The Problem
I'm dipping my toes into AWS by deploying a simple API built with NestJS. This will be the first app I've deployed to a cloud service. I've already cloned my repository on an AWS Lightsail Linux instance with Node.js and installed all of my dependencies. However, I'm confused on how best to provide environment variables to my app.
Obviously, I has a local .env file that I used during development with credentials for my database, port info, etc. Do I just create a new .env file on the machine running my instance through the command line? I've read that for other AWS services you can provide env variables through that service's UI, but I can't find the same thing for Lightsail.
I would greatly appreciate it if someone could give me an explanation of env variables, and how we should generally provide them to cloud services.
Thank you!
There could be a better method. But, you could add a file locally on the LightSail server itself. If you don't know how to do so through console, I'll explain below.
Create the file: touch .env
Open up the file in console: vim .env.
Now you will see the file opened up in console, with weird UI if you haven't seen it before.
Prepare to write to file: press i.
Now you should see a the ~Insert~ mode appear at the bottom.
Add the variables: copy and paste your .env from your local laptop to your lightsail console.
close out: press esc, then type in :wq, and click on enter
This should work as normal with any .env file. I'm unsure if there are security issues with this, but I don't believe so.
I have a node.js application I have adopted from a more senior developer. I want to deploy it, and I know it will work because he already deployed it several times. I am reading these instructions:
https://galaxy-guide.meteor.com/deploy-quickstart.html
I use windows, as did he.
How does deployment work?
Take these instructions:
Windows If you are using Windows, the commands to deploy are slightly
different. You need to set the environment variable first, then run
the deployment command second (the syntax is the same as everything
you’d put for meteor deploy).
In the case of US East, the commands would be:
$ SET DEPLOY_HOSTNAME=galaxy.meteor.com
$ meteor deploy [hostname]
--settings path-to-settings.json
Am I just supposed to go to the source directory on my laptop and run these commands? What then happens? Is the source uploaded to their server from my laptop and then their magic takes care of the rest?
What about when I want to make a change to the code? Do I just do the same thing, poiting to an existing container and, again, they do the magic?
Am I just supposed to go to the source directory on my laptop and run these commands? What then happens? Is the source uploaded to their server from my laptop and then their magic takes care of the rest?
It is not magic. You basically go to your dev root and enter these commands. Under the hood it builds your app for production (including minification and prod flags for optimization) and once complete opens a connection to the aws infrastructure and pushes the build bundle.
See: https://github.com/meteor/meteor/blob/devel/tools/meteor-services/deploy.js
On the server there will be some install and post install scripts that set up all the environment for you and, if there are no errrors in the process, start your app.
These scripts have if course some automation, depending on your account settings and the commands you have entered.
What about when I want to make a change to the code? Do I just do the same thing, poiting to an existing container and, again, they do the magic?
You will have to rebuild (using the given deploy command) again but Galaxy will take care of the rest.
I have a web app developed with a NodeJS + Express + GraphQL + MongoDB back-end and a ReactJS + Apollo front-end. I would like to deploy this application locally. Is that even possible?
I have come across dozens of "how to deploy to Heroku," "how to deploy to Digital Ocean", "how to deploy to Github", etc. But none that explains how to deploy locally.
Right now, I run: nodemon server for the back-end, and npm start for the front-end. I see the application running on http://localhost:3000/ (I use cors to connect the front end with the server running on port 3001).
I would like to just go to http://localhost:3000/ and see the app without having to execute the commands npm start and nodemon server. Is this possible? If so, how do I do that?
To my knowledge, our local server is not a WAMP server (our OS is Windows though). The IT department told me that it is a
[...] plain, regular old server. The address is localhost running on
port 3000. You can open up another port on 3001 if you need it. Just
drop your stuff on the C: drive and you should be good to go. I've
never heard of Node or React so I can't help if you have questions.
Any ideas? Many thanks in advance for your help!
UPDATE
There seems to be a bit of confusion surrounding what I am looking for. I am trying to deploy this locally.
Let's say, on your local computer (your laptop at home) you go to localhost:3000 on your favorite browser. Unless you are serving something to localhost in that moment nothing is going to show up, it will say "refused to connect" or something. What I want is to be able to open any machine on the network whenever I go to localhost:3000 and my react site appears and functions...does that make more sense?
I don't want this is development mode. I want a build of this project on localhost...I'm starting to think this isn't possible.
As i understood, you want to deploy it on a local server, not locally on your developing device.
I thought about doing that...but I'm not so sure IT will be okay with it always running... :(
How can you use a server if its not running? Just like WAMP (which runs apache), or whatever you got rolling there, it must be running. So, just make it a background process like slawomir suggested.
PS I dont think you understand node server properly though.
Read this to understand why node server needs reloading. After that you need to understand that no hot reload tool is perfect, and you gonna need to restart your server from time to time.
PPS I dont know what this means
[...] plain, regular old server. The address is localhost running on port 3000.
if there is a server running on 3000, youll need to change port for your server to smth else (most common is 9000)
To solve the problem you can create a startup script, which executes npm start and nodemon server. Then make sure to keep it hidden, so that your server will be always running. Keep in mind though, that any errors thrown will stop your server and unless you configure it, the server won't reload by itself.
