Initialise the Rails Application

Default Rails setup

• Ensure that your mise plugins are up to date with mise plugin update.

• Ensure you are using the latest Ruby version globally (mise use -g ruby@latest) and that it is supported by Deploio.

• Run gem update --system to update Ruby’s default gems (e.g. bundler).

• Check if you are using the latest stable version of Rails with rails -v and update it if you are not. You can do this with gem update rails. Beware of beta versions.

• Start a new Rails project using

rails new [project-name] --database=postgresql --skip-kamal --skip-ci --skip-action-mailbox --template https://raw.githubusercontent.com/renuo/application-setup-guide/main/ruby_on_rails/template.rb

where the project-name is exactly the one you chose before.

Warning

You may want to choose a different database than Postgres, but most of the time this will be your choice. You might also need actionmailbox of course, so always double-check the parameters that you are using.

Tip

⭐️ This setup does not include either js-bundling nor css-bundling by default.

It will start with the simplest possible Rails setup and will use sprockets and importmaps.

If you need to do fancy stuff, discuss with your team the opportunity of including a js-bundling and css-bundling tool.

We want to go “no build” whenever possible.

• Run bundle exec rails db:migrate to generate an empty schema.rb file.

• Run bin/setup

• Then check your default Rails setup by running bin/run and visiting [project-name].localhost:3000. You should be on Rails now, yay!

• Finally check if http://localhost:3000/up is green.

Adjustments

Some adjustments are made automatically by the template, but you should check them. Some other adjustments must be performed manually.

Automatic adjustments

⭐️ This setup includes the following automatic adjustments:

• config/database.yml uses collation: C.UTF-8 for deterministic, locale-independent sorting across local and production environments.
• The Gemfile reads the required Ruby version from .ruby-version. Heroku uses this to determine the Ruby version; Deploio reads the version from the Gemfile.
• Renuocop replaces rubocop-rails-omakase with Renuo’s rules. You can discuss or contribute to them at https://github.com/renuo/renuocop.
• bin/check runs the project tests and is used in CI.
• bin/fastcheck runs linters in CI and before pushing.
• bin/run starts the application.
• bin/check, bin/fastcheck, and bin/run are standardized Renuo convenience tools.

Secrets

We store the secrets necessary to configure the project locally in a 1Password Item. Create a new Item for the project called [project-name] project secrets of type note. Right click on the vault and select Copy Private link.

• Run the command renuo fetch-secrets --init [the vault private link] to create an empty secrets file.

The Item contains the fields that represent the ENV variables. You can use Text or Password fields. Check existing projects for an example of the usage.

Configuration customisation

• Update config/application.rb and set the default language and timezone

  config.time_zone = 'Zurich'
  config.i18n.default_locale = :de
  

• Update your config/environments/production.rb settings:

  config.force_ssl = true # uncomment
  config.log_level = ENV.fetch("RAILS_LOG_LEVEL", "warn") # change
  

• Update config/environments/development.rb settings:

  config.action_controller.action_on_unpermitted_parameters = :raise
  config.i18n.raise_on_missing_translations = :strict
  
  config.generators { |g| g.apply_rubocop_autocorrect_after_generate! }
  

• Update config/environments/test.rb settings:

  config.action_controller.action_on_unpermitted_parameters = :raise
  config.i18n.raise_on_missing_translations = :strict
  config.i18n.exception_handler = Proc.new { |exception| raise exception.to_exception } # add
  config.active_record.verbose_query_logs = true # add
  
  # add the following lines to the end of the file
  config.to_prepare do
    ActiveSupport.on_load(:active_record) do
      ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::PostgreSQLAdapter.create_unlogged_tables = true
    end
  end
  

• The default Content Security Policies should not always be activated, but rather only where there are platform secrets that need to be secured. This rule can be overwritten by a customer, if he opted into CSP when selecting his maintenance plans.

• If you’re using a js-bundling tool, let’s clean up after asset precompilation to reduce the size of your deployment. Although deplo.io doesn’t have Heroku slugs, it is still good to set up. Add this to the Rakefile:

  Rake::Task['assets:clean'].enhance do
    FileUtils.remove_dir('node_modules', true)
    FileUtils.remove_dir('vendor/javascript', true)
  end
  

Finalising

• Check if the following scripts run successfully: bin/setup, bin/check, bin/run
• If they do, commit all your changes to the main branch with Git.