While computing moves more and more to the cloud, it’s interesting that Ruby web development best practices tend to go in the opposite direction, toward the workstation right in front of you. Running a local web server via ‘script/server’ (or my preferred method of ‘thin start’), hosting gem documentation locally, and using local git branches are all win/win practices because they’re far more efficient, and frankly, let you do some bonehead moves without your co-workers ever having to know.

So maybe deployments should be practiced locally as well. Ezra Z. has announced Engine Yard Express, a VMware image that’s essentially an Engine Yard production slice. The idea is that you run the image via virtualization software on your workstation, so that you can get all the benefits of a virtual server without having to actually connect to one through the Tubes.

Yes, this really rocks. You’ll be able practice deployments on the plane!

So first, you’ll need to buy VMware Fusion for your Mac. I first purchased Parallels over a year ago, but VMware clearly kicks its ass. Clearly. It actually runs Windows without making the rest of your system unusable.

Next, download the image and double-click on it. Before you even realize what happened, you’ll be presented with a ready, fully-functional slice just waiting for you like an obedient dog:

You’ve been pleasantly provided with randomly generated passwords for the root and express users, and you’re even given the IP address it’s chosen.

Let’s create an alias for that address so we don’t have to memorize it. Open up /etc/hosts in your favorite text editor (requires sudo permission) and stick something like this in there:

192.168.233.128 express.local

Now, you should probably just leave your VMware window alone. Instead you’ll want to SSH into the slice as if you were logging into a remote server:

$ ssh express@express.local

Nice! A quick visit to http://express.local:81 gives you your Merb start page.

Now, in your Capistrano scripts, you can use ‘express.local’ as the domain of your servers, and you’ll be able to practice deployments without ever connecting to a remote server. Bom chicka wa waa!

When I first started playing around with Ruby on Rails, one of the things that struck me was how development was done completely locally. Instead of uploading or synchronizing your source code to a remote web server, you simply fired up a Ruby web server process on your local machine, and the development process seemed to flow more smoothly.

In that same vein, documentation for Ruby gems can be annoying to hunt down. You have to go to the gem’s web site, and hope that RDoc exists somewhere. Or, you can navigate to your gem’s local install directory and poke around in there. Too much work, and it could break your flow. Not anymore:

$ gem server

Now, just visit http://localhost:8808, and you’re good to go. That easy!

Also, you may find yourself missing RDoc on updated gems, so make sure to do this when it bothers you:

$ sudo gem rdoc [--all|gem_name]

Now, it would be great if the server just started automatically on boot up, with no need for a command line directive. In Mac OS X Leopard, the preferred way is to use launchd/launchctl, which is about as obvious to the uninitiated as the rules of Cricket. Luckily, there’s Lingon, which wraps all that ugly XML in a nice GUI. Make a new entry that looks like this:

Note the full path to the gem command, which I needed for the launch command to work. And that’s it. Full documentation to all your locally installed gems, available whenever you need them.

Special thanks to Daniel Fischer for the ‘gem server’ tip, and Brandon Beacher for the tip on Lingon.