Getting Started with Play Framework on Heroku

By James Ward | Published: August 29, 2011

Last week Heroku announced that you can now run Java apps on Heroku. Today Heroku announced that you can also easily run Play Framework apps on Heroku! Here’s a quick guide to getting started with Play! on Heroku:

Install the heroku command line client on Linux, Mac, or Windows.
Install git and setup your SSH key
Install Play! version 1.2.3
Login to Heroku from the command line:
heroku auth:login

Create a new Play! app:

play new play_hello_world
cd play_hello_world

Run the app locally to test it:
play run --%production

Create a git repo, add the files, and commit:

git init
git add app conf lib public test
git commit -m init

Create a new app on Heroku:
heroku create -s cedar
Push the app to Heroku:
git push heroku master
Open the app in your browser:
heroku open

That’s it! If you want to learn more about Heroku, check out the Heroku for Java Workbook and the Heroku Dev Center. And if you are at Dreamforce 2011 then check out Felipe Oliveira’s session on “Introducing Play! Framework: Painless Java and Scala Web Applications” on Wednesday at 3:30pm.

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions.

This entry was posted in Heroku, Play Framework. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

http://sebastien-arbogast.com Sebastien Arbogast

When I run heroku auth:login on my Mac, I get the following error:

/usr/local/heroku/lib/heroku/client.rb:2:in `require’: no such file to load — rest_client (LoadError)
from /usr/local/heroku/lib/heroku/client.rb:2
from /usr/local/heroku/lib/heroku.rb:6:in `require’
from /usr/local/heroku/lib/heroku.rb:6
from /usr/bin/heroku:19:in `require’
from /usr/bin/heroku:19

Any idea what that means?
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  Yeah. Looks like there is a problem with the heroku toolbelt client on Mac. As Jeff said, try to install the heroku client via the gem. Let me know if that works.
- julien
  
  Any issues during the heroku install? If so, you might try re-installing the gem and if you have issues, install XCode and development tools and repeat, should be fine.
  - http://sebastien-arbogast.com Sebastien Arbogast
    
    It worked once I installed the heroku gem. It should be added to all the docs on heroku
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  BTW: One of the engineers let me know that they have now fixed this issue.
http://blog.jeffdouglas.com Jeff Douglas

I think you need to install the heroku gem:

gem install heroku
http://sebastien-arbogast.com Sebastien Arbogast

And Play! framework is nice but how about Grails? Since I saw Rails guys using Heroku, Grails on Heroku has been a fantasy of mine. Is there something special required to make it work?
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  Any Java will run on Heroku. So Grails will certainly work. But I haven’t looked into how to do it yet. Right now you need a pom.xml file to tell Heroku that the app is Java. But from there everything is up to you.
  - http://fbflex.wordpress.com Tomas
    
    You can use the Grails maven artifacts to deploy to Heroku – see post – http://fbflex.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/grails-on-heroku/
Tom Borthwick

When I run the heroku toolbelt client on Windows 7, I get this error:

C:\dev\Heroku\\ruby\\bin\\ruby.exe: No such file or directory — C:/dev/Heroku/heroku (LoadError)

where I installed Heroku into c:\dev. Is there a prerequisite I need to install first?
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  I’m not sure why you are getting an error. Maybe the PATH setting for Ruby is incorrect. Can you check that?
  - Tom Borthwick
    
    The toolbelt installer put the Heroku dir on my PATH, but nothing for ruby. I tried running setrbvars.bat in the ruby\bin folder and that added the ruby\bin folder to my PATH, but I get the same result.
    - http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
      
      Looks like we’ve reproduced this issue. Can you file a support ticket:
      http://support.heroku.com/
      
      Thanks.
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  This has been fixed. Can you try to download the toolbelt again and reinstall?
  - Tom Borthwick
    
    Now I get an error:
    
    The network path was not found.
    
