Docker gives developers the ability to package all of their applications inside of containers. These containers can run on any machine that has Docker installed and the application will be identical. This is a great way to run a clone of a codebase on multiple systems and you can be sure that they are all going to be the same.
CI/CD workflows and DevOps testing environments are significantly better when using Docker which is essentially a set of software tools that can be shared. Kubernetes is another tool which is used for operating multiple Docker containers but in a much larger scale.
In this tutorial we will learn how to create and run a NodeJS Express backend and a React frontend inside of a Docker container.
Running a NodeJS Express backend inside Docker
Before you begin make sure that you have Docker installed and running on your computer.
Now use the command line to navigate to a directory like your desktop then run the commands below.
mkdir my-app-docker
cd my-app-docker
touch docker-compose.yml
mkdir api
cd api
npm init -y
npm i express
touch app.js Dockerfile .dockerignore
cd ..
We setup a backend called api and created some Docker files. Now open the project in your code editor and add the code below to their corresponding files.
Put this in the docker-compose.yml file. Be careful with the yaml formatting otherwise you will get Docker errors when you try to run it.
version: '3.8'
services:
api:
build: ./api
container_name: api_backend
ports:
- '4000:4000'
volumes:
- ./api:/app
- ./app/node_modules
Add this is the app.js file.
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const port = process.env.PORT || 4000;
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.send('Home Route');
});
app.listen(port, () =>
console.log(`Server running on port ${port}, http://localhost:${port}`)
);
Now add this line to the .dockerignore file.
node_modules
Next add this code to the Dockerfile file.
FROM node:16-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json .
RUN npm install
COPY . .
EXPOSE 4000
CMD ["node", "app.js"]
Lastly add this run script to the package.json file.
"scripts": {
"start": "node app.js"
},
(Optional) Using Nodemon to have the server auto restart when changes occur
If you want to have the server restart every single time you make a change to the files in the backend then you can configure it to use Nodemon.
All you have to do is update the Dockerfile and package.json file inside of the api folder.
Update the code in the Dockerfile using the code below. We are now installing Nodemon at the start and using dev as the run command.
FROM node:16-alpine
RUN npm install -g nodemon
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json .
RUN npm install
COPY . .
EXPOSE 4000
CMD ["npm", "run", "dev"]
Now update the package.json file with this run script for Nodemon.
"scripts": {
"start": "node app.js",
"dev": "nodemon -L app.js"
},
We just created a basic NodeJS Express app that runs on port 4000. That port is also mapped to 4000 in docker which lets us run it in a Docker container.
Starting the servers
To run the server outside of a Docker container using Node like normal just run the code below in your command line. You need to be sure that you are inside of the api folder. If you go to http://localhost:4000 you should see the home route in your browser window.
npm run start
Getting the NodeJS Express app to run inside of Docker requires a different command. First you need to be in the root folder where the docker-compose.yml file is. Now run the command below and it should run inside of a Docker container.
Don't forget to stop the node server running first because you can only have one server running on port 4000.
docker-compose up
If you go to http://localhost:4000 you should see the home route in your browser window.
You can stop the server with the command below or you can go to the Docker app and stop the container from running.
docker-compose down
Running a React frontend inside Docker
Now lets create a React frontend! Use your command line to get inside of the root folder for my-app-docker. Run the commands below to setup the project.
npx create-react-app client
cd client
touch .dockerignore Dockerfile
Now add the code below into their corresponding files.
Add this line into the .dockerignore file.
node_modules
Put this code into the Dockerfile file.
FROM node:17-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json .
RUN npm install
COPY . .
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["npm", "start"]
Finally update the docker-compose.yml in the root folder with the code below. We have added a client section at the bottom with settings for getting React running inside of a Docker container. Be careful with the yaml formatting otherwise you will get Docker errors when you try to run it.
version: '3.8'
services:
api:
build: ./api
container_name: api_backend
ports:
- '4000:4000'
volumes:
- ./api:/app
- ./app/node_modules
client:
build: ./client
container_name: client_frontend
ports:
- '3000:3000'
volumes:
- ./client:/app
- ./app/node_modules
stdin_open: true
tty: true
Starting the servers
To run the server outside of a Docker container using Node like normal just run the code below in your command line. Make sure that you are inside of the client folder. If you go to http://localhost:3000 you should see the home route in your browser window.
npm run start
Getting the React app to run inside of Docker requires a different command. First you need to be in the root folder where the docker-compose.yml file is. Now run the command below and it should run inside of a Docker container.
Don't forget to stop the React app server running first because you can only have one server running on port 3000.
docker-compose up
If you go to http://localhost:3000 you should see the home route in your browser window.
You can stop the server with the command below or you can go to the Docker app and stop the container from running.
docker-compose down
With this setup you can have a NodeJS backend and React frontend running at the same time inside of Docker! If you encounter any errors then you might need to open your Docker desktop application and remove any images that are related to this project. Then you can try running the docker-compose up command again and hopefully this time everything should be working as expected.
Top comments (15)
Great article! How do you recommend approaching a similar setup that supports restarting on file changes? Not necessarily a hot reload (although that would be nice too) but just a way to not have to kill and restart the entire container if you need to make an edit to the client or server while running.
Auto reload already works for the React client frontend. I just updated the article with a new section (Optional) Using Nodemon to have the server auto restart when changes occur.
Nodemon will give you the ability to have changes auto update on the backend too!
👏
Quality stuff as always! 🤘
Thanks!
Valuable and timely
Thanks!
You wrote a great article. I use docker-compose (poorly) for some Angular and React apps I develop. I had never heard of nodemon and will check that out. I like how clean your build files are.
Thank you for sharing this article!
Thanks Andrew , for sharing this. I was looking for the same thing for my current product 🙂.
Great timing I hope it helps.
Great!!!
Can anyone say, what is the difference it make when we use docker?
Why are we adding run script in package.json in backend when we have defined CMD [ node app.js ] in dockerfile itself ?