Deployer - Easy PHP Deployment


In this series, Matt Setter will guide you through installing, configuring, and using Deployer, a deployment tool written in PHP.

Deployment can be one of the most stressful phases of any project. In my experience, this is often a symptom of the way code is deployed, rather than the code itself.

Whilst working with clients and in projects of my own, I became convinced that deployment needn't be so difficult. Deployment is such a common 'problem' that it surely must already have been elegantly solved.

I am aware of tools like Capistrano (and Capifony), and Fabric. Whilst I'm sure both are great tools, the barrier to entry is high - Capistrano is written in Ruby, Fabric in Python.

Having to convince management that all developers must learn and use a separate language purely for deployment is a battle I have not yet won.

We are PHP developers. PHP is an amazing language. There must be a PHP solution.

Deployer - A Deployment Tool for PHP

And thankfully, there is.

Deployer is a really elegant solution to deployment, and best of all, it's written in PHP. No extra language to learn.

As Symfony - or indeed, any modern PHP Framework - developers, we know there's a number of extra steps to any deployment:

  • installing dependencies
  • warming up the cache
  • performing database migrations

And those custom steps specific to your project.

When Things Go Wrong

What do you do when your deployment goes wrong?

How easy is it for you to do a rollback to your previously working code?

If the answer isn't: "we run a a one line command", then Deployer is going to wow you.

Who Is This Course Suitable For?

This course is aimed at any developer who deploys code.

It might be your side / personal project. It might be your team's code to your production server.

Of course, you may work in an organisation so large that deployment is handled by a separate team after three days worth of change controls. Even so, if you have never personally used a deployment tool before, this course will increase your knowledge and range of options for the future.

Certainly, if you are using FTP to deploy, stop now and watch this course.

If you deploy using some sequence of git pull or git push, before you hit some horrific merge problem on your production box: STOP, and watch this course.

If you are using Capifony, or Fabric, or thinking about Jenkins - at least give Deployer a chance. You may be highly surprised.

After watching this course, Matt had convinced me to switch to Deployer for Code Review Videos. I have, and it rocks.

Enjoy the course!

Episodes

Presented By

Matthew Setter

Matthew Setter

Matthew Setter is [a freelance technical writer](http://www.matthewsetter.com/about/) and software developer, specialising in PHP, Zend Framework, and JavaScript. He's also the host of [Free the Geek](http://FreeTheGeek.fm), the podcast about the business of freelancing as a software developer and technical writer.