Buffalo

Streamline deployments to your workspace

GitHub setup

To set up Buffalo, you should first create a GitHub webhook for each of your repositories. These can be found in Repo Settings -> Webhooks.

When creating your webhook, set the payload URL to the url of your Buffalo instance followed by /postreceive. For example, if you have Buffalo configured to run on buffalo.example.com, I would set the payload URL as http://buffalo.example.com/postreceive.

Generate a random secret -- this will be the same amoung all GitHub webhooks you setup with Buffalo.

Select Just the push event. when asked which events trigger the webhook, and click Add webhook. You may get a 404 error -- that's fine, once the Buffalo server is running it will go away.

Setting up your config.json

In order for Buffalo to run, you need to setup the config.json file. An example is shown below -- make sure to replace the githubSecret with the one you used above.

{
    "port": 8888,
    "githubSecret": "################################",
    "services": {
        "RepoName1": {
            "location": "/path/to/app/folder",
            "onUpdate": "sudo yarn install && sudo yarn run deploy"
        },
        "RepoName2": {
            "location": "/path/to/app/folder",
            "onUpdate": "sudo yarn install && sudo npm run build && sudo serve -s build"
        }
    }
}

port is the port that Buffalo will run on. onUpdate is the command that will execute once your app has been updated. Typically you want to include yarn install in case package dependencies have changed, and some sort of deploy script to re-start your app.

Make sure that the name of your services are the same name as on github. For example, if I were to set up Buffalo to work with Buffalo, I would have the following:

{
    "port": 8888,
    "githubSecret": "################################",
    "services": {
        "Buffalo": {
            "location": "/path/to/buffalo/",
            "onUpdate": "sudo yarn install && sudo yarn run deploy"
        },
        "SomeOtherRepo": {
            "location": "/path/to/app/folder/",
            "onUpdate": "sudo yarn install && sudo npm run build && sudo serve -s build"
        }
    }
}

Note the use of Buffalo, not NovaPlasm/Buffalo.

Running Buffalo

Now that you have Buffalo successfully setup, we want to make sure all dependencies are installed. Depending on what package manager you use, run either yarn or npm install.

To run your Buffalo instance, use yarn run start or node app. If you use PM2, and want to use the deploy script I included, for your first-time setup run pm2 start -f ./server.sh --name buffalo.

Then, whenever you need to update, you just need to use sudo yarn install && sudo yarn run deploy

Slack integration

Buffalo can be integrated with slack using two quick steps.

1. Add the slackHook property to the JSON file with a link to the slack app that will be running Buffalo

{
    "port": 8888,
    "githubSecret": "################################",
    "slackHook": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/<>",
    "services": {
        "RepoName1": {
            "location": "/path/to/app/folder/",
            "onUpdate": "sudo yarn install && sudo yarn run deploy"
        },
        "RepoName2": {
            "location": "/path/to/app/folder/",
            "onUpdate": "sudo yarn install && sudo npm run build && sudo serve -s build"
        }
    }
}

2. Add some or all of the following slash commands. I'm assuming that your buffalo server is running on buffalo.example.com:

   • Command binfo. Request URL: http://buffalo.example.com/info. Usage hint: [project].

     • Command would be structured as /binfo RepoName.
     • This command gives known info on the status of the repo.

   • Command blist. Request URL: http://buffalo.example.com/list. No usage hint. Command would be structured as /blist.

     • Command would be structured as /blist.
     • This command gives a JSON list of all repos currently in your Buffalo instance.

   • Command bfetch. Request URL: http://buffalo.example.com/fetch. Usage hint: [project]. Command would be structured as /bfetch Buffalo.

     • Command would be structured as /bfetch RepoName.
     • This command has Buffalo forcefully check and update your app in case the github webhook failed.