6_6_deployed_database

Database in the Deployed Environment

Each environment -- development, test, production, etc -- will likely use a different PostgreSQL database server. This means the Node.js application will need to be configured with a database URL and user credentials at a per environment specification. Sequelize's config file provides the location to specify these differences.

The platform we will be using to host the PostgreSQL server is Heroku Postgres, an add-on provided by Heroku. There is a free tier with paid plans available to increase data capacity and concurrency as the application storage and/or traffic grows. Heroku Postgres configures the server URL and user credentials, and provides these values via an environment variable, DATABASE_URL.

1. Add the Heroku Postgres add-on

From the command-line interface, use the heroku addons:create command to add the Heoku Postgres add-on, hobby-dev tier.

command line

$ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev

Use the DATABASE_URL environment variable in production Within the config/sequelize.js production object, set the keys use_environment_variable and ssl.rejectUnauthorized. Remove the unneeded piecewise credentials; DATABASE_URL contains user and database location information. The following code snippet includes the full production object.

config/sequelize.js

"production": {
  "use_env_variable": "DATABASE_URL",
  "dialect": "postgres",
  "dialectOptions": {
    "ssl": {
      "rejectUnauthorized": false
    }
  }
}

Ensure the NODE_ENV environment variable is set on Heroku server.

command line

$ heroku config:set NODE_ENV=production

2. Run the application

Commit and push the new changes to Heroku

command line

$ git add .
$ git commit -m 'Use Heroku Postgres'
$ git push heroku HEAD

Run the database migration on Heroku Use the heroku run command to execute the Sequelize CLI commands in Heroku's server environment.

command line

$ heroku run npx sequelize db:migrate --env production

Seed the database

command line

$ heroku run npx sequelize db:seed:all

View the app Issue the command heroku open to open the deployed application. Navigate to the /posts route to see the seeded posts.

command line

$ heroku open

That's a deployed database! This simple tool is the backbone of the internet. Now that we have a database live on the interconnected web, we are able to provide our users with experiences on our web apps that can be customized on a per user basis.

We will be looking at saving user generated information in upcoming sections.