I’m currently working on a shopping-list app for a school project. It’s built on the Full-Stack JavaScript framework Meteor and runs on Heroku. During the deployment I made some notes on how you get a Meteor app up & running.

Meteor uses MongoDB. On Heroku you can add this as a Add-on (mongolab) but you need to add a Billing method to your account.

Setup Heroku for a Meteor app

Go into your meteor app:

cd <yourmeteorapp>

Log in to heroku:

 heroku login
 

Create a new heroku app with the meteor buildpack:

heroku create --buildpack https://github.com/jordansissel/heroku-buildpack-meteor.git

Add mongolab:

heroku addons:add mongolab:sandbox

Set the root url of your app:

heroku config:set ROOT_URL=https://<your_app_name>.herokuapp.com/

Add heroku as a remote of your git repository:

heroku git:remote -a <your_app_name>

Get your MONGOLAB URI:

heroku config | grep MONGOLAB_URI (you need to add a password in mongolab for your app)

Set the output from above as MONGO URL:

heroku config:set MONGO_URL=mongodb://heroku_app0000000000:<hash>@00000.mongolab.com:0000/heroku_app000000

After each change the heroku app should automatically restart.

Deploy new commits to your heroku app:

git push heroku

Additional notes

Check the logs if everything is alright:

heroku logs

Open heroku app in your browser:

heroku open

Now you should have your Meteor app up & running on Heroku. Heroku really makes deployment easy and fun!

EDIT 10.05.2015: Added correct heroku buildpack command.