Dockerized Minimal 3-Tier Web Application

This project is a minimal implementation of a three-tier web application architecture, designed to demonstrate the use of various modern technologies and deployment techniques. It comprises a Node.js service, a Go API, a PostgreSQL database, and a React (Vite) frontend.

• React frontend (using Vite.js): Uses react query to load data from the two apis and display the result.
• Node JS and Golang APIs: Both have / and /ping endpoints. / queries the Database for the current time, and /ping returns pong.
• PostgreSQL Database: An empty PostgreSQL database with no tables or data. Used to show how to set up connectivity. The API applications execute SELECT NOW() as now; to determine the current time to return.

Technologies Used

• Frontend: Built with React using Vite for streamlined development and build processes.
• Backend: Services implemented using Node.js and Go, offering robust APIs.
• Database: PostgreSQL for reliable and scalable data storage.
• Containerization: Docker is used for containerizing applications to ensure consistent environments across development and production.
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions for continuous integration and deployment, including automated vulnerability scanning.
• Docker Swarm: Deployed with Docker Swarm for managing services at scale.

Running the Application

The Makefile contains the commands to start each application.

PostgreSQL

• It's way more convenient to run postgres in a container, like we do in this project.

• make run-postgres will start postgres in a container and publish port 5432 from the container to your localhost.

api-node - Node.js

• To run the node api you will need to run npm install to install the dependencies (I used node v18.19.1 and npm v9.2.0).

• After installing the dependencies, make run-api-node will run the api in development mode with nodemon for restarting the app when you make source code changes.

api-golang - Golang

• To run the golang api you will need to run go mod download to download and install the dependencies (I used go1.22.2)

• After installing the dependencies, make run-api-golang will build and run the api.

client-react - Vite.js

• Like api-node and api-data-processing-node, you will first need to install the dependencies with npm install (again, I used node v18.19.1 and npm v9.2.0)

• After installing the dependencies, make run-client-react will use vite to run the react app in development mode.

Running the Application with docker-compose.yml

To run the complete application with the compose, you will need to run:

docker-compose up --build -d

You can also run the main Makefile commands using a specific docker-compose.yml.

Problem Solved

This architecture serves as a blueprint for developing scalable web applications by efficiently separating concerns across a client, server, and data storage with a focus on maintainability, scalability, and efficient deployment workflows. Through containerization and orchestration practices, the project showcases the deployment versatility and ease of scaling in a microservices-driven environment.

Deployment

The application supports development and production environments with Docker Compose and Docker Swarm, ensuring smooth transitions between local development and cloud deployment.