Deploy a NodeJS Restful application with Docker using Nginx as the proxy-server( Ubuntu )

Lately, as a move towards efficient continuous integration and continuous development( CI/CD ), I have been dockerizing all my applications and running these applications inside containers using Docker. NodeJS turned out to be a hard nut to crack...but alas it's finally cracked. This is how i managed to dockerize and run a NodeJS RESTFUL app at long last.

1. Navigate to your preferred file system and create a directory and then change into the created directory.
   $ mkdir <foldername> && cd <foldername>

2. Create a new nodejs app using npm or yarn by running:
   $ npm init <application name>

3. Add your app dependencies such as Express:
   $ npm install express --save

4. You should now have a package.json file, the node_modules folders and maybe some lock files. Create the main file this command under your app directory terminal window / shell by running: $ touch <filename>.js
   5.Edit the package.json file. Add this if not existent under the scripts defintion and save the file.
   

"scripts": { "start": "node <mainfile>" } 

1. To dockerize the app; add the following files from the terminal under the app directory file system. $ touch Dockerfile $ touch docker-compose.yml
2. Open and Edit the Dockerfile with the following contents.

# obtain the node image FROM node # change to the working directory WORKDIR <directory_name> #move the package file to the current working directory COPY package*.json ./ # install the depedencies RUN npm install COPY . . # run the app CMD [ "node", <mainfile> ] 

1. Make a new directory inside the app folder to handle the nginx configuration, cd into the folder and create a new nginx conf file. mkdir nginx && cd nginx && touch default.conf
2. Edit the default conf file with these contents; environment name and port should be obtained and defined in the docker-compose.yml file.

http { upstream backend { server <environment_name: port> } server { location / { proxy_pass http://backend; } } } 

1. Edit the docker-compose.yml with these contents.

versions: '3', services: nginx_server: image: nginx #image of the nginx volumes: - './nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf' ports: - '8000:80' #define the node app container app: container_name: <container name> build: context: . dockerfile: Dockerfile #name of the dockerfile we created ports: - '3000:80' #docker container port = 3000, host port= 80 environment: - APPID=3000