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Implementing AppFog
Implementing AppFog

Implementing AppFog: Getting to grips with the AppFog service is easily achieved with this hands-on guide, which walks you through creating and deploying applications to the cloud. You'll be developing your first application in minutes.

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Implementing AppFog

Chapter 1. Getting Started with AppFog

You can create an AppFog account and have your first application up and running in minutes. This chapter shows you how to perform this, and also demonstrates some of the features of the application control panel.

Note

You can create and deploy several applications using AppFog's free service level, which allows you to use up to 2 GB of RAM. You can use the free service level without supplying a credit card number. Some advanced features, such as use of external domain names, SSL, and team access, are only available to the paid users.

About AppFog


AppFog is a platform that you can use to host and deploy your applications to the cloud. You can write applications in Java, Node.js, Ruby, Python, or PHP and it also has built-in support for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, and RabbitMQ. Applications and their services can all be configured from a simple dashboard in a matter of minutes. AppFog also provides scalable architectures with load balancing so as your applications grow, you can easily increase the number of instances you have running.

There are free and paid plans. The paid plans currently start at $20 and go up from there depending on how much memory, storage, and instances you need. There are also enterprise level plans for larger businesses.

One of the main benefits of using AppFog is that it reduces the amount of time you need to spend on configuring servers, installing and configuring firewalls and security, and managing load balancers.

Creating an account


Create an AppFog account using the following steps:

  1. Go to www.appfog.com and click on Sign Up.

  2. The Create an account form appears. Fill it in and click on Signup.

  3. After clicking on Signup, you will need to verify your e-mail. Once activated, you will be taken to your profile page.

  4. On your profile page, click on Create App. This will take you to the new apps page. We will cover this page in the next section.

Creating and deploying a preconfigured application


The new apps page helps you create and deploy a preconfigured application. Applications can be in one of several programming languages, including Ruby, Python, Java, PHP, and Node.js. These languages can be used with various application frameworks and backend services. In this chapter, you will create and deploy a basic "Hello World" application written in the Ruby programming language and utilizing the Sinatra application framework. No knowledge of Ruby or Sinatra is needed for this initial step.

  1. Go to the New Apps page. If you've just created your account, you will go to the profile page and can then click on New App. Otherwise, go to console.appfog.com and click on create app.

  2. Choose an application platform. The first section of the New Apps page is a list of platforms labeled Step 1: Choose an application. Your first application will run on Ruby and Sinatra, so click that icon.

  3. Choose an infrastructure. This is the cloud hosting provider that will run your application. For this simple application, you can choose any infrastructure that supports Ruby. You will see a red exclamation mark on any infrastructures that do not support your selected application. Have look at the following screenshot for reference:

    Note

    Buttons for infrastructures that support Ruby have RUBY in a white-on-gray rectangle. Infrastructures that do not support Ruby will have a red exclamation mark.

  4. Choose an application name. This name will form part of a URL you can use to access your application in a Web browser. Click on Create App, as in the following screenshot:

    Note

    • The web form refers to the application name as a "domain" or a "subdomain" because it's part of a web site URL. You'll mainly use this name to identity the application to the command-line tool, so this book calls it the "application name".

    • You can assign additional domain names to the application after you deploy it.

  5. After you click on Create App, you go to a page that describes the progress of the application towards creation, staging, and running. Once it is running, you can click on the Your App is ready link to see it:

Using the application control panel


After you create an application, its control panel appears automatically. To access it otherwise perform the following steps:

  1. Go to console.appfog.com. A list of applications appears:

  2. Click on the application name in the left column. The application control panel appears:

This console has many features, which we will explore in later chapters. For now, let's focus on just two features, which are listed in the following bullet list:

  • If you click on the Visit Live Site button (upper-right), you go to your application, which is already running.

  • If you click on Domain Names (left-side) you can assign additional domain names for application access. To support external domain names (such as mysite.com), you must upgrade your AppFog account to a paid level. The domain name itself is managed by a registrar, which is separate from AppFog.

Note

To create a domain name, visit the website for a domain name registrar. You will need the A Record and CNAME Record data for the infrastructure you are using. This data is available on AppFog domain names screen. You can read AppFog help guide on custom domain names for more details.

Summary


In this chapter we learned how to:

  • Create an AppFog account

  • Create a preconfigured AppFog application

  • Deploy the application and see it running

  • Use AppFog control panel

In Chapter 2, Using the Command-line Tool, we are going to use AppFog command-line tool to download the application we created here, update it, and then redeploy it to AppFog.

