Deploy PostgreSQL in Node.js to Heroku for beginners

#beginners #postgres #database #heroku

During my time at Founders and Coders, we had to use Heroku to deploy our Node + PostgreSQL projects quite a few times. Because it can be daunting at first, I put together this step-by-step based on their graphic user interface. It is quick and straight to the point. Questions and contributions are welcome!

Deploy your project

Signup/Login to www.heroku.com. Go to New > Create new app to start. Add name, region and hit Create app. Choose GitHub as a deployment method under the 'Deploy' tab, search for your repo to connect:

on the same tab, click enable automatic deploys with the master branch for your future deploys. For the first install, hit Deploy Branch in 'Manual deploy' section to deploy your app:

Important to notice that after deployment, Heroku will run the 'start' script in your package.json to start your application. Make sure it is correct.

"script": {
    "start": "server.js"
}

Deploy your PostgreSQL database to Heroku

Once your app is up you should see the message below:

Go to 'Resources' tab and search for Heroku Postgres add-on, then select the Hobby Dev - Free version and hit Provision to confirm.

Back to 'Resources' tab, you can see your current database clicking on Heroku Postgres. You should see in a new tab something similar to the below image, indicating your database is empty:

Connect to the database

Heroku will generate a DATABASE_URL that you can use to connect to your production database. You can find this under 'Settings' back to the project tab in Reveal Config Vars with key 'DATABASE_URL'.

Important: If your project/database depend on API keys or tokens, add them in your config vars.

Connect to it via psql/pgcli copying and pasting the url in your terminal and then running you init.sql file:

//in psql

\c <DATABASE_URL>;

\i database/init.sql;

Some extra tips

You can view more information about the database by accessing it from 'Resources' and navigating to 'Settings' > View Credentials;
You can add collaborators via Accesstab;
View logs in More;
You can delete projects from Heroku in 'Setting' at the bottom of the page.