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Deploy a web app

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Overview

Nowadays, most content served to users via the web is dynamic and via web applications. This tutorial will show you how to set up a simple web application with Flask in Python, but the process is much the same for any other web framework and we give tips for other languages.

Introduction

The SRCF hosts a general purpose web server that can serve all types of content. While the existence of a public_html folder might lead users to think that only static content can be served, Apache’s .htaccess file allows for arbitrary reverse proxying to a TCP port or UNIX socket. This gives users great freedom to do whatever they wish, including hosting applications written in popular frameworks like Django, Flask, Sinatra, Ruby on Rails, Express, etc.

We make available a sample group that contains examples of various web frameworks running on the SRCF: https://sample.soc.srcf.net, and you can take a look at their configuration inside /public/societies/sample.

Pre-requisites

Before starting,

ensure that you are comfortable in some capacity with the terminal
ensure that you are performing any subsequent commands on our web server, webserver.srcf.net

Environments

Python: set up a `venv`

You will want to deploy your application in a Python venv so that you can easily install and manage dependencies and versions.

A venv is a virtual Python environment that contains its own Python binary as well as all of your dependencies. When you activate your venv, PATH variables like python and pip will use the correct versions specified when you created your venv.

Create a directory for your app to live in:
```
    mkdir -p ~/myapp
    cd ~/myapp
```
Set up a venv
```
    python3 -m venv venv
```
Activate the venv
```
    . venv/bin/activate
```
You should do this step every time before running your app or managing installed packages.
Done! Your Python venv is now installed and hooked into your shell.

Node: installing `nvm`

You will want to deploy your application using nvm so that you can easily install and manage dependencies and versions.

nvm stands for Node Version Manager. Ubuntu only provides a significantly outdated version of Node.js (v4.2.6 at the time of writing) in its repositories. Using nvm allows you to choose any version of Node to use in your environment. Note that it is your responsibility to keep your node installations and nvm itself updated.

Create a directory for your app to live in:
```
    mkdir -p ~/myapp
    cd ~/myapp
```
Install nvm in your home directory. You’ll need to find the latest version from the NVM GitHub, and copy the one-liner straight into your shell to install it. At the time of writing, it looks like this:
```
    curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.38.0/install.sh | bash
```
Piping a script straight into your shell is potentially dangerous as you are allowing arbitrary code to be executed. Make sure you trust any script you run or vet it beforehand.

Make sure you read the installation instructions, then go ahead and run it, and close/re-open your terminal as it suggests.

Install whatever version of node.js you want.

    nvm install 12
    nvm alias default 12

Done! The version of node.js you specified is now installed and hooked into your shell.

Ruby: install `rbenv`

You will want to deploy your application using rbenv so that you can easily install and manage dependencies and versions.

Create a directory for your app to live in:
```
    mkdir -p ~/myapp
    cd ~/myapp
```

Install rbenv in your home directory:

    git clone https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv.git ~/.rbenv
    cd ~/.rbenv && src/configure && make -C src
    echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
    ~/.rbenv/bin/rbenv init

Follow the printed instructions on appending to your ~/.bashrc file:
```
    echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc
```

Install ruby-build as a plugin:

    mkdir -p "$(rbenv root)"/plugins
    git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git "$(rbenv root)"/plugins/ruby-build

Install whichever version of Ruby you want.

    rbenv install 2.6.6
    rbenv local 2.6.6

Done! You now have a working Ruby installation that’s hooked into your shell.

Install your web framework

You should not rely on the system-wide versions of web frameworks present on our webserver as they are LTS releases and may be out of date. Instead, use the version manager that comes with your framework/language to install a more up to date version.

Node: npm i express
Python: pip install flask or pip install django
Ruby: gem install rails

Create your app

If you have an existing node.js app you can simply copy the code to a directory of your choosing, ~/myapp/src for example. You can use scp/sftp to upload it or clone it using git or some other source control tool.

If you’re new to web apps, though, it’s recommended you follow the getting started guide (or equivalent) for your language/framework of interest:

Node: https://nodejs.org/en/docs/guides/getting-started-guide/
Express: http://expressjs.com/en/starter/installing.html
Ruby on Rails: https://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html
Flask: https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/1.1.x/quickstart/

We do have a few lines of code in a few languages that can springboard your app below. For real examples, you should visit the content of the sample group at /public/societies/sample/

Flask

There is a demo flask app setup at https://sample.soc.srcf.net/flask/. If you’re logged in via ssh, you can find the code at /public/societies/sample/flask/app.py.

Django

To create a skeleton Django project:

    django-admin startproject example
    mv example python
    cd python

Now take a look at django/example/settings.py for how to configure your site. There is also a demo available at https://sample.soc.srcf.net/django/.

Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is arguably one of the most popular and influential web frameworks. To create a skeleton Rails project:

    gem install rails
    rails new myapp

You should now have a new Ruby on Rails project setup in the myapp directory.

Sinatra

Sinatra is a lightweight web microframework that’s well suited to simple projects. To install it run gem install sinatra and then put the following in myapp.rb:

    require 'sinatra'
    get '/' do
        'Hello world!'
    end

You can then run this by typing ruby myapp.rb and going to http://localhost:4567 in your web browser. For futher information See the Sinatra documentation.