    I don’t see any logs that might be useful.
    - http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
      
      That is when you run the heroku command?
      - Tom Borthwick
        
        Yes, I was running the heroku command, but I just tried it in a new window and the heroku command worked fine. I must have been using an old window that didn’t get some environment variables set by the toolbelt installer. Oops! Thanks for your help.
      - http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
        
        Awesome! I’m glad it worked!
  - http://storycatcher.info/AsAperture Aernout
    
    I have the same problem… Any advice on how to solve this?
    - http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
      
      So, Tom’s solution above didn’t solve it for you?
http://flurdy.com Ivar Abrahamsen

Getting a port errors when following these steps to deploy the hello world to heroku.
Also it seems to deploy in DEV mode?

2011-09-08T21:37:12+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Starting process with command `play run –http.port=25117`
2011-09-08T21:37:12+00:00 app[web.1]: Listening for transport dt_socket at address: 8000
2011-09-08T21:37:12+00:00 app[web.1]: 21:37:12,834 INFO ~ Starting /app
2011-09-08T21:37:12+00:00 app[web.1]: 21:37:12,877 WARN ~ You’re running Play! in DEV mode
2011-09-08T21:37:12+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Error R11 (Bad bind) -> Process bound to port 8000, should be 25117 (see environment variable PORT)
2011-09-08T21:37:12+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Stopping process with SIGKILL
2011-09-08T21:37:13+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Process exited

Presume it is an environment setting Im missing?
- http://flurdy.com Ivar Abrahamsen
  
  Creating a Procfile and adding: “web: play run –http.port=$PORT $PLAY_OPTS” fixed the problem.
  - http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
    
    Hi Ivar,
    
    Thanks for giving it a try! It should have done all of that automatically for you. Are you using Play version 1.2.3?
    
    -James
    - http://flurdy.com Ivar Abrahamsen
      
      Using Play 1.2.3. Ran the same steps today, and it worked as expected. No need for a Procfile.
      
      —–> No Procfile found. Will use process:
      play run –http.port=$PORT $PLAY_OPTS
      
      Must have been connected to different play dyno version perhaps. Anyway, it works! :)
  - PaquitoSoft
    
    Hi there!
    
    I have the same R11 Error and I already have the Profile created.
    Does anyone have any idea?
    
    Thanks.
    - http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
      
      Try again. Looks like you might have done this right when there was a service disruption:
      https://status.heroku.com/
http://www.heyabbott.net Wayne

Excellent article, James! I usually do everything in Ubuntu but I even got this to work on my company-issued Windoze laptop using the instructions here. Nice to know there is a cool framework alternative to Rails for us Java guys. Thanks.
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  Nice! Let me know if there is anything else I can help with.
Prathamesh mone

On windows 7 machine I am trying to deploy a heroku cedar Scala application. In the article on heroku website it talks about foreman to run the app. But when I type it in command prompt I am getting error that its not installed.

How to install foreman on windows machine.?
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  Did you install the Heroku Toolbelt? I believe it comes with foreman. But if not, it’s not a big deal since foreman isn’t required for anything. It just makes local testing a bit easier.
ErinM

I’m trying to use Heroku to create a Facebook app– I installed the toolbelt but am running into lots of problems using Terminal and with Heroku in general. Is there a way to uninstall Heroku from Terminal so I can start over?
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  I think you can just drag the app from your application folder to the trash. But I’m not totally sure since I don’t use a Mac.
Marina Boulding, UK

I have happily been playing Scrabble excluding US and Can with a neighbour, and suddenly for the last week I cant get in anymore, either from my facebook page or any other way: I get the message:

Heroku / No such app
There is no app configured at that hostname. Perhaps the app owner has renamed it or you mistyped the URL

I am not particularly computer savvy, I was just really enjoying my Scrabble matches and want to be able to do it again – any help you can give me?

Marina
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  Sorry Marina. You’ll have to contact the app author about that. Make sure you have the latest version installed.
yassinovic

Hi James,

I can’t create a new Play app, when when i run the command “play new
play_hello_world” i get an error message : /usr/bin/env: python: No
such file or directory

can you please help me

thanks
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  You need to have Python installed on your system for Play 1.
  - yassinovic
    
    Thakns James, do i need to install Python on heroku ?
    - http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
      
      Nope. It’s already there.
sarfaraz

after running heroku in cmd.exe its disappear
- http://www.jamesward.com James Ward
  
  That is odd. Can you file a support request with Heroku?

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