how to deploy a graphQL server with docker and fly

Express GraphQL is a library for building production ready GraphQL HTTP middleware. Despite the emphasis on Express in the repo name, you can create a GraphQL HTTP server with any HTTP web framework that supports connect styled middleware. This includes Connect itself, Express and Restify.

Docker is a set of tools that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in isolated packages called containers. Containers bundle their own software, libraries and configuration files. Fly is a platform for full stack applications and databases that need to run globally. You can run arbitrary Docker containers and host popular databases like Postgres.

Outline

• Create a Node project with a GraphQL Express server
  • Create project, install dependencies, and include .gitignore
  • Create graphqlHTTP server in index.js
  • Run server and execute test query
• Create a container image
  • Dockerfile
  • .dockerignore
  • Build your image with docker build
  • List Docker images with docker images
• Run the Docker container with docker run and execute test query
  • List containers with docker ps
  • Print the output of your app with docker logs
• Docker Compose file
  • Create and start containers with docker compose up
• Publish to GitHub Container Registry
  • Initialize Git, create a blank repository, and push to newly created repo
  • Login to ghcr.io with docker login
  • Tag image with docker tag
  • Push to registry with docker push
  • Pull your image with docker pull
• Deploy to Fly
  • Install and authenticate flyctl CLI
  • Launch app on Fly with fly launch
  • Deploy application with fly deploy
  • Show the application's current status with fly status

1. Create a Node project with a GraphQL Express server

This article will demonstrate how to create a Docker container with Express GraphQL. The code for this article is available on my GitHub.

Create project, install dependencies, and include .gitignore

mkdir ajcwebdev-express-graphql-dockercd ajcwebdev-express-graphql-dockernpm init -ynpm i express express-graphql graphqltouch index.js Dockerfile .dockerignore docker-compose.ymlecho 'node_modules
.DS_Store
package-lock.json' > .gitignore

Create graphqlHTTP server in index.js

Enter the following code into index.js to import the graphqlHTTP function from express-graphql.

// index.jsconst express = require('express')const { graphqlHTTP } = require('express-graphql')const { buildSchema } = require('graphql')const schema = buildSchema(`type Query { hello: String }`)const rootValue = { hello: () => 'Hello from Express GraphQL!' }const app = express()app.use(  '/graphql',  graphqlHTTP({    schema,    rootValue,    graphiql: {      headerEditorEnabled: true    },  }),)app.listen(8080, '0.0.0.0')console.log('Running Express GraphQL server at http://localhost:8080/graphql')

graphqlHTTP accepts a wide range of options, some of the most common include:

• schema - A GraphQLSchema instance from GraphQL.js
• rootValue - A value to pass as the rootValue to the execute() function
• graphiql - If passed true or an options object it will present GraphiQL when the GraphQL endpoint is loaded in a browser
• headerEditorEnabled - Optional boolean which enables the header editor when true

Run server and execute test query

node index.js

Running Express GraphQL server at http://localhost:8080/graphql

express-graphql will accept requests with the parameters:

• query - A string GraphQL document to be executed
• variables - The runtime values to use for any GraphQL query variables as a JSON object
• operationName - Specifies which operation should be executed if the provided query contains multiple named operations

query HELLO_QUERY { hello }

curl --request POST \  --url http://localhost:8080/graphql \  --header 'content-type: application/json' \  --data '{"query":"{ hello }"}'

2. Create a container image

We need to build a Docker image of your app to run this app inside a Docker container.

Dockerfile

Docker can build images automatically by reading the instructions from a Dockerfile. A Dockerfile is a text document that contains all the commands a user could call on the command line to assemble an image. Using docker build users can create an automated build that executes several command-line instructions in succession.

FROM node:14-alpineLABEL org.opencontainers.image.source https://github.com/ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-dockerWORKDIR /usr/src/appCOPY package*.json ./RUN npm iCOPY . ./EXPOSE 8080CMD [ "node", "index.js" ]

.dockerignore

Before the docker CLI sends the context to the docker daemon, it looks for a file named .dockerignore in the root directory of the context. If this file exists, the CLI modifies the context to exclude files and directories that match patterns in it. This helps avoid sending large or sensitive files and directories to the daemon.

node_modulesDockerfile.dockerignore.git.gitignorenpm-debug.log

This will prevent your local modules and debug logs from being copied onto your Docker image and possibly overwriting modules installed within your image.

Build your image with docker build

The docker build command builds an image from a Dockerfile and a "context". A builds context is the set of files located in the specified PATH or URL. The URL parameter can refer to three kinds of resources:

• Git repositories
• Pre-packaged tarball contexts
• Plain text files

docker build . -t ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker

The -t flag lets you tag your image so it's easier to find later using the docker images command.

List Docker images with docker images

Your image will now be listed by Docker. The docker images command will list all top level images, their repository and tags, and their size.

docker images

REPOSITORYajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-dockerTAGlatestIMAGE IDd833d418e179CREATEDAbout a minute agoSIZE122MB

3. Run the Docker container with docker run and execute test query

Docker runs processes in isolated containers. A container is a process which runs on a host. The host may be local or remote. When an operator executes docker run, the container process that runs is isolated in that it has its own file system, its own networking, and its own isolated process tree separate from the host.

docker run -p 49160:8080 -d ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker

-d runs the container in detached mode, leaving the container running in the background. The -p flag redirects a public port to a private port inside the container.

