LinkChecker

This is a demo application. The basic functionality is a site that allows the user to enter a url. The LinkChecker will then parse the contents of the url entered using nokogiri, get all the link tags in the page, and check if the links are valid (returns a 200 or 300).

Objectives

• Show a use case for doing work in the background
• Demonstrate Redis and Sidekiq to fix the problem

Best Practices

• Notice that the .gitignore file adds a line for *.rdb. This is the backup file for redis and should not be stored in git.
• Remember that redis should not store complex objects. Therefore, when passing a parameter to a preform_async method, never use something complicated like an active recrod object. Instead, use a simple identifier like the id of the record in the database.
• Take a look at the Procfile. It is used by heroku when deploying the app. The Procfile tells heroku what server to run and where to find the config file.
• Don't forget to add the important gems for a sidekiq and unicorn setup: sidekiq, unicorn, unicorn-rails (development purposes).