Let’s start with implementation

defmodule SimpleCache do
  @table :simple_cache

  def init(_) do
    :ets.new(@table, [
      :set,
      :named_table,
      :public,
      read_concurrency: true,
      write_concurrency: true
    ])

    {:ok, %{}}
  end

  def start_link do
    GenServer.start_link(__MODULE__, [], name: __MODULE__)
  end

  def fetch(key, expires_in_seconds, fun) do
    case lookup(key) do
      {:hit, value} ->
        value

      :miss ->
        value = fun.()
        put(key, expires_in_seconds, value)
        value
    end
  end

  defp lookup(key) do
    case :ets.lookup(@table, key) do
      [{^key, expires_at, value}] ->
        case now < expires_at do
          true -> {:hit, value}
          false -> :miss
        end

      _ ->
        :miss
    end
  end

  defp put(key, expires_in_seconds, value) do
    expires_at = now + expires_in_seconds
    :ets.insert(@table, {key, expires_at, value})
  end

  defp now do
    :erlang.system_time(:seconds)
  end
end

Update application.ex

 def start(_type, _args) do
    import Supervisor.Spec

    children = [
      supervisor(SimpleCache, [])
    ]
    opts = [strategy: :one_for_one, name: Supervisor]
    Supervisor.start_link(children, opts)
  end

Finally, use it

    cache_for_seconds = 60
    key = 'key'

    SimpleCache.fetch(key, cache_for_seconds, fn ->
      {:ok, some_expensive_operation}
    end)

Relavent links:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35218738/caching-expensive-computation-in-elixir
https://dockyard.com/blog/2017/05/19/optimizing-elixir-and-phoenix-with-ets

We’ll be deploying using a git hook. This is not intended to be used in a production environment, but works just fine for a personal side project.

Let’s start with the server setup
Erlang/Elixir

#Add Erlang Solutions repo
wget https://packages.erlang-solutions.com/erlang-solutions_1.0_all.deb && sudo dpkg -i erlang-solutions_1.0_all.deb

sudo apt-get update

#Install Erlang/OTP
sudo apt-get install esl-erlang

We’ll be using kiex for Elixir

#Install Elixir
\curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/taylor/kiex/master/install | bash -s

#Add to .bashrc
test -s "$HOME/.kiex/scripts/kiex" && source "$HOME/.kiex/scripts/kiex"

kiex install 1.4.0
kiex use 1.4.0
kiex default 1.4.0

Let’s init a repo

apt-get install git-core
mkdir repos && cd repos
mkdir my_repo 
cd my_repo
git init --bare

Add a remote to your local repo:

git remote add some_name root@IP_ADDRESS:repos/your_repo.git

Go back to the server and create a post-deploy hook. This will generate a new release after each git push.

Create post-receive file inside of your git hooks directory with this content:

#!/bin/bash -l

[[ -s "$HOME/.kiex/scripts/kiex" ]] && source "$HOME/.kiex/scripts/kiex"

GIT_REPO=$HOME/repos/your_repo.git
TMP_GIT_CLONE=$HOME/tmp/git/your_repo

cd $TMP_GIT_CLONE

PORT=4000 _build/prod/rel/{app_name}/bin/{app_name} stop
cd $HOME
rm -r $TMP_GIT_CLONE
git clone $GIT_REPO $TMP_GIT_CLONE
cd $TMP_GIT_CLONE

mix deps.get
cd assets
npm install
brunch build --production
cd ..
MIX_ENV=prod mix do compile, phx.digest, release --env=prod

MIX_ENV=prod mix ecto.migrate
PORT=4000 _build/prod/rel/{app_name}/bin/{app_name} start

This will stop your existing elixir app, remove old code, compile and release your new code, run the migration, and start the app on port 4000.

