What you’ll need

Make sure you have a git repository setup for your rails application so that you can deploy your app

Installing Capistrano

Now that our server is setup we can install capistrano. Logout of your server in go inside your local application folder. Once inside run

gem install capistrano

After you have installed the capistrano gem lets capify our rails project. This will create a couple of files for us but the one that we’re most interested in is the deploy.rb file.

capify .

Open the deploy.rb file and add in your server and git information.

set :application, "appname"
set :repository, "git@github.com:username/appname.git"

set :scm, 'git'

set :user, 'usernameyousetupforserver'
set :branch, "master"

set :git_shallow_clone, 1
set :use_sudo, false
set :deploy_to, "/path/public/#{application}"
set :deloy_via, :remote_cache
set :keep_releases, 1
set :rails_env, "production"
set :migrate_target, :latest

default_run_options[:pty] = true
ssh_options[:forward_agent] = true


role :web, "xx.xxx.xx.xxx" # Your HTTP server, Apache/etc
role :app, "xx.xxx.xx.xxx" # This may be the same as your `Web` server
role :db, "xx.xxx.xx.xxx", :primary => true # This is where Rails migrations will run


 namespace :deploy do
   task :start do ; end
   task :stop do ; end
   task :restart, :roles => :app, :except => { :no_release => true } do
     run "#{try_sudo} touch #{File.join(current_path,'tmp','restart.txt')}"
   end
 end

 namespace :deploy do
   desc "Recreate symlink"
   task :resymlink, :roles => :app do
     run "rm -f #{current_path} && ln -s #{release_path} #{current_path}"
   end
 end

After you have setup your information above run the following

cap deploy:setup
cap deploy
cap deploy:check

The above will setup the necessary files then deploy your application and finally check to see if you’ve encountered any errors while deploying.

Now visit your server ip address and you should see a working version of your rails application. This tutorial just covered the basics but there will be more to keeping your server secure and managing it. If you’re looking for more resources beyond this tutorial check out railscasts or peepcode.

Installing Mysql

Since we have rails and ruby setup lets install mysql. If you would like to use postgresql skip this part in go down below.

sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client libmysqlclient-dev

Now install the mysql2 gem for rails

gem install mysql2

Installing Postgresql

Now that we have ruby and rails installed we can install postgresql. First lets install the python software properties.

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties

Next well add the backports and repo and update apt

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pitti/postgresql
sudo apt-get update

Next we’ll install postgresql

sudo apt-get install postgresql-9.1 libpq-dev

Apache & Passenger

Now that you have your database setup we can finally install Apache and passenger which is what we’ll be using to power our server.

sudo apt-get install apache2 libcurl4-openssl-dev apache2-prefork-dev \
                     libapr1-dev libaprutil1-dev

Next we will install the passenger gem

gem install passenger

Now we’re ready to install the Passenger Apache2 module which will setup our server files etc.

passenger-install-apache2-module

After the installation is complete you will need to add in the three lines of code from the installation into your passenger.load file. After you have pasted the code into the file press cmd + x and Y to save the file.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-available/passenger.load

Here is the 3 lines of code. Do not copy below, just for example

LoadModule passenger_module /home/yourusername/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/
    passenger-3.0.5/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
PassengerRoot /home/yourusername/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/passenger-3.0.5
PassengerRuby /home/yourusername/.rvm/wrappers/ruby-1.9.2-p180/ruby

Now lets enable the passenger module

sudo a2enmod passenger

Next we will setup a virtual host for our website.

sudo vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/appname

Then well add our server and site information into the file.

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName xx.xx.xx.xx
  DocumentRoot /home/yourusername/appname/public
  <Directory /home/yourusername/appname/public>
    AllowOverride all
    Options -MultiViews
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Now lets disable the default Apache page and enable our website

sudo a2dissite default
sudo a2ensite appname

Now reload your web server and go to your ip and you should see a blank white screen.

<sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

In part 3 of this tutorial we will deploy our rails application with capistrano.

What well be using

• Ubuntu 10.04
• RVM
• git
• Ruby 1.9.3
• Rails 3.2.4
• Mysql / Postgresql

What you’ll need

Linode Vps
Rackspace Cloud

Setup server

Now since you are aware of the tools that we’ll be using, lets begin setting up our server from scratch. When you are all signed into your hosting account setup a new ubuntu 10.04 lts(Lucid Lynx) server. If you are using rackspace then I would start with the 256mb of ram(you can scale if needed). After you have picked your server and have setup a root password we will begin logging into the server via ssh and the terminal.

Open your terminal and type root@ your ip address for your server. A prompt should ask if you would like to save key. Yes is the answer.

ssh root@xx.xx.xxx.xxx

Now that your logged into the server lets create a new user so that you are not logged in as root for everything. It will ask for you to enter a password for that user. Enter the password then press enter to skip full name etc.

adduser yourusername

Now that our user account is setup we need to allow our user to install programs but not as root. Open the sudoers file.

sudo nano /etc/sudoers

Scroll down to bottom and add your username. Press CMD + X & y to save.

