Docker. Episode 14 — Dockerizing App having different types of data
→ In this article, we will understand the kinds of data.
→ In the next few episodes, we will see we can manage different types of data and work with volumes.
→ Images are read-only and containers are read-write.
→ There are three types of data:
- Application (Code + Environment):
These are the data we discussed in the last section (Read-only) ✅
2. Temporary App Data:
These data are generated in real-time (form data-keeping temporary files) (Read + Write)
3. Permanent App Data: These data are stored in files or databases (Read + Write)
Analysing a Realtime App
→ This is a Node.js application, a basic application that accepts feedback.
→ Here we will see all the three types of data — app data, temporary data and permanent app data
→ The key of the app is it takes feedback from the user and saves it in the temp and feedback directory.
app code — when image created
temp data — feedback is first stored in temp
feedback data — if feedback is a new move from temp to feedback, otherwise restrict
→ We will be dockerizing the app, once the docker container is created our application will look like the below:
→ Let's review the code. You can also check the below video to see the real-time dockerizing of this application.
server.js
→ The page contains a couple of routes. The key thing to observe here is if feedback contains a title and body.
→ First, they are kept in a temp file named the lowercase title.txt
→ If the feedback name is new moves from temp to feedback directory.
→ If the same name file already exists in feedback user needs to enter different feedback.
→ Here we are copying in two paths — the temp path (tempFilePath) and finally one final path (finalFilePath)
→ The generated file simply contains feedback that was submitted.
→ Some other pages in the application are:
a. pages/feedback.html and pages/exists.html
b. public/style.css:
Dockerizing the App:
STEP 1: Create Dockerfile
FROM node:17WORKDIR /appCOPY package.json .RUN npm installCOPY . .EXPOSE 80CMD ["node", "server.js"]
STEP 2: Creating Image:
docker build .or docker build -t feedback-node // image created with name
→ We get image ID in the end (SHA 256)
→ We can also see feedback-node named image created in docker using microsoft docker extension.
STEP 3: Creating container out of this image
→ Below command is executed
docker run -p 3000:80 -d –name feedback-app –rm feedback-nodeKey: port 3000, detached mode, named the container, remove the container once closed.
→ We see our newly created container in Microsoft docker extension
→ our application is running now
http://localhost:3000STEP 4: Entering a feedback in application. Click Save button
Feedback 1: Entering a new feedback
→ The feedback is saved. Its title lowercase is the file name.
→ On a side note if we will try to view inside feedback of the local app. File will not be there.
→ This is because. It is inside the docker/app/feedback/awesome.txt from where it is rendering in the app
NOTE: After creating image from Dockerfile, web application uses docker image and not the local codebase.
→ Hence, uploaded feedback was stored in docker as shown in above image
Feedback 2: If we now try to run the same feedback again (mean same title), system will ask for a new feedback
→ So here we have seen all three types of data:
a. when created image — app data
b. first time feedback — temp data (okay, if lost)
c. permanent feedback — permanent data (if feedback does not exist, store in docker/feedback/title.txt)
Video:
Closing Thoughts:
In this article, we have seen way to dockerize application with different types of data in the application. This is true for all technologies say Node.js, Python, Java, PHP, etc.
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