RoR, Fog: Getting Started with Fog

Question

I just installed the gem asset_sync and I am trying to get set up with my AWS account. When I run bundle exec rake assets:precompile I get the following errror:

AssetSync::Config::Invalid: Fog provider can't be blank, Fog directory can't be blank

I understand the simply reason that I am getting this error, namely that I havent pushed the Fog provider or directory to heroku. What I am stumped about is where to put the Following code (Taken from the Fog README). In config/initializers/fog.rb? Is this all I need to do to start using fog, other than installing the gem?

require 'rubygems'
require 'fog'

# create a connection
connection = Fog::Storage.new({
  :provider                 => 'AWS',
  :aws_access_key_id        => YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
  :aws_secret_access_key    => YOUR_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
})

# First, a place to contain the glorious details
directory = connection.directories.create(
  :key    => "fog-demo-#{Time.now.to_i}", # globally unique name
  :public => true
)

Answer 1

not a problem, getting started tends to be the hardest part.

The answer is, it depends. I'd actually venture to say it would be best to put this in your environment based initializers, ie config/init/development or config/init/production, etc. Relatedly, you probably will not want to generate a new directory every time you start your app (there is an account level limit of 100 total I believe). So you might want to either set a key for each environment for that create or simply create the directory somewhere outside the initializers (and within the initializer you can assume it exists).

If you want to use that directory directly, you'll still need to create a reference, but you can create a local reference without making any api calls with #new like this:

directory = connection.directories.new(:key => ...)

As for asset_sync, it needs those keys and a reference to the directory key, which you will probably want to provide via ENV vars (to avoid checking your credentials into version control). You can find details on which keys and how to set them here: https://github.com/rumblelabs/asset_sync#built-in-initializer-environment-variables (the readme also describes how to do it via initializers, but that probably isn't the best plan).

Hope that helps!