# User privilege specification
yourusername ALL=(ALL) ALL

Now that we have our user created(though we’re still logged in as root) we can stop people from trying to brute-force our root password and take over out account.

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Look for the line that has “PermitRootLogin” and change it from yes to no. Now lets restart the server.

/etc/init.d/ssh restart

Then logout of your server as root

logout

Now that we are all logged out, lets login using our new user credentials. Connect to the server using ssh

yourusername@xx.xx.xxx.xxx

Installing rvm

After successfully logging in as the new user let;s update the software on the server.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Now we’ll install git so that we can install rvm, ruby, and other dependencies that we may need.

sudo apt-get install git-core

Next we’ll install rvm

curl -L get.rvm.io | bash -s stable

Then run source so we will not have to exit terminal.

source ~/.rvm/scripts/rvm

Type code below, if working correctly it will return “RVM is a function”

type rvm | head -n1

Now that rvm is setup let’s install ruby dependencies

sudo apt-get install build-essential bison openssl libreadline6 \
                     libreadline6-dev curl git-core zlib1g zlib1g-dev \
                     libssl-dev libyaml-dev libsqlite3-0 libsqlite3-dev \
                     sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt-dev autoconf libc6-dev \
                     ncurses-dev

Installing ruby & rails

Now we’re ready to install ruby. This will take a while

rvm install 1.9.3

Now set ruby 1.9.3 as default

rvm --default use 1.9.3

Ruby is now setup now we will need to install rails. Install the current version of rails at the time of this tutorial rails 3.2.4 is in style .

gem install rails -v3.2.4

Before moving on make sure ruby and rails are installed in that you’re using the correct version and that they are both installed.

ruby --version
rails --version

Adding a firewall

Now lets install a firewall so we’re not easily venerable to outsiders. For this tutorial I will use Uncomplicated Firewall – UFW, which is a firewall for our ubuntu server.

sudo apt-get install ufw

Now lets setup the rules for our firewall

sudo ufw default deny
sudo ufw allow ssh
sudo ufw allow http
sudo ufw enable

Now lets check our rules to see if port 22, and 80 are open to the internet

sudo ufw status

For more information on ufw check out this article, which tells you how to setup a firewall.

In Part 2 of the next tutorial we will setup mysql, apache, and get our web server up and running.

Joy Ride from Sandro on Vimeo.

Install gem

First things first, open your gemfile located in your rails root directory then add the following to your gemfile. Though this tutorial is fairly new I recommend checking the latest version to see where rmagick is currently at.

gem 'rmagick', '2.13.1'

Install Homebrew

When getting your mac you notice mac’s come without tons of programs which means you have to install them manually. After you have added rgmagick to your gemfile go to homebrew homepage.

Open your terminal and add the following code:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/gist/323731)"

After running the above command run this command. Should start installing imagmagick this take a bit of time.

brew install imagemagick

Permission issues

If you get an error in rails saying

Errno::EACCES: Permission denied - /Users/path
An error occured while installing rmagick (2.13.1), and Bundler cannot continue.
Make sure that `gem install rmagick -v '2.13.1'` succeeds before bundling.

Go to the path where rmagick is(gems folder) and pull the folder to your desktop then create a new folder with the same name and finally copy the content from the first folder to your newly created folder. After you have successfully done so you should now have full permission. Finally go into your terminal and run bundle install command and everything should work from there. Happy coding!

My story

As as front end developer I tend to write an abundant amount of HTML and even more css. When I used to write code as a young developer I tend to put all of my styling properties anywhere and did not have a style for my css stylesheet. If you’re wondering what I mean by that I am referring to my sloppy code writing in css. Since my css code was not well organized I used css tidy software’s to tidy my css code and boom there it was, nice clean code. As time evolved I started getting into css3. After working with css3 for 1.5 years I loved it and it was amazing. As usual I would have sloppy css code just because I am lazy sometimes when writing it and do not feel like having everything neat. So what do I do? I return to my good old pal css tidy. I insert my code into the css tider and what do you know. It does not recognize some of my css3 syntax. I’m sure you have had prior experience with something like this. So there I was stuck, thinking to myself what can I do? I did not want to go through over 2000 lines of css code and re-arrange it all.

The Solution

If you’re reading this line first you probably could care less about what I have to say and would like to just get to the solution. Nothing wrong with that !

So if you’re a web developer you often used a tool called firebug. If you’re are not familiar with firebug it is a debugging tool that saves you a ton of time when developing websites since you can real time edit and it is just a cool plugin all around.

So once you have firebug installed right click>>Inspect element then select the css tabs. Now you will see your css in a neat and nicely formatted way.

So the next time you’re writing css and you have sloppy or messy code just open up firebug and re-copy your css. Also the benefit of doing it this way is if you’re using css3 it will not remove your web properties so that is awesome. The downfall is it adds things like scroll to your code but you could remove that with ease. If this method helps let me know by leaving a comment below.

