Thimble's README needs to describe the session variables which are required for deployment, especially when using S3 and/or heroku. Currently, LOGINAPI, SESSION_SECRET, and S3 credentials aren't mentioned, but they exist in `env.dist`. If these variables are absent when attempting to deploy to heroku, wild nasty cryptic errors appear! ``` 2013-05-29T15:49:59.054293+00:00 app[web.1]: url.js:118 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059382+00:00 app[web.1]: at module.exports (/app/node_modules/webmaker-loginapi/index.js:24:23) 2013-05-29T15:49:59.056929+00:00 app[web.1]: throw new TypeError("Parameter 'url' must be a string, not " + typeof url) 2013-05-29T15:49:59.057075+00:00 app[web.1]: ^ 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059382+00:00 app[web.1]: at Object.<anonymous> (/app/app.js:30:44) 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059382+00:00 app[web.1]: at Module._compile (module.js:456:26) 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059382+00:00 app[web.1]: at Url.parse (url.js:118:11) 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059382+00:00 app[web.1]: at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12) 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059382+00:00 app[web.1]: at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10) 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059382+00:00 app[web.1]: at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10) 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059382+00:00 app[web.1]: TypeError: Parameter 'url' must be a string, not undefined 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059382+00:00 app[web.1]: at Object.urlParse [as parse] (url.js:112:5) 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059673+00:00 app[web.1]: at startup (node.js:119:16) 2013-05-29T15:49:59.059382+00:00 app[web.1]: at Module.load (module.js:356:32) ``` Maybe those should be cleaned up as well, i.e. display human-friendly errors.

I'll update the README with the required environment variables. Good catch, sorry that I forgot to keep the docs in sync.

Thanks! Left some comments in the pull request.

fixed and new pull filed.

Looks good! r+

Commit pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/thimble.webmaker.org https://github.com/mozilla/thimble.webmaker.org/commit/b401004b52548365274893e2a85e197d6485e8a6 Merge pull request #84 from Pomax/bug877214 better heroku instructions

landed.