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Key benefits

  • Create applications from scratch using the AppFog web console
  • Learn the knack of deploying applications to the Cloud using AppFog
  • Know the steps to avoid compatibility issues using the node module function of AppFog.

Description

AppFog is the leading platform-as-a-service provider of PHP, Ruby, Node.js, and Java solutions. It is used by developers worldwide to deploy tens of thousands of applications. AppFog delivers a reliable, scalable, and fast platform for deploying applications in the cloud.This book is a hands-on guide that will walk you through creating and deploying applications to the cloud using AppFog, which will allow you to get your application deployed without the hassle of setting up servers.This book demonstrates how to use the AppFog service to build an application and have it running in the Cloud. It will walk you through the initial AppFog setup process and explain how to create your first application in minutes.You will also discover how to use services such as databases to make your applications more powerful. You will also learn how to create applications from scratch.You will find out everything you need to know to get an application running in the cloud for the first time.

Who is this book for?

Implementing AppFog is for developers who want to be able to upload applications to the cloud, and for implementation specialists, who implement and deploy apps on the AppFog platform. It is best to have Ruby installed, but we will walk you through the installation process if you do not already have it. It would be ideal to have some knowledge of cloud computing and know about the basics of database and network deployment.

What you will learn

  • Set up an account on AppFog
  • Download your application from the cloud so that you can make updates
  • Upload new versions of your application
  • Modify your application to use a database hosted by AppFog
  • Use the AppFog command line tools including a reference guide to all the command line options
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Publication date : Nov 19, 2013
Length: 86 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849698184
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Table of Contents

5 Chapters
Getting Started with AppFog Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using the Command-line Tool Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Configuring Services Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating an Application from Scratch Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Command-line Reference Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.5
(4 Ratings)
5 star 25%
4 star 50%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 25%
Doug Duncan Jan 07, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
"Implementing AppFog" by Matthew Nohr and Isaac Rabinovitch is a really quick read that packs a lot of information in a small amount of space. The authors have done an excellent job of explaining AppFog and how one interacts with it to create and maintain cloud based applications.The book is a total of 86 pages (including front matter, appendix and index) so you can see that the authors don't have a lot of pages to cover things, but those few pages that they have is filled with the information one needs to get up to speed on this service.The authors obviously don't go into great depth about everything in this book, but then that's not the focus of the book. It's really about learning how to get an application set up, modified and published and how to use services such as a database with those applications. You are exposed to both using the web based interface and the command line to accomplish these tasks.If you're interested in using AppFog to host your applications, this book will get you going quickly and is highly recommended.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer Jan 20, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
I enjoyed going through this introductory material.The material is well laid out, and will get you to a fully deployed ruby/sinatra app, backed by a MySQL database in no-time flat.This material is specifically aimed towards newcomers to the AppFog PaaS.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
W Boudville Jan 28, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
AppFog hits on a real and prevalent problem with many code developments that are directed towards some type of web use. Often, you have to somehow embed your code in a web server and also connect the code or the server to a choice of back end database. Three areas of expertise - front end web pages, web server and database. An alternative is proferred by this book from Nohr and Rabinovitch. We see that a big merit is the possible range of input languages. Ruby, Python, java, PHP and Node.js. Perhaps over time that list could even expand if AppFog takes off.The allure is the ease of deployment. The text gives quick examples in Ruby that collectively are the equivalent of Hello World. Granted, there might be a cost, as the providers of AppFog expect to get paid. But this cost is nominal if you decide from the book that the savings in your time are real.Hooking up your application to a database server seems simple enough in the text's example. There is one slight issue that seems to have been deprecated. It refers to how you set up a database server with a password for the administrator. This is done via a console application that looks for an environment variable. The provided GUI is a simple way to set this variable. But what if you get everything running and eventually days later the machine reboots? Here I'm assuming that you intend for your web server application to run continuously. When the machine starts up, it has to somehow get a value for that environment variable. It has been several years since I did unix/linux sysadmin, but if I recall correctly, ultimately that value must reside somewhere on disk. Perhaps in plaintext form. A potential security risk.However, in defence of the book, if the machine essentially runs only your app and is mostly single user, then you'll be fine. It might be that in a heavy multiuser mode there is a potential risk.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Isaac Rabinovitch Apr 09, 2021
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
Yes, I'm one of the authors. I'm moderately proud of this book, but the service it documents no longer exists.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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