First Solution

If you’ve evered worked with wordpress you probably have not worked with the walker el function. The walker el function for WordPress allows you to use a description text or alt text for your WordPress menu items.

For the code below you can copy and paste it into your functions.php file. You can change the class nav-description to what ever you would like.

add_filter('walker_nav_menu_start_el', 'bg_description_in_nav_with_qtranslate', 10, 4);
function bg_description_in_nav_with_qtranslate($item_output, $item, $depth, $args){
$desc = __($item->post_content); return preg_replace('/(<a.*?>[^<]*?)</', '$1' . "<span class="nav-description">{$desc}</span><", $item_output);
}

Second Solution

The second solution is a bit more but you have more customization over your menu nav(That is if you’re looking for more options).

Copy and paste the code below into your functions.php file. If you do not know what you’re doing do not tamper with the code below or else it can cause errors.

class My_Walker extends Walker_Nav_Menu
{
	function start_el(&$output, $item, $depth, $args) {
		global $wp_query;
		$indent = ( $depth ) ? str_repeat( "t", $depth ) : '';

		$class_names = $value = '';

		$classes = empty( $item->classes ) ? array() : (array) $item->classes;

		$class_names = join( ' ', apply_filters( 'nav_menu_css_class', array_filter( $classes ), $item ) );
		$class_names = ' class="' . esc_attr( $class_names ) . '"';

		$output .= $indent . '<li id="menu-item-'. $item->ID . '"' . $value . $class_names .'>';

		$attributes  = ! empty( $item->attr_title ) ? ' title="'  . esc_attr( $item->attr_title ) .'"' : '';
		$attributes .= ! empty( $item->target )     ? ' target="' . esc_attr( $item->target     ) .'"' : '';
		$attributes .= ! empty( $item->xfn )        ? ' rel="'    . esc_attr( $item->xfn        ) .'"' : '';
		$attributes .= ! empty( $item->url )        ? ' href="'   . esc_attr( $item->url        ) .'"' : '';

		$item_output = $args->before;
		$item_output .= '<a'. $attributes .'>';
		$item_output .= $args->link_before . apply_filters( 'the_title', $item->title, $item->ID ) . $args->link_after;
		$item_output .= '<br /><span class="sub">' . $item->description . '</span>';
		$item_output .= '</a>';
		$item_output .= $args->after;

		$output .= apply_filters( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', $item_output, $item, $depth, $args );
	}
}

Now that you have the function in your functions.php file you now have to call it via your header.php file. Copy and paste the code below into your header.php file.

$walker = new My_Walker;
	wp_nav_menu(array(
	        'echo' => true,
		'container' => '',
		'theme_location' => 'primary',
		'menu_class' => 'grid-10 omega',
		'walker' => $walker
	));

Conclusion

If you were looking into adding text under your menu navigation then the above code should work for you. As for styling you will have style it yourself but that shouldn’t be very hard. If you’re haveing trouble check out this tutorial: Create A Speaking Block Navigation Menu Using Pure Css , it will help you create a two tier menu navigation. I hope this has helped you and saved you a ton of time from looking into the wordpress codex.

The Event

First off I like to say the event location was phenomenal! It was located at the Willis Tower in Chicago IL. When arriving to the event I and a friend were looking around, checking out the views and greeting people. The people there were very friendly and had great advice.

Carol Roth

Carol Roth was one of the event speakers that I was looking forward to hearing. She has a tremendous story and stated that she has raised over 1BILLION dollars and capital funds for companies ranging from small size businesses to corporate businesses.

My Thoughts

Listening to Carol speak was great and I love her story but I felt as if she was holding back on the good information, which I do not blame because she has probably told us about it in her new book. As an individual who is looking to become a business owner, I expected to learn how to run or build my business from ground zero and not halfway there. Carol benefits a lot of business owners who are already successful or already running a business partially successful IMO. She was still great and a great speaker.

Barry Moltz

Barry Moltz was a guy I knew just a tad bit about. I knew he was an entrepreneur and a successful business owner who has failed and succeeded with his business. With over 15 years of experience with business’s Barry is ready to speak to people and tell them how he has made it through a recession and his experience going through it all.

My Thoughts

Barry was a great speaker. Unlike many successful entrepreneurs, he had a sense of humor. Throughout Barry’s speech he talked about how to run a business of your own and things you should consider when running a business. He was a great speaker and was a great person to listen to.

Barbara Rozgonyi

Barbara is the founder of Social Media Club (SMC) and it is always a blast when I go to an event of hers (I’ve been to 2). She is a great speaker herself and has a lot to speak on whether it’s getting a job via linkedin or tackling social media websites. Usually I would feel uncomfortable at events like such but not at hers considering the community is very friendly. To keep up with Barbara check out here news feed via twitter @wiredprworks.

It was a great day I and my friend and I am pretty positive everyone who attended had a great time. I look forward to many more SMC meet ups and future gatherings. To see photos from the event check out the SMC Chicago Flickr Photo’s