How to Deploy an Express App on Heroku with Postgres and Knex

Here are some quick notes on creating and deploying a node app on Heroku with Knex and Postgres.

Your Express App

You should have an Express.js application that uses Postgres and Knex.

The Express application should be a Git repo. The root of the Git repo should be at the same level as your Express app. In other words, the .git/ directory should be right next to the package.json file. You can view the hidden .git/ directory with the command ls -alF.

The knexfile.js file should have entries something like this—the important part is the production setting:

module.exports = {
    development: {
        client: 'pg',
        connection: {
            host: '127.0.0.1',
            user: process.env.TODO_DB_USER,
            password: process.env.TODO_DB_PW,
            database: 'todos_test'
        },
        migrations: {
            directory: __dirname + '/db/migrations',
        },
        seeds: {
            directory: __dirname + '/db/seeds/development',
        },
    },
    production: {
        client: 'pg',
        connection: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
        migrations: {
            directory: __dirname + '/db/migrations',
        },
        seeds: {
            directory: __dirname + '/db/seeds/production',
        },
    },
};

Adding Heroku

Create the Heroku project with:

$ heroku create

The command line should display an app name (something like happy-everglades-12345). There will also be a URL with the app name as the subdomain.

Adding Postgres to Heroku

Add a Postgres database to Heroku:

$ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev

You should see a database URL something like this:

Created postgresql-colorful-54321 as DATABASE_URL

Save that database name. (If you forget it, you can find it again by typing heroku pg:info.)

Find your Postgres database URL, where <database_name> is the database URL from the previous step:

$ heroku pg:credentials:url <database_name>

You should see a “Connection URL” that looks something like this:

postgres://wsjalkfjwimvlz:7984738297a897843297f8928378439e798437d84874937287832794382747@ec2-11-11-22-345.compute-1.amazonaws.com:5432/d8jeil4j3i2s70

Copy that onto your clipboard and then send it to Heroku as an environment variable named DATABASE_URL:

$ heroku config:set DATABASE_URL='<the_database_url_from_the_last_step>' -a <app_name>

Remember that <app_name> comes from the name of the Heroku app. You can always find it with heroku info and extracting it from the subdomain of the “Web URL field”.

The DATABASE_URL name matches the database connection settings from the knexfile. Here’s that section of the knexfile for reference:

    production: {
        client: 'pg',
        // The next line is where the application will read that environment variable to connect to the database
        connection: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
        migrations: {
            directory: __dirname + '/db/migrations',
        },
        seeds: {
            directory: __dirname + '/db/seeds/production',
        },
    },

Deploying the Code

Push your code to Heroku:

$ git push heroku master

Running the Database Migrations

To run the migrations type:

$ heroku run knex migrate:latest

Seeding the Database

Insert the seed data with:

$ heroku run knex seed:run

Finishing Up

Open the app in the browser with:

$ heroku open

It should work. If not, leave a comment below. You can also view Heroku’s Postgres documentation by running this command:

$ heroku addons:docs heroku-postgresql

If you’re working with just a test application, you can destroy it when done by typing:

$ heroku apps:destroy -a <app_name>

P.S., if you’re looking for information on using Knex, see this YouTube tutorial.