This repo demonstrates deployment of the Ghost blogging software to Now, using Ghost as an npm module.

Additionally, it sets up a google cloud storage adapter (easy to swap out for another adapter), and a remote MySQL database (again, easy to swap out).

Setting up

There are a few pre-steps to deploying this to now, due to technical constraints:

1. Change the content path in config.development.json to be the directory where you checked this project out, plus /content, for example /home/beyonk/Projects/ghost-example/content. This path must be absolute due to a bug in ghost v2.
2. Add your google cloud storage key to the root directory as gcloud-storage-account.json.
3. Run the application locally, just once, to migrate the DB (it can be slow the first time and break deployment).
4. Follow deployment instructions below.

How to deploy

First, download now.

Then, clone this repository and run now:

$ git clone git://github.com/beyonk-adventures/now-ghost-v2
$ cd ghost
$ npm install
# Run the app first before the initial deployment, as the migrations can exceed now's timeout and cause a deployment error.
$ now

Example: https://now-examples-ghost.now.sh/

You can tweak the config.* JSON files and content directory to your liking, and then re-deploy by running now again.

A note on Ghost database engines with Now

sqlite3

The file system on Now deployments is immutable. So knowing this, if you're going to stick with the default sqlite3 backend (which is file system based) then you should follow the typical Now-deployment paradigm. That is:

• Start Ghost up locally in development mode: NODE_ENV=development npm start
• Write a blog post and publish it so that the local sqlite database is updated
• Create a new Now deployment and re-alias your URL

This paradigm requires a new deployment for any new blog posts or changes, and when upgrading Ghost.

mysql and postgres

If you want to use a mysql or postgres database service, then you'll have to update the config JSON files to point to an externally hosted database. If you go this route then your Now deployment is more "live" such that you can edit and publish posts without creating a new Now deployment, so the workflow looks more like:

• Edit the config JSON files to point to your database server
• Create a Now deployment and re-alias your URL
• At this point you can go to the admin panel on your Now deploment URL and make desired changes

This paradigm requires a new deployment only when upgrading Ghost, or tweaking database settings. However, you end up losing some of the inherent features of unique Now deployments, like being able to easily roll back a change or preview changes before aliasing.