Setting up Spree with mysql database

[Jameson Trinker]

Hello,

I was hoping someone could give me some insight into installing spree. My company server housing the site has a blank rails app installed into a directory and the app was installed with default sqlite settings. And ImageMagick is installed as well.

I've tried installing spree a couple times and I continue to run into issues. When I try and go to the site I get either a white screen with "We're sorry, but there was a problem" type message or the phusion passenger error page, which I think is a result of the app trying to load the production environment.

Anyway, with a default sqlite rails app installed, what steps should I take to install and configure spree with a mysql development database? And what setting do I put in database.yml for test and development since I don't yet have a specific db for them?

And should it automatically run in dev mode, or is there a way to force spree to run in dev mode?

Thanks so much. I very much appreciate it and I'll do my best to return the favor.

Jameson

[Nate Lowrie]

Jameson,

You should do all of your spree development on a workstation or VM, NOT on the production server. Rails makes it very easy for you to develop a site on a local workstation.  You don't have to worry about passenger errors, deployment configuration, SSL setup, or anything like that. Also, when you develop on a workstation/VM and you type 'rails s' into the console, it will automatically spin up a webserver in development mode. Do yourself a favor and start developing and testing locally.

When you get the site started and feel it's time to do you first production, let me suggest a few things:

1. Don't use SQLite for production. Use Postgres or MySQL.
2. Use capistrano for your deployments. When you get it setup, deployment becomes as simple as running 'cap deploy' from your workstation console.  There are several really good tutorials on the web for this.
3. If you have issues deploying, send us the error message from the logs. We can't help you troubleshoot an issue unless you tell use the error it's throwing behind the error screen message.

Regards,

Nate

[Jameson Trinker]

Thanks for the advice, Nate. I'm going to take you up on it, that'll definitely save me some headaches.