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Deploy in Docker

In general you can already run your index.ts file which we created in Getting Started with ts-node command in any node environment.

It will start the server on configured HTTP port and you can use any proxy like Traefik/Nginx to expose it to the internet and add SSL Layer.

Building SPA in Docker build time​

In current index.ts file you might use call to bundleNow method which starts building internal SPA bundle when index.ts started executing. SPA building generally takes from 10 seconds to minute depending on the external modules you will add into AdminForth and extended functionality you will create.

To fully exclude this bundle time we recommend doing bundling in build time.

Create file bundleNow.ts in the root directory of your project:

and put the following code:

./bundleNow.ts
import { admin } from './index.js';

await admin.bundleNow({ hotReload: false});
console.log('Bundling AdminForth done.');

Now completely Remove bundleNow call from index.ts file:

./index.ts
  // needed to compile SPA. Call it here or from a build script e.g. in Docker build time to reduce downtime
  await admin.bundleNow({ hotReload: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development'});
  console.log('Bundling AdminForth done. For faster serving consider calling bundleNow() from a build script.');
  if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development') {
    await admin.bundleNow({ hotReload: true });
    console.log('Bundling AdminForth done');
  }

In root directory create file .dockerignore:

./.dockerignore
node_modules
*.sqlite

In root directory create file Dockerfile:

# use the same node version which you used during dev
FROM node:20-alpine
RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/tmp
WORKDIR /code/
ADD package.json package-lock.json /code/
RUN npm ci  
ADD . /code/
RUN npx tsx bundleNow.ts
CMD ["npm", "run", "migrateLiveAndStart"]

Add bundleNow and startLive to package.json:

./package.json
{
    "type": "module",
    "scripts": {
        "start": "tsx watch --env-file=.env index.ts",
        "startLive": "NODE_ENV=production tsx index.ts"
        "migrate": "npx prisma migrate dev --name init"
        "migrateLiveAndStart": "npm run migrate && npm run startLive"
    },
}

Building the image​

Now you can build your image:

docker build -t myadminapp .

And run container with:

docker run -p 3500:3500 \
  -e NODE_ENV=production \
  -e ADMINFORTH_SECRET=CHANGEME \
  -e DATABASE_FILE=/code/db/db.sqlite \
  -e DATABASE_FILE_URL=file:/code/db/db.sqlite \
  -v $(pwd)/db:/code/db \
  myadminapp

Now open your browser and go to http://localhost:3500 to see your AdminForth application running in Docker container.

Adding SSL (https) to AdminForth​

There are lots of ways today to put your application behind SSL gateway. You might simply put AdminForth instance behind free Cloudflare CDN, change 3500 port to 80 and Cloudflare will automatically add SSL layer and faster CDN for your application.

However as a bonus here we will give you independent way to add free LetsEncrypt SSL layer to your AdminForth application.

First move all contents of your root folder (which contains index.ts and other files) to app folder:

mkdir app
mv {.,}*  app

In root directory create file compose.yml:

./compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  traefik:
    image: "traefik:v2.5"
    command:
      - "--api.insecure=true"
      - "--providers.docker=true"
      - "--entrypoints.web.address=:80"
      - "--entrypoints.websecure.address=:443"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.myresolver.acme.httpchallenge=true"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.myresolver.acme.httpchallenge.entrypoint=web"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.myresolver.acme.email=demo@devforth.io" #  ☝️ replace with your email
      - "--certificatesresolvers.myresolver.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro"
      - "./letsencrypt:/letsencrypt"
    labels:
      - "traefik.http.middlewares.redirect-to-https.redirectscheme.scheme=https"
      - "traefik.http.routers.http-catchall.rule=hostregexp(`{host:.+}`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.http-catchall.entrypoints=web"
      - "traefik.http.routers.http-catchall.middlewares=redirect-to-https"
      - "traefik.http.routers.http-catchall.tls=false"

  adminforth:
    build: ./app
    environment:
      - NODE_ENV=production
      - ADMINFORTH_SECRET=!CHANGEME! # ☝️ replace with your secret
      - DATABASE_FILE=/code/db/db.sqlite
      - DATABASE_FILE_URL=file:/code/db/db.sqlite
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.adminforth.tls=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.adminforth.tls.certresolver=myresolver"
      - "traefik.http.routers.adminforth.rule=PathPrefix(`/`)"
      - "traefik.http.services.adminforth.loadbalancer.server.port=3500"
      - "traefik.http.routers.adminforth.priority=1"
    # needed only if you are using SQLite
    volumes:
      - db:/code/db

# needed only if you are using SQLite
volumes:
  db:

networks:
  default:
    driver: bridge

Now pull this compose file and all directories to your server and run:

docker compose -p stack-my-app -f compose.yml up -d --build --remove-orphans --wait

☝️ You can also test this compose stack locally on your machine but SSL will not work, so locally you can ignore Chrome warning about SSL and test your AdminForth application.

Subpath deployment​

If you want to deploy your AdminForth application to a sub-folder like https://mydomain.com/admin you should do the following:

  1. Open index.ts file and change ADMIN_BASE_URL constant to your subpath:
./index.ts
const ADMIN_BASE_URL = '';
const ADMIN_BASE_URL = '/admin/';
  1. Open compose.yml file and change traefik.http.routers.adminforth.rule to your subpath:
./compose.yml
      ...
       - "traefik.http.routers.adminforth.tls.certresolver=myresolver"
      - "traefik.http.routers.adminforth.rule=PathPrefix(`/`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.adminforth.rule=PathPrefix(`/admin/`)"

Redeploy compose.

Now you can access your AdminForth application by going to https://mydomain.com/admin.

If you want to automate the deployment process with CI follow our docker - traefik guide

Nginx version

If you are using Nginx instead of traefik, here is siple proxy pass config:

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name demo.adminforth.dev;

  charset utf-8;
  client_max_body_size 75M;

  gzip on;
  gzip_disable "msie6";
  gzip_vary on;
  gzip_proxied any;
  gzip_comp_level 8;
  gzip_buffers 16 8k;
  gzip_http_version 1.1;
  gzip_min_length 2000;
  gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-font-ttf font/opentype image/svg+xml image/x-icon;

  location / {
      proxy_read_timeout 220s;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
      proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
      proxy_redirect off;
      proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3500;
  }
}