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:

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

await admin.bundleNow({ hotReload: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development'});
console.log('Bundling AdminForth done.');

Now completely Remove bundleNow call from index.ts file:

./index.ts

(async () => {
      // 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.');
})();

In root directory create file .dockerignore:

node_modules
*.sqlite

In root directory create file Dockerfile:

FROM node:18
ADD package.json package-lock.json ./
RUN npm ci
ADD . .
RUN tsx bundleNow.ts
CMD ["npm", "start"]

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!\
  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:

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
    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"
   

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

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';

2. 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`)"

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