AlmaSpot

7. Deployment

Index

1. Analysis
2. Design
3. Architecture
4. Implementation
5. DevOps
6. License
7. Deployment
   • 7.1. Container Architecture
   • 7.2. Client Build
   • 7.3. Setup and Execution

The application deployment adopts a Container-Based approach, ensuring isolation, reproducibility, and independence from the host environment. The entire architecture is defined declaratively via a docker-compose.prod.yml file, which orchestrates service execution within a dedicated virtual network (almaspot-network).

7.1. Container Architecture

The configuration includes the following services:

• mongo: the MongoDB NoSQL database (version 6.0), configured with a persistent volume (mongo_data) to ensure data durability. It includes a native healthcheck that prevents the backend from starting until the database is fully available.
• server: the Node.js backend. The application is distributed via an immutable Docker image, automatically pulled from the project’s Container Registry (ghcr.io). This ensures that the running code is identical to the code validated by the Continuous Integration pipeline. Configuration occurs exclusively at runtime via environment variables.
• client: the Vue.js frontend. In this environment, the application does not use the development server but is served via an optimized Nginx container. The container performs a dual function:
  1. Web Server: serves the static files of the compiled application.
  2. Reverse Proxy: forwards API calls (routes starting with /api) directly to the server container on port 3000, handling routing internally and avoiding CORS issues.
• unibo-provider: the Go service, also pulled from the container registry. It is responsible for fetching and normalizing data from the university’s Open Data.

7.2. Client Build

For the client, a Multi-Stage Build strategy defined in the Dockerfile was adopted:

1. Build: a Node.js image compiles the Vue source code, injecting necessary environment variables (such as the VAPID public key and the relative API URL).
2. Serve: the compiled artifacts are copied into a lightweight Nginx image (Alpine Linux), discarding all source code and development dependencies (node_modules), drastically reducing the final size.

7.3. Setup and Execution

System deployment requires Docker and Docker Compose installed on the host machine.

1. Clone the repository: download the project source code by cloning the GitHub repository:

   git clone https://github.com/fairlycodeparents/AlmaSpot.git

2. Configuration: create a .env file in the project root (based on the .env.example template) containing database credentials, VAPID cryptographic keys, JWT secrets, the provider URL, and the Gemini API key.
3. Startup: the following command pulls the latest image versions for the backend, builds the optimized frontend, and starts the entire stack in the background:

   docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

4. Access: once initialization is complete, the entire platform is accessible to the end user at http://localhost:80.

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