Deploying a RoR application in a separate folder

Question

Let me start by saying I have never deployed a Rails app before.

I have a domain with a main site ran by PHP, let's call it http://www.example.com/. I have began developing for Rails recently, and I'd like to host the new application I created on http://www.example.com/myapp while still keeping the original site intact.

The main site is hosted on Godaddy.com, but in my understanding they do not support rails well (my application is written in Rails 2.3.5). With that being said, I decided to host my rails app on Dreamhost.com.

So I have two questions: how do I deploy a rails app in a 'folder' on the main domain that actually links to dreamhost. Second, where do I get started with deploying the app?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Personally, I would setup a subdomain on dreamhost: http://myapp.example.com/

Then if you want people to be able to access it via http://www.example.com/myapp, put an .htaccess redirect on your godaddy site:

redirect 301 /myapp/ http://myapp.example.com/ 

Information on deploying Ruby on Rails on dreamhost's wiki: http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/Ruby_on_Rails