.. index::

single: Deployment; Deploying to Heroku Cloud

Deploying to Heroku Cloud

This step by step cookbook describes how to deploy a Symfony2 web application to

the Heroku cloud platform. Its contents are based on `this original article`_

published by Heroku.

Setting up

To setup a new Heroku website, first `signup with Heroku`_ or sign in

with your credentials. Then, download and install the `Heroku Toolbet`_ on your

local computer.

You can also check out the `getting Started with PHP on Heroku`_ guide to gain

more familiarity with the specifics of working with PHP applications on Heroku.

Preparing your application

Deploying a Symfony2 application to Heroku doesn't require any change in its

code, but it requires some minor tweaks in its configuration.

By default, the Symfony2 app will log into your application's ``app/log/``

directory, which isn't ideal as Heroku uses an `ephemeral file system`_. On

Heroku, the best way to handle logging is using Logplex, and the best way to

send log data to Logplex is by writing to ``STDERR`` or ``STDOUT``. Luckily

Symfony2 uses the excellent Monolog library for logging, and so a new log

destination is just a config file change away.

Open ``app/config/config_prod.yml`` file, locate ``monolog/handlers/nested``

section and change the value of ``path`` from

``"%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log"`` to ``"php://stderr"``:

.. code-block:: yaml

Once the application is deployed, run ``heroku logs --tail`` to keep the

stream of logs from Heroku open in your terminal.

Creating a new application on Heroku

To create a new Heroku application that you can push to, use the CLI ``create``

command:

.. code-block:: bash

You are now ready to deploy the application as explained in the next section.

Deploying your application on Heroku

To deploy your application to Heroku, you must first create a ``Procfile``,

which tells Heroku what command to use to launch the web server with the

correct settings. After you've done that, you can simply ``git push``, and

you're done!

Creating a Procfile

By default, Heroku will launch an Apache web server together with PHP to serve

applications. However, two special circumstances apply to Symfony applications:

1. The document root is in the ``web/`` directory and not in the root directory

of the application;

2. The Composer ``bin-dir``, where vendor binaries (and thus Heroku's own boot

scripts) are placed, is ``bin/`` , and not the default ``vendor/bin``.

.. note::

Vendor binaries are usually installed to ``vendor/bin`` by Composer, but

sometimes (e.g. when running a Symfony Standard Edition project!), the

location will be different. If in doubt, you can always run

``composer config bin-dir`` to figure out the right location.

Create a new file called ``Procfile`` (without any extension) at the root

directory of the application and add just the following content:

.. code-block::

If you prefer working on the command console, execute the following commands to

create the ``Procfile`` file and to add it to the repository:

.. code-block:: bash

Pushing to Heroku

Next up, it's finally time to deploy your application to Heroku. If you are

doing this for the very first time, you may see a message such as the following:

In this case, you need to confirm by typing ``yes`` and hitting ``<Enter>`` key

- ideally after you've `verified that the RSA key fingerprint is correct`_.

Then, deploy your application executing this command:

.. code-block:: bash

**And that's it!** If you now open your browser, either by manually pointing

it to the URL ``heroku create`` gave you, or by using the Heroku Toolbelt, the application will respond:

.. code-block:: bash

*Et voilà!* You should be seeing your Symfony2 application in your browser.

.. _`this original article`: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/getting-started-with-symfony2

.. _`signup with Heroku`: https://signup.heroku.com/signup/dc

.. _`Heroku Toolbet`: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/getting-started-with-php#local-workstation-setup

.. _`getting Started with PHP on Heroku`: .. _`Heroku Toolbet`: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/getting-started-with-php

.. _`ephemeral file system`: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/dynos#ephemeral-filesystem

.. _`verified that the RSA key fingerprint is correct`: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/git-repository-ssh-fingerprints

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