Getting Started with Docker for Development

1. Install docker at https://www.docker.com/

2. Start docker

3. Run docker compose build to build the images and containers

4. Run docker compose up to start the container (Note: this will only start the user & question service)

5. Note: this does not start the api-gateway. Follow the relevant ./gateway/README.md

Developer guide

As of the last update of this README, only the user-service and question-service have been dockerized. A Dockerfile has been created within each of their folders. This Dockerfile specifies the instructions in order to build the container, install the necessary node modules etc.

To simplify the container building, a docker-compose.yml has been created in order to start both containers at once. This is achieved through running docker compose build and docker compose up to call both dockerfiles.

The api-gateway requires more work, see https://dev.to/naseef012/create-a-microservices-app-with-dockerized-express-api-gateway-1kf9 for more information.

Finishing Development

When you are done with developing, kill the program (Ctrl^C) and run docker compose down. This cleans up local resources used by docker.

Note: For Mac users, this doesn't work and volumes will continue to pile up. Run docker system prune -a --volumes occasionally to remove the remaining volumes.