Lots of great changes packed into this week’s release. Some of them you need to be aware of because they change the layout of “gears” (where your application is hosted).
Introducing Instant Applications
Instant Applications are a way to automatically import some of our example repos from github. With Instant Apps you can deploy common applications and frameworks with just a few clicks. To create one of these applications, log in to your console and click “Add Application”. Then select one of the pre-defined applications. Right now you can select from Ruby on Rails, Drupal, Java EE6 and Wordpress. Check out Steve’s blog for more details on how they work.
Lots of great changes packed into this week’s release. Some of them you need to be aware of because they change the layout of “gears” (where your application is hosted).
Introducing Instant Applications
Instant Applications are a way to automatically import some of our example repos from github. With Instant Apps you can deploy common applications and frameworks with just a few clicks. To create one of these applications, log in to your console and click “Add Application”. Then select one of the pre-defined applications. Right now you can select from Ruby on Rails, Drupal, Java EE6 and Wordpress. Check out Steve’s blog for more details on how they work.
New and Improved Client Tool for Windows
The first change affects our Windows users. We have finally got the rhc client tools working with native Windows tooling. This means there are no longer any dependency on Cygwin commands to get the tools working! We've put together a few resources to help you get started with the new Windows client tooling:
- Grant's detailed blog post and how-to video
- Updated Windows section on the Getting Started page
In addition to the new Windows goodness, we've added a simple wizard for users running the tools for the first time. This auto generates an ssh key if one doesn't exist, uploads it, etc. The wizard also makes it easier to move from one machine to another because it will generate new keys for every host you use and associate those keys with your account.
package.json for Node.js Apps Now Supported
Second, node.js users can now use the standard package.json files that are common with node.js applications. Just put this file in the root of your git repo and push it. Everything else should be automatic.
View Usage Quotas
Users have been requesting a way to view their quota for a while now; in fact it’s the number one feature request on our Vote on Features page. We've done the first pass at this feature by simply letting users run 'quota' from the command line or in your deploy script to see where things are. We're working on making this more user friendly in future releases. Send us your feedback!
MongoDB for Scaled Apps
Users using scaled applications can now add MongoDB to the list of databases they're allowed to use with those applications. Previously only MySQL was functioning.
Faster Application Creation Times
Some users may have noticed an increase in application creation time over the last several months. We've been working on lowering that and continue to do so. This release has some behind the scenes changes related to startup time, more responsive API and parallel job execution that makes creation times faster but we're not done yet so stay tuned for even faster creation times.
New Gear Filesystem Layout
Last but not least is a change to our gear layout. We strongly encourage users to always use environment variables when referring to paths on the filesystem. For example $OPENSHIFT_DATA_DIR or $OPENSHIFT_TMP_DIR. Using these variables will help ensure your application stays functional even when we make changes to the underlying filesystem.
We're moving away from the ~/myapp/ structure into a ~/cartridge/ structure. We're also adding a global ~/app-root/ directory which contains a data dir and your exploded git repo. So, for example, in the past if you had a php application called myapp. You used to have a ~/myapp/ dir, instead now you'll see a ~/php-5.3/ dir.
We're making these changes to more easily allow the cartridges (features like php, mysql, etc) to be combined in arbitrary configurations.
Don’t forget to stop by the forums or #openshift if you have any questions.
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