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Help:Toolforge/Building container images/My first static tool using Node.js

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Node.js can be used to deploy static websites. They just serve static files (html, js, css, ...) without running any specific language by themselves.

This stub tutorial is designed to get a sample of a Node.js application installed onto Toolforge using the new build service, as quickly as possible. The application makes use of the serve Node.js webserver, but does not run any code, just serves static files. You could use something similar with other languages/buildpacks.

You can also use this tutorial as a base for deploying more complex Node.js apps, for example using Express instead of Serve if you have to serve dynamic content instead of static files.

The guide will teach you how to:

  • Create a new tool
  • Serve a Node.js webservice on Kubernetes

Getting started

Prerequisites

Skills

Accounts

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: Create a new tool account

  1. Follow the Toolforge quickstart guide to create a Toolforge tool and SSH into Toolforge.
    • For the examples in this tutorial, sample-nodejs-buildpack-app is used to indicate places where your unique tool name is used in another command.
  2. Make sure to create a git repository for the tool, you can get one like this:
    1. Log into the toolforge admin page
    2. Select your tool
    3. On the left side panel, under Git repositories click create repository
    4. Copy the url in the Clone section
      1. There's a private url, that we will use to clone it locally, starting with "git": git@gitlab.wikimedia.org:toolforge-repos/sample-nodejs-buildpack-app.git
      2. And a public one, that we will use to build the app in toolforge, starting with "https": https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/toolforge-repos/sample-nodejs-buildpack-app.git

Step 2: Add serve to your nodejs project and add a run-script to serve static files

How to create a basic nodejs serve webservice

Clone your tool git repository

You will have to clone the tool repository to be able to add code to it, on your local computer (with git installed) you can run: 

laptop:~$ git clone git@gitlab.wikimedia.org:toolforge-repos/sample-nodejs-buildpack-app.git
laptop:~$ cd sample-nodejs-buildpack-app

That will create a folder called sample-nodejs-buildpack-app. We are going to put the code in that folder.

Add the serve package to the project

Add serve to your project with: 

laptop:~sample-nodejs-buildpack-app$ npm install --save serve
Add a Procfile

Add a Procfile with a web line: 

laptop:~sample-nodejs-buildpack-app$ cat > Procfile << EOF
web: npm start
EOF
Add a npm start script to package.json like so

"scripts": { "start": "serve -s dist" },

Make sure there is a build script defined also which compile all your modern js to be compatible and minified to run fast in a browser. This compiled and minified version of your app is by convention placed in the /dist folder.

Build the image

Now we have to ssh to login.toolforge.org and start the build for the image: 

laptop:~sample-nodejs-buildpack-app$ ssh login.toolforge.org  # or the equivalent with PuTTY
dcaro@tools-sgebastion-10$ become sample-nodejs-buildpack-app
tools.sample-static-buildpack-app@tools-sgebastion-10$ toolforge build start https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/toolforge-repos/sample-nodejs-buildpack-app.git
You have to pass the public url of the git repository, otherwise it will not be able to clone it.
Wait for the build to finish

By default it will show you the logs of the build in real time, but if you ctrl-C or lose the session, you can check the status of the build like this: 

tools.sample-static-buildpack-app@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ toolforge build show

You have to wait for the status to be ok(Succeeded).

Start the webservice
tools.sample-nodejs-buildpack-app@tools-sgebastion-10$ toolforge webservice buildservice start --mount=none 
Starting webservice.

Once the webservice is started, navigate to https://sample-static-buildpack-app.toolforge.org in your web browser, and see a 'Sample static site on Toolforge using the build service!' message. It might take a few minutes until it is reachable for the first time.

Notes

You can see the code used in this example here: https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/toolforge-repos/sample-static-buildpack-app

Troubleshooting

See Help:Toolforge/Build_Service#Troubleshooting.


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