How and What of Mina! [Tech]

An overview of Mina Gem for novice RoR programmers

Introduction:

When you are done with merging the feature pull request, please deploy the code — Project TL.

Okay! But..! Hmm..! But How?.. I gues it might be tough, need your help TL! — Beginner in RoR

As a beginner in Ruby on Rails, one of the essential aspects of web development is deploying your application to a server. This process can sometimes be complex and time-consuming.

However, with the Mina gem, deploying your Rails application becomes a breeze. In this blog post, we will explore the Mina gem and its benefits, understand how it simplifies the deployment process, and learn how to get started with it.

So let’s dive in and discover how Mina can streamline your deployment workflow.

What is the Mina Gem?

Mina is a lightweight and flexible deployment automation tool specifically designed for Ruby on Rails applications. It is built on the concept of simplicity, providing a clean and intuitive way to deploy your application with ease.

Mina is written in Ruby and allows you to automate common deployment tasks, such as pushing code to servers, running migrations, restarting services, and more.

Benefits of Using Mina

1. Simplicity: Mina aims to make deployment as straightforward as possible. Its configuration is concise and easy to understand, allowing developers, especially beginners, to grasp the deployment process quickly.

2. Fast and Efficient: Mina optimizes deployment by executing tasks in parallel, reducing the overall deployment time. It also maintains a local repository on the server, enabling quick and efficient updates by transferring only the necessary files.

3. Flexibility: Mina provides a flexible deployment workflow, allowing you to define your own tasks and customize the deployment process according to your project’s specific requirements.

Getting Started with Mina

To begin using Mina in your Rails application, follow these steps:

Step 1: Install the Mina gem.

Add the following line to your gemfile and run bundle install to install the Mina gem:

gem 'mina', require: false

Step 2: Initialize Mina

Run the following command in your terminal to generate the necessary Mina configuration files:

$ mina init

This command creates a config/deploy.rb file, which will be used to configure deployments.

Step 3: Configure Your Deployment

In the config/deploy.rb file, you can define your deployment settings, such as server details, repository information, and deployment tasks. Customize the configuration to match your deployment requirements.

Basic settings:
# domain: The hostname to SSH to.
# deploy_to: Path to deploy into
# repository: Git repo to clone from. (needed by mina/git)
# branch: Branch name to deploy. (needed by mina/git)

env = ENV['on'] || 'staging'
branch = ENV['branch']
deploy_path = '/www/repo_path'

if env == 'production'
  domain = "#{ENV['PRODUCTION_DOMAIN']}"
  branch_name = branch || 'production'
elsif env == 'staging'
  domain = "#{ENV['DOMAIN']}"
  branch_name = branch || 'master'
end

set :domain, domain
set :deploy_to, deploy_path
set :repository, "#{ENV['REPOSITORY']}"
set :branch, branch_name
set :rails_env, env

Step 4: Define Deployment Tasks

Within the config/deploy.rb file, you can define deployment tasks using the task method provided by Mina. These tasks can include commands to run migrations, restart services, precompile assets, and more.

# Put any custom commands you need to run at setup
task :setup do
  command %{rvm install ruby-3.0.0}
  command %{gem install bundler}
end

Step 5: Deploy Your Application

Once you have configured your deployment and defined tasks, you can deploy your application by running the following command:

Basic and default commands for deployment:
$ mina deploy

Customized deployment statement (based on environment):
# Staging branch will be deployed on staging environment
# Here on and branch are the command line arguments to be used in deploy.rb
$ mina deploy on=staging branch=staging

This command triggers the deployment process, which connects to the server, pulls the latest code, runs the defined tasks, and updates your application on the server.

Conclusion

Deploying a Rails application can be a daunting task for beginners, but with the Mina gem, it becomes a much simpler and more efficient process. By following the steps outlined in this blog, you can quickly get started with Mina and streamline your deployment process. Happy deploying!