I would try following:
build your app with the production environment variables set
get all files from dist folder and deploy them in your server
now access your app using localhost/
Maybe what you are looking for is something like ngrok which creates a socks tunnel to your localhost, effectivelly deploying from localhost, as I understand it, allowing you to access your localhost through a url like ldiuhv093.ngrok.io, or even a custom subdomain if you pay for a subscription fee.
If I have this wrong, someone please tell me!
To solve the problem first of need to create a batch file with .bat or .cmd extension and under that file add the following 2 command
nodemon server
npm start
Then follows the following steps to add it as a startup script for windows OS.
Create a shortcut to the batch file.
Once the shortcut has been created, right-click the file and select
Cut.
Press the Start button and type Run and press enter.
In the Run window, type shell:startup to open the Startup folder.
Once the Startup folder has been opened, click the Home tab at the
top of the folder and select Paste to paste the shortcut into the
folder.
Above steps are for example to create a batch file and add it as a startup script for Windows 8 and 10 users.
For better clarity or reference follows the following link.reference-link
There's no option to reload the server while keeping it running. You could, technically, have your 'main' file monitor another file for changes. This would be the file where you actually keep your sever program. Then, on changes, you discard your current logic and start executing that. That said, doing it that way would be very fragile and a very round-about way to do it. It also wouldn't fix your front-end for which you'd need a similar solution.
Instead, you could hook into your favorite editor's save event, and run those two console commands, so that every time you save, the server is automatically brought up. (Make sure to also clean up existing servers)
Run on Save for VSCode
save-commands for Atom
I know this post has been two years. But, I think the solution to your second desired outcome is to use concurrency. https://www.npmjs.com/package/concurrently.
This will allow you to do one NPM START to start two all three processes.
and to your first question, I think the solution is to add Electron to your app so you can package it to an executable application. When you start the app, your express server will start running in the background.
Most people probably don't understand why there is a need for this. Running on local server (computer) allows access to local file system and can even run SQL queries inside the proxy which would require IT involvement if hosted on outside server.
From what I have understand, that you want to deploy your app on local server that means you want to deploy it on the network that you are connected to.
Check ip from the command prompt
To deploy it locally,
Run: HOST=ip npm run start
It will get deploy on your local server. And everyone connected to the server can access the url
If this worked for you, kindly upvote
You need to do npm start There may be other ways of starting it but, all will result in the same. You can read this article on Freecodecamp on deploying on DigitalOcean. You can manipulate it to your localhost. Shouldn't be too different.FCC Tut on Deploying
I have a Node.js app that is live on Heroku
The Node.js folders/files that I uploaded on Heroku also reside on my computer
Whenever I update my Node.js folders/files on my computer, I want these updates to also be applied to the folders/files that are live on Heroku.
I want to be able to do that without having to stop, update and restart my Heroku app every time.
What I'm describing is basically a setup equivalent to that of the standard ftp connection that we all use whenever we make a local to remote update of static files of some standard website.
The git support that apparently Heroku offers doesn't do that. It requires for the app to be stopped (by running the appropriate commands on the terminal), then I need to make a git push (using the terminal) that updates all of the files (which takes forever) and not just the ones that need to be updated, and then the app needs to be restarted (again using the terminal). This is extremely frustrating for an app that is still in development, requires constant updates and cannot be tested locally (for a number of reasons).
Whenever a Node.js app is tested locally, the app can be started by calling supervisor app.js instead of node app.js.
What this does is it allows for the app to be updated and as soon as that happens (i.e. as soon as I hit "save") supervisor automatically restarts the app locally.
I'm looking for something similar to the above, i.e. linking my local app folder to my remote app folder and starting my remote app (on Heroku) using some supervisor mode so that as soon as my local folder is updated, my remote folder is also changed and the app automatically restarted.
It's extremely frustrating trying to test a Heroku app (that obviously needs constant updates) currently.
Testing it locally and then publishing it on Heroku (for good) will not do because some apps simply cannot be tested on localhost.
Any help would be much appreciated!
The git support that apparently Heroku offers doesn't do that. It
requires for the app to be stopped (by running the appropriate
commands on the terminal), then I need to make a git push (using the
terminal) that updates all of the files (which takes forever) and not
just the ones that need to be updated, and then the app needs to be
restarted (again using the terminal). This is extremely frustrating
for an app that is still in development, requires constant updates and
cannot be tested locally (for a number of reasons).
First, you don't need to stop your app before running git push heroku master. Just push, and the platform will build, and then restart your app with the new code, automatically. Second, git uses a diffing algorithm, so you aren't pushing all of the files - you're in fact just pushing the differences (assuming you're using git correctly). Third, you don't need to do that final, manual restart - the platform has already done this for you on push. Finally, I would advise that if your app is impossible to test locally, you might want to reconsider the architecture of that app. It sounds very un-portable. Perhaps refer to 12factor.net for a good architecture checklist.
Testing it locally and then publishing it on Heroku (for good) will not do because some apps simply cannot be tested on localhost.
What type of app are you building that would be impossible to test outside of a production environment?
In any case, the closest thing I'm aware of to what you're looking for is Dropbox Sync:
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/dropbox-sync
I have variable that I am attempting to reference via access via process.env.VAR_NAME. It was working fine when I was developing on my local machine (a Mac), but doesn't seem to work on the Ubuntu server I deployed to. The server has the variable in /etc/environment, which I believed was the correct file for settings, but it's undefined when I run the app. I have also tried calling export VAR_NAME=... before starting the node server, but that also didn't seem to help.