Welcome to the AWS CodeStar sample web application

This sample code helps get you started with a simple Ruby on Rails web application deployed by AWS CodeDeploy and AWS CloudFormation to an Amazon EC2 instance.

What's Here

This sample includes:

• README.md - this file
• Gemfile - Gem requirements for the sample application
• Gemfile.lock - this file contains the specific versions of your application dependencies
• Rakefile - this file contains scripts available via the rake command
• appspec.yml - this file is used by AWS CodeDeploy when deploying the web application to EC2
• app/ - this directory contains your sample application
• config/ - this directory contains config files for your application
• config.ru - this file contains configuration for Rack middleware
• db/ - this directory contains database files for your application
• lib/ - this directory contains library modules needed by your application
• log/ - this directory contains application log files
• public/ - this directory contains static web assets used by your application
• scripts/ - this directory contains scripts used by AWS CodeDeploy when installing and deploying your application on the Amazon EC2 instance
• spec/ - this directory contains the RSpec unit tests for the sample application
• tmp/ - this directory contains temporary files for your application
• vendor/ - this directory contains third-party code such as plugins and gems
• template.yml - this file contains the description of AWS resources used by AWS CloudFormation to deploy your infrastructure
• template-configuration.json - this file contains the project ARN with placeholders used for tagging resources with the project ID

Getting Started

These directions assume you want to develop on your development environment or a Cloud9 environment, and not from the Amazon EC2 instance itself. If you're on the Amazon EC2 instance, the virtual environment is already set up for you, and you can start working on the code.

To work on the sample code, you'll need to clone your project's repository to your local computer. If you haven't, do that first. You can find instructions in the AWS CodeStar user guide at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/codestar/latest/userguide/getting-started.html#clone-repo.

1. Install Rails (see https://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html)

2. Install bundle:

    $ gem install bundle
   

3. Install Ruby dependencies for this application:

    $ bundle install
   

4. Create a secret key for development:

    $ rake secret
   

5. Set the secret created in the preceding step as an environment variable:

   For Windows:

    $ set SECRET_KEY_BASE=YourSecretKey
   

   For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

    $ export SECRET_KEY_BASE=YourSecretKey
   

6. Create a binstub and start the Rails development server:

    $ rake app:update:bin && rails server
   

7. Open http://localhost:3000/ in a web browser to view your application.

What Do I Do Next?

Once you have a virtual environment running, you can start making changes to the sample Rails web application. We suggest making a small change to /app/views/hello_page/hello.html.erb first, so you can see how changes pushed to your project's repository are automatically picked up by your project pipeline and deployed to the Amazon EC2 instance. (You can watch the progress on your project dashboard.) Once you've seen how that works, start developing your own code, and have fun!

To run your tests locally, go to the root directory of the sample code and run the rspec command, which AWS CodeBuild also runs through your buildspec.yml file.

To test your new code during the release process, modify the existing tests or add tests to the spec directory. AWS CodeBuild will run the tests during the build stage of your project pipeline. You can find the test results in the AWS CodeBuild console.

Learn more about the RSpec API Documentation.

Learn more about AWS CodeBuild and how it builds and tests your application here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/codebuild/latest/userguide/concepts.html

Note that a new SECRET_KEY_BASE value is generated by AWS CodeDeploy for each Amazon EC2 instance that runs your Rails application. If you scale your application to multiple Amazon EC2 instances across a fleet, the SECRET_KEY_BASE value might be different on each participating instance. This can cause unexpected results when your application attempts to verify the integrity of signed cookies across instances. To address this, you should use a single SECRET_KEY_BASE value and move it to a common location, accessible by the fleet. One approach is to use AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store to store and retrieve the SECRET_KEY_BASE value. To learn about AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store, see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/systems-manager-paramstore.html

Learn more about AWS CodeStar by reading the User Guide. Ask questions or make suggestions on our forum.

User Guide: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/codestar/latest/userguide/welcome.html

Forum: https://forums.aws.amazon.com/forum.jspa?forumID=248

How Do I Add Template Resources to My Project?

To add AWS resources to your project, you'll need to edit the template.yml file in your project's repository. You may also need to modify permissions for your project's worker roles. After you push the template change, AWS CodeStar and AWS CloudFormation provision the resources for you.

See the AWS CodeStar user guide for instructions to modify your template: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/codestar/latest/userguide/how-to-change-project.html#customize-project-template

What Should I Do Before Running My Project in Production?

AWS recommends you review the security best practices recommended by the framework author of your selected sample application before running it in production. You should also regularly review and apply any available patches or associated security advisories for dependencies used within your application.

Best Practices: docs.aws.amazon.com/codestar/latest/userguide/best-practices.html?icmpid=docs_acs_rm_sec