Getting Started with OpenShift

Chapter 2. Creating Applications

Since this is a guide for the impatient, we are going to dig right in and create our first application. In this chapter we are going to spin up a plain Python application without any code dependencies. Like we said in the Preface, we chose Python because it is easy to read. The goal is for you to get comfortable with the syntax for creating OpenShift applications; you do not need to know Python to understand this book. Again, we are just using Python to illustrate the patterns of working with OpenShift; this book will most definitely not make you a Python expert.

Preliminary Steps

Before you get started, you’ll need to do two things:

• Sign up for an OpenShift account.
• Install the RHC command-line tools. While you can also use the web interface or the Eclipse plug-in, we believe the command-line tools offer the best opportunity to experience the full power of developing applications on OpenShift. If you would like to know more about creating and managing your applications through the Web Console or an IDE, see the links in Online Resources.

In the next section, we will explain the rhc setup command.

Setting Up the Command-Line Tools

Once you have installed the client tools, you need to configure them to work with your OpenShift Online account. To do this, use the following command:

$ rhc setup

Executing this command sets up your command-line tools to talk to the OpenShift servers. When you run this command, the following things will happen:

• RHC will ...