Welcome!

I’m a software professional with 10 years experience spanning the full development life cycle–especially requirements analysis and database development. I’ve worked for small startups, large corporations, and government entities. My current interest is developing web applications with Ruby on Rails and related tools (MySQL, CSS, nginx/Passenger, Capistrano, Shoulda, git).

I collaborate with graphic designers to create solutions for business owners' websites. I also support general business computing needs.

SSL, nginx, passenger

I added some personalization features to a Ruby-on-Rails site and needed SSL for logging in and changing passwords. The steps I took were:

• Install the ssl_requirement gem.
• Update the controllers to use SSL where appropriate (documented with the gem).
• Update the passenger gem.
• Run passenger’s installer.
• Use the advanced mode in order to compile nginx with the SSL module.
• Update nginx configuration to serve SSL on port 443.
• Purchase and install SSL certificate.

It was fairly painless.  Only one minor bugaboo:  You must run the passenger installer after updating the passenger gem, always.  The HelperServer in the passenger gem folder is compiled by the installer as well.  I got a bit stuck when nginx wouldn’t start right after I updated the passenger gem, but the nginx error log had a descriptive message.