List containers with docker ps

To test your app, get the port of your app that Docker mapped:

docker ps

CONTAINER ID4bdd108175abIMAGEajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-dockerCOMMAND"docker-entrypoint.s"CREATED16 seconds agoSTATUSUp 14 secondsPORTS0.0.0.0:49160->8080/tcp, :::49160->8080/tcpNAMESsilly_greider

Print the output of your app with docker logs

docker logs <container id>

Running Express GraphQL server at http://localhost:8080/graphql

Docker mapped the 8080 port inside of the container to the port 49160 on your machine. Open localhost:49160/graphql and send a hello query.

query HELLO_QUERY { hello }

curl --request POST \  --url http://localhost:49160/graphql \  --header 'content-type: application/json' \  --data '{"query":"{ hello }"}'

4. Docker Compose file

Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications. After configuring your applications services with a YAML file, you can create and start all your services with a single command. Define the services that make up your app in docker-compose.yml so they can be run together in an isolated environment.

version: "3.9"services:  web:    build: .    ports:      - "49160:8080"

Create and start containers with docker compose up

Stop your currently running container before running the next command or the port will be in use.

docker stop <container id>

The docker compose up command aggregates the output of each container. It builds, (re)creates, starts, and attaches to containers for a service.

docker compose up

Attaching to web_1web_1  | Running Express GraphQL server at http://localhost:8080/graphql

5. Publish to GitHub Container Registry

We can publish this image to the GitHub Container Registry with GitHub Packages. This will require pushing our project to a GitHub repository.

Initialize Git, create a blank repository, and push to newly created repo

git initgit add .git commit -m "A container for my graph"gh repo create ajcwebdev-express-graphql-dockergit push -u origin main

GitHub Packages is a platform for hosting and managing packages that combines your source code and packages in one place including containers and other dependencies. You can integrate GitHub Packages with GitHub APIs, GitHub Actions, and webhooks to create an end-to-end DevOps workflow that includes your code, CI, and deployment solutions.

GitHub Packages offers different package registries for commonly used package managers, such as npm, RubyGems, Maven, Gradle, and Docker. GitHub's Container registry is optimized for containers and supports Docker and OCI images.

Login to ghcr.io with docker login

To login, create a PAT (personal access token) with the ability to read, write, and delete packages and include it instead of xxxx.

export CR_PAT=xxxx

Login with your own username in place of ajcwebdev.

echo $CR_PAT | docker login ghcr.io -u ajcwebdev --password-stdin

Tag image with docker tag

docker tag ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker ghcr.io/ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker

Push to registry with docker push

docker push ghcr.io/ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker:latest

Pull your image with docker pull

To test that our project has a docker image published to a public registry, pull it from your local development environment.

docker pull ghcr.io/ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker

Using default tag: latestlatest: Pulling from ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-dockerDigest: sha256:3ff756a3310fcfee7be355e86a6b8f6c7882f94c3a767b1f614f274ae1c82ba4Status: Image is up to date for ghcr.io/ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker:latestghcr.io/ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker:latest

You can view this published container on my GitHub.

6. Deploy to Fly

Install and authenticate flyctl CLI

You can download the CLI on Mac, Linux, or Windows.

brew install superfly/tap/flyctl

If you are a new user you can create an account with fly auth signup.

fly auth signup

You will also be prompted for credit card payment information, required for charges outside the free plan on Fly. See Pricing for more details. If you already have an account you can login with fly auth login.

fly auth login

Launch app on Fly with fly launch

Run fly launch in the directory with your source code to configure your app for deployment. This will create and configure a fly app by inspecting your source code and prompting you to deploy.

fly launch \  --name ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker \  --region sjc

Creating app in /Users/ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-express-graphql-dockerScanning source codeDetected Dockerfile appAutomatically selected personal organization: Anthony CampoloCreated app ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker in organization personalWrote config file fly.tomlYour app is ready. Deploy with `flyctl deploy`? Would you like to deploy now? No

This creates a fly.toml file.

app = "ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker"kill_signal = "SIGINT"kill_timeout = 5processes = [][env][experimental]  allowed_public_ports = []  auto_rollback = true[[services]]  http_checks = []  internal_port = 8080  processes = ["app"]  protocol = "tcp"  script_checks = [][services.concurrency]  hard_limit = 25  soft_limit = 20  type = "connections"[[services.ports]]  handlers = ["http"]  port = 80[[services.ports]]  handlers = ["tls", "http"]  port = 443[[services.tcp_checks]]  grace_period = "1s"  interval = "15s"  restart_limit = 6  timeout = "2s"

Add the following PORT number under env.

[env]  PORT = 8080

Deploy application with fly deploy

fly deploy

Show the application's current status with fly status

Status includes application details, tasks, most recent deployment details and in which regions it is currently allocated.

fly status

App  Name     = ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker            Owner    = personal                                    Version  = 0                                           Status   = running                                     Hostname = ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker.fly.dev  Deployment Status  ID          = fd7bf249-c37f-7b16-5643-9bfd104a2077           Version     = v0                                             Status      = successful                                     Description = Deployment completed successfully              Instances   = 1 desired, 1 placed, 1 healthy, 0 unhealthy  InstancesID       TASK VERSION REGION DESIRED STATUS  HEALTH CHECKS      RESTARTS CREATED   9eb4eaf9 app  0       sjc    run     running 1 total, 1 passing 0        1m15s ago

Visit ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker.fly.dev/graphql to see the site and run a test query.

query HELLO_QUERY { hello }

curl --request POST \  --url https://ajcwebdev-express-graphql-docker.fly.dev/graphql \  --header 'content-type: application/json' \  --data '{"query":"{ hello }"}'