Express

Sample site at https://sample.soc.srcf.net/nodejs/ and see nodejs/app.js for a minimum base application.

Deploy your app

In a production environment, your app will need to “boot” (ie. start up) in a well-controlled manner. You will also want it to run in the background and ensure it restart when our web server reboots. systemd is a popular choice for “supervising” a service.

Don’t run development servers on the SRCF – these typically provide remote code execution via debug consoles, which grants any visitor full access to your SRCF account. Ensure your site runs in a production mode if configurable.

Boot scripts

First create a bash script that will run your web app at ~/myapp/run.sh with the following content:

The scripts provided here are just examples and won’t necessarily be perfect for your set-up. For example, they assume you’re using a UNIX socket over a TCP port. More than likely, the getting started guides referred to above will have their own boot scripts too.

Python

    #!/bin/bash -e

    . ~/myapp/venv/bin/activate
    exec gunicorn -w 2 -b unix:/home/crsid/myapp/web.sock \
        --log-file - main:app

Replace main:app with the module containing the app, and name of your app.

Node

    #!/bin/bash -e

    USER="$(whoami)"
    [ -e "/home/crsid/myapp/web.sock" ] && rm "/home/crsid/myapp/web.sock"
    umask 0

    . ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
    NODE_ENV=production PORT="/home/crsid/myapp/web.sock" \
        exec ~/myapp/src/bin/www

Replace ~/myapp/src/bin/www with the path to your app.

Ruby

    #!/bin/bash -e

    eval "$(rbenv init -)"
    cd ~/myapp/src
    RAILS_ENV=production \
          exec bin/rails server -b /home/crsid/myapp/web.sock

Replace ~/myapp/src with the path to your app.

Now, for all frameworks, make the run.sh script executable:

    chmod +x ~/myapp/run

You should now be able to execute the script and access your website (or see any errors in your terminal).

Using `systemd`

The SRCF may restart any of its servers as part of regular or emergency maintenance. When this happens, you’ll likely want your app to start up again. Similarly you may want your app to automatically restart if it crashes. We highly recommend using systemd to supervise your app.

Create a directory for your app ~/myapp.
Place a startup script at ~/myapp/run.sh. Your script should end by execing the server process. If you followed one of our tutorials for Django, Node or Rails, you’ve already created this file, so can move on to the next step. Otherwise, an example would be:
```
    #!/bin/sh -e
    exec ~/myapp/run-server
```
Your server should run in the foreground (it should not daemonise), and the run.sh script should end with an exec line so that signals are sent to the server (and not to the shell that started it).

Once you’ve written the script, make it executable (chmod +x ~/myapp/run.sh). Test it by executing it in your terminal before moving on; it will be easier to debug problems.
Write a systemd service file so your app will be supervised on startup.

For applications in your personal account, create the unit directory if it doesn’t exist:
```
    mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
```
For a group account, substitute ~ for /societies/foosoc, where foosoc is the short name of the account.

Then, save the following to the file ~/.config/systemd/user/myapp.service (or /societies/foosoc/.config/systemd/user/myapp.service for groups):
```
    [Unit]
    Description={YOUR USER, SOCIETY OR GROUP NAME} Webapp
    ConditionHost=sinkhole

    [Install]
    WantedBy=default.target

    [Service]
    ExecStart=/home/{CRSid}/myapp/run
    Restart=always
```
Tell systemd to start your app on startup, by running systemctl --user enable myapp.
You’ll need to start your app manually once (on future reboots, it will be started for you). To do that, run systemctl --user start myapp.

To control your app, you can use the systemctl tool. See man systemctl for full details.

In summary,
- Restart an app. systemctl --user restart myapp
- Bring an app offline. systemctl --user stop myapp
- Bring an app back online. systemctl --user start myapp
- Check the status of an app. systemctl --user status myapp
By default, your app’s standard output and error streams are sent to systemd’s journal however only the root user can access these. You will want to make your app write to a log file rather than stdout or stderr.

We have further more general reading on systemd services.

Notes for Python

Installing gunicorn

We recommend using gunicorn to serve your application. After activating your venv, install it with pip install gunicorn.

Note that you may see a warning about a syntax error. As long as the output ends in ‘Successfully installed gunicorn’, it’s safe to ignore this.

Reloading your app

Gunicorn will reload your app if you send it SIGHUP. You can teach systemd that fact by adding the following line under [Service] in your systemd unit file:

    ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID

and then running systemctl --user daemon-reload. After that, you can use systemctl to reload your app:

    systemctl --user reload myapp

Notes for Ruby

You may need to migrate your database first.
Make sure you’ve set secret keys for the app and any gems that need them (e.g. Devise).
Static file serving is off by default in production, but you’ll want to turn it on: set both config.assets.compile and config.public_file_server.enabled to true in config/environments/production.rb.

Forwarding requests

You then need to configure Apache to forward web requests to the web.sock socket specified in the run.sh script. We explain how to do this in the reference for web apps.

Closing remarks

Did you like this or find this cool? We invite you to check out more tutorials or get in touch to tell us what you thought!

If you have any suggestions for how we could improve this documentation please send us an email at support@srcf.net or submit a Pull Request on GitHub!

Last modified on Thursday Apr 22, 2021 by Matias Silva