.. 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 `the 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 to its configuration.

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

directory. This is not 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. So, a new log

destination is just a change to a config file away.

Open the ``app/config/config_prod.yml`` file, locate the

``monolog/handlers/nested`` section (or create it if it doesn't exist yet) 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:: text

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:

.. code-block:: bash

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

You should be seeing your Symfony2 application in your browser.

.. _`the 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

.. _`Logplex`: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/logplex

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

heroku

* :doc:`/cookbook/deployment/heroku`