If you run it behind NGINX, set it up as a reverse proxy:

server {
  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;

  server_name domain.com;

  location / {
     proxy_redirect off;
     proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4000/;
  }
}

Let’s go back to your Phoenix project and add distillery
Add to mix.exs deps:

  {:distillery, "~> 1.5"}

Initialize reliase config:

mix release.init

Update config/prod.exs

  config :app_name, AiPhoenixWeb.Endpoint,
    http: [port: {:system, "PORT"}],
    url: [host: "localhost", port: {:system, "PORT"}], # This is critical for ensuring web-sockets properly authorize.
    cache_static_manifest: "priv/static/cache_manifest.json",
    server: true,
    root: ".",
    version: Mix.Project.config[:version]

If using PostgreSQL, let’s install Postgresql and create a deploy user for our database:

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib libpq-dev
sudo su - postgres
createuser --pwprompt deploy
createdb -O deploy my_app_name_production
Exit

Auto-start your phoenix app on reboot:
Create a new file:

#!/bin/bash

cd $HOME/phoenix_app_location
PORT=4001 _build/prod/rel/phoenix_name/bin/phoenix_name start

Make it an executable
chmod +x phoenix_autostart.sh

Schedule it as a cron task:
Crontab -e

@reboot /root/path_to_script/phoenix_autostart.sh

The last step to to “git push” and verify that everything works.

Show routes:
mix phoenix.routes

Generating resources:
mix phoenix.gen.html Post posts –no-model
mix phoenix.gen.json Post posts

Ecto
Types

• :string
• :integer
• :map
• :binary_id
• :float
• :boolean

Writing Queries
Two ways

1. Query

   import Ecto.Query
   
   from p in context.Posts
   where p.Title.Contains("Stuff")
   select p;
   

2. Expression

   MyApp.Post
   |> where(titlle: "Stuff")
   |> limit(1)
   

Making changes – https://hexdocs.pm/ecto/Ecto.Changeset.html
changeset = Post.changeset(post, %{title: “updated”})
Repo.update(changeset)
Repo.delete(post)

Migrations
Generate migration:
mix ecto.gen.migration [migration_name] -r [repo]

Generate schema:
mix phoenix.gen.model [Schema] [table] [fields] -r [repo]

Run/Rollback migration
mix ecto.migrate -r [repo]
mix ecto.rollback -r [repo]

Generate migration:
Does not generate schema module:
mix ecto.gen.migration [migration_name] -r [repo]

Generates both schema model and a migration:
mix phoenix.gen.model [Schema] [table] [fields] -r [repo]

To avoid specifying repo all the time:
config :my_app, ecto_repos: [MyApp.Repo]

Mac

• Elixir – brew install elixir
• node – brew install node
• Postgres – Postgres.app

Windows
For Windows, can use Chocolatey to install node and Elixir. Postgres seems to be outdated as of time of this post. Or download from source and install:

• Elixir
• node
• Postgres

Add to Windows path PostgreSQL (dependent on PostgreSQL version), so we can use psql on command line –
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.6\bin
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.6\lib

Install phoenix:

$ mix archive.install https://github.com/phoenixframework/archives/raw/master/phoenix_new.ez

Alternatively, download a specific version from https://github.com/phoenixframework/archives.

Generate and run a new project:

$ mix phoenix.new my_first_app
$ mix ecto.create
$ npm install
$ iex -S mix phoenix.server
iex> :observer.start

Install the following plugins with Package Control:

• A TextMate / Sublime Text Bundle – enables language support and syntax highlighting
• ElixirSublime – enables code completion, go to definition, errors and warnings

Now, you should be able to see all of your errors and you can build directly from Sublime (Ctrl + B, unless you have a different binding).

Github repo for Credo provides all of the instructions to install.
I installed it as stand alone:

$ git clone git@github.com:rrrene/credo.git
$ cd credo
$ mix deps.get
$ mix archive.build
$ mix archive.install

Also had to install bunt, since it is a dependency:
git clone https://github.com/rrrene/bunt
cd bunt
mix archive.build
mix archive.install

After that, run “mix yourElixirFile.exs” and it will lint your file with something like this:

• Somewhat nontraditional learning course. You’re taking the role of an employee at a space company. You write code and learn Elixir as you fulfill your tasks
• Official Elixir site
• Elixir School
• Elixir jobs, if you’re trying to find one
• An Elixir regular expression editor & tester
• Elixir Sips by Josh Adams. – Haven’t tried it myself yet, but looks like a pretty good resource to learn Elixir
• Programming Elixir book.
• https://www.learnphoenix.tv/
• https://www.learnelixir.tv/
• Elixir Koans
• Exercism.io

Some twitter accounts to follow:
@josevalim – José Valim – creator of Elixir
@elixirlang
@elixirphoenix