Back End Deployment (Website)

This project was bootstrapped with Create React Native App. This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of the React Native app development workflow. It is not intended as a tutorial. If you need more information about React Native, the latest version of this guide is available in the online tutorial.

INFO

A valid SSL certificate is required for all communications between the front end and back end. Apps on the Google Play Store and Apple Store will no longer work if any URL is not using HTTPS.

Automatic Deployment

After setting up and testing your Informfully instance, you are ready to deploy your solution. For your convenience, we have created a script that automatically deploys the back end to any local or cloud server. Navigate to the main directory of your codebase and execute the following script:

    # Deploy back end on the server
    bash build.sh

There are two scripts in the project's root directory: .snippets.sh and build.sh. You find the shell script build.sh in the back end folder located here. Before the script can be used, the variables in the file .snippets.sh have to be set in the configuration file located here.

.snippets.sh This is the configuration file. In this file, we store all variables used for deployment, such as the app user, the temporary directory, the app directory, etc.

build.sh This script builds the application and copies the bundle to the server. It also performs the tasks of extracting and moving the bundle to the correct directories (as specified in .snippets.sh). The script will also install npm dependencies and restart the app.

In short, the script will automate the following steps:

1. Use the command meteor build to create the Node app bundle.
2. Upload the bundle to the server using scp (the password of the back end server will be required).
3. SSH to the remote machine (a password is required again).
4. Unpack the tar.gz bundle created by using the build.sh script.
5. Run npm install inside bundle/programs/server to install dependencies.
6. Move the bundle folder to the /var/newsapp/ location.
7. Restart the Phusion Passenger process to serve the Node app.

Following these steps will deploy the new Administration Website. Please follow the instructions in the Genesis Script to initialize the first users. You can then log in and access the website using the credentials stored in the script.

This setup was successfully tested on a server with the following software packages:

• Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 10 x86_64
• Node Version: 14.18.1
• NPM Version: 6.14.15
• Phusion Passenger Version: 6.0.12
• MongoDB Version: 4.4.3

Manual Deployment

Please perform the following steps to deploy an update of the application.

1. Build & Upload

The following command will create a file called backend.tar.gz in the .build directory in the root of the project.

    
    meteor build --server-only --architecture os.linux.x86_64 ./.build/

Next, you upload the backend.tar.gz file to the server:

    # Make sure that you have access to the server's network
    scp ./.build/backend.tar.gz [USERNA]@[SERVER]:/home/[USER]/uploads/

2. Move & Unpack

Connect to the server via SSH and move the newly copied backend.tar.gz file to a temporary directory and extract its contents:

    ssh [USERNAME]@[SERVER]
    cd /var/www/[USERNAME]/tmp
    mv /home/[USERNAME]/uploads/backend.tar.gz .
    tar xzf backend.tar.gz

3. Update & Restart

Install all dependencies:

    # Still inside /var/www/[PROJECTNAME]/tmp/
    cd ./bundle/programs/server
    npm install --only=prod

Update the bundle and restart the app:

    cd /var/www/[PROJECTNAME]/
    rm -rf bundle
    mv /var/www/[PROJECTNAME]/tmp/bundle /var/www/[PROJECTNAME]/bundle
    mv /var/www/[PROJECTNAME]/tmp/backend.tar.gz /var/www/[PROJECTNAME]/builds/

    # restart the app
    passenger-config restart-app /var/www/[PROJECTNAME]/

The Administration Website can also be deployed using a generated Docker image. To do that, simply follow the steps in the Docker Setup to load the image onto the server.

Deploy App

Please see the other instruction page for App Deployment If you already have the apps up and running, go ahead and start your first Use Experiment.