ezra''s
current_user idea since I wouldn''t have to enter my IP, just log in as 
admin''s equivalent of root and hack away! Though I suppose I would have
to design some kind of fail-safe in case I got diconnected and lost my 
session details.

Steve - I''m not all that up on capistrano, though it''s great
to know
that it''s webserver agnostic, having just learnt how to deploy rails 
apps the textdrive-by-hand method I''m a little apprehensive about 
learning another system (despite the amazing power of the thing) - 
though now I suppose I''ll have to add it to my to-learn list - is 
Capistrano quickly becoming the de-facto deployment system for rails? is 
it likely to be incorporated into the core? i.e. is it a
''must-learn'' or
more of a ''could-learn''?

Thanks to everyone for the awesome response, the community around rails 
is just fantastic!

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

On 6/15/06, Chris <chris@firegoby.com> wrote:

Chris,

TextDrive supports SVN repositories and Capistrano deployment.  I
would imagine most of the major RoR hosting companies are doing so.
It''s a little more difficult to learn how to use Capistrano if your
core development OS is Windows; but there are enough tutorials that
you can learn how to use it with your TextDrive account.  :)


-Curtis

P.S.  No problem.  I''m no expert, but I have fun with RoR.  I like to
contribute.  It''s either that or go flame people on the political
forums.  And while that''s fun too, it''s a different kind of
fun...heehee  :: cough ::

Curtis Spendlove wrote:
> TextDrive supports SVN repositories and Capistrano deployment.  I
> would imagine most of the major RoR hosting companies are doing so.
> It''s a little more difficult to learn how to use Capistrano if
your
> core development OS is Windows; but there are enough tutorials that
> you can learn how to use it with your TextDrive account.  :)
> 
yeah that was one of my fears, I''m stuck on windows unfortunately,
I''m
planning to move to mac on my next upgrade but was holding off until the 
Rev. B Intel laptops are out, at the current rate of annoyances with 
windows though I think I might get one of those mac mini things in the 
mean time
(I used to run linux but the lack of photoshop was killin'' me!)
> 
> P.S.  No problem.  I''m no expert, but I have fun with RoR.  I like
to
> contribute.  It''s either that or go flame people on the political
> forums.  And while that''s fun too, it''s a different kind
of
> fun...heehee  :: cough ::
Haha, funnily enough I *just* came from yelling on a political blog! A 
different kind of fun for sure but great after a day battling IE''s CSS 
implementation!

Thanks again :0)

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

> You might be able to put a conditional before_filter in
> application.rb.
I think this can also be done in lighttpd. See the "Power Magnet"
here:

  http://lighttpd.net/documentation/cml.html#power-magnet

...which is similar to that rewrite rule in Apache. This way, you
bypass your Rails app if maintenance is being performed.


--
Michael Daines
http://www.mdaines.com

Michael Daines wrote:
> I think this can also be done in lighttpd. See the "Power Magnet"
here:
> 
>   http://lighttpd.net/documentation/cml.html#power-magnet
> 
> ...which is similar to that rewrite rule in Apache. This way, you
> bypass your Rails app if maintenance is being performed.
Oh wow, thanks Michael, that''s very useful indeed (not just for 
maintenance but also as per their example of serving up thumbnails etc) 
- this looks great

Only trouble is now which method to use, the before_filter allows 
greater flexibility I would imagine but the lighttpd should be quicker, 
and it''s very easy to implement (which is always nice!)

Thanks very much Michael, I think I''m going to play around with some 
test apps tomorrow and see what happens, depending upon how I get on I 
might write up the results for a mini-guide for any future people with 
the same issue.

Cheers all :0)

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Using the magnet from lighttpd will require you to have the LUA
scripting language installed. It''s not always included in default
configs, so you might want to compile it yourself in.

I''m using a capistrano recipe described on my blog:
http://devblog.famundo.com/articles/2006/03/06/capistrano-aka-switchtower-and-security

It''s more secure than the disable web method, as the deploying user
doesn''t write anything into the server config.

I''m also using rewrite and aliasing in lighty to serve other static
info as the performance is just uncomparable to serving it with rails.
You can see that on my blog as well.

Last and not directly related, if you need SSL on lighty read my blog
post about it. The documentation is missing some stuff:
http://devblog.famundo.com/articles/2006/04/30/lighttpd-with-ssl

Bye,

Guy

On 6/15/06, Chris <chris@firegoby.com> wrote:
> Michael Daines wrote:
>
> > I think this can also be done in lighttpd. See the "Power
Magnet" here:
> >
> >   http://lighttpd.net/documentation/cml.html#power-magnet
> >
> > ...which is similar to that rewrite rule in Apache. This way, you
> > bypass your Rails app if maintenance is being performed.
>
> Oh wow, thanks Michael, that''s very useful indeed (not just for
> maintenance but also as per their example of serving up thumbnails etc)
> - this looks great
>
> Only trouble is now which method to use, the before_filter allows
> greater flexibility I would imagine but the lighttpd should be quicker,
> and it''s very easy to implement (which is always nice!)
>
> Thanks very much Michael, I think I''m going to play around with
some
> test apps tomorrow and see what happens, depending upon how I get on I
> might write up the results for a mini-guide for any future people with
> the same issue.
>
> Cheers all :0)
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

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