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How to dockerize a React app with Nest JS server code...!
Namaste coders :) Welcome to my tech blog on dockerizing React app with one of Node's typescript framework. This is my first ever post in DEV, excited to contribute it 😃.
1. Dockerize both React app and Nest JS separately and compose them.
2. Dockerize both of the apps in a single docker file.
Create a docker file as below in React app-
FROM node:14.16.1
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json ./
RUN npm install
COPY . .
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["npm", "start"]`
Also create a .dockerignore file
node_modules
.git
.gitignore
Next step is that we have to build the docker image of the React app.
docker build . -t react
Now run the tagged image as below.
docker run --name react -d -p 80:3000 react
Open http://localhost:3000 and you should see React served from Docker.
Also you can check the docker container running as below with docker ps
command.
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
6aea1cf12647 react "docker-entrypoint.s…" 11 days ago Up 3 seconds 0.0.0.0:80->3000/tcp, :::80->3000/tcp react
Create a docker file as below in your server directory-
FROM node:14.16.1
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json ./
RUN npm install
COPY . .
EXPOSE 5000
CMD [ "npm", "run", "start:dev" ]
As similar to above create a .dockerignore file
node_modules
.git
.gitignore
Next step is that we have to build the docker image of the server app.
docker build . -t server
Now run the tagged image as below.
docker run --name server -d -p 80:5000 server
Let's check this by hitting http://localhost:5000 and you should see your Nest JS being served from Docker.
So, now we have stepped into the final process of running both simultaneously by creating docker compose yaml file in the project root directory as below.
version: "3"
services:
frontend:
container_name: client
build:
context: ./client
dockerfile: Dockerfile
image: react
ports:
- "3000:3000"
volumes:
- ./client:/app
backend:
container_name: backend
build:
context: ./server
dockerfile: Dockerfile
image: server
ports:
- "5000:5000"
volumes:
- ./server:/app
Run the command docker-compose up
and you should see both the apps running.
I would recommend this approach than the above, it's simple and preferred to follow for deploying these kind of applications for dev, qa and prod environments.
As we have both apps React and Nest JS server code. We initially need to build our React UI code and should copy the build folder contents as below -
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/practicaldev/image/fetch/s--e_rGgGhd--/c_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto%2Cw_880/https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/xjfzr93av9h0ria6u4sa.jpg)
After, we need to paste them in public folder of the Nest JS server code root directory.
Note: In Nest JS, you need to place server static module in app.module.ts file as below
ServeStaticModule.forRoot({
rootPath: join(__dirname, '..', 'public'),
}),
Finally, you are all set to run the docker file with commands below
FROM node:14.16.1:lts-alpine
RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY . .
RUN cd ./client && npm ci && npm run build && cd ..
RUN cd ./server && npm ci && cd ..
RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app/server/public
RUN cp -r ./client/build/* ./server/public/
WORKDIR /usr/src/app/server
RUN npm run prebuild
RUN npm run build
EXPOSE 5000
CMD [ "npm", "run", "start:dev" ]
Build the docker file
docker build . -t ReactServer
And finally run the image
docker run --name ReactServer -d -p 80:5000 ReactServer
Open http://localhost:5000 and you should see the application served from Docker.
Congratulations you successfully dockerized React UI and Nestjs server...🎉🎉🎉
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