How to deploy your own instance of InkVisitor

Deploy with Docker

You can use docker to deploy the InkVisitor application

1. Install docker.
2. Install docker-compose tool.
3. Clone | Fork | Download the Inkvisitor repository.
4. Prepare .env files for servers listed under env_file sections. Check the server's README.md and example.env files for more information.
5. To prepare the necessary configuration files for the client application, you should identify the appropriate environment variables (ENV) under the build -> args section and then use them to create the .env files. You can see the server's README.md and example.env files to ensure you have included all the necessary configuration information.
   
6. Run the database - either as a service or containerized using docker-compose up -d database
7. Build app image (will also be done in next step if not available) docker-compose build inkvisitor (or inkvisitor-<env>).
8. Run the containerized application with the command docker-compose up inkvisitor (or inkvisitor-<env>).

Deploy by packages

The InkVisitor codebase consists of three interconnected packages (parts) - the client application, the server, and the database. You can deploy those packages individually if you do not want to use Docker. In each step, make sure to have the appropriate .env.<env> file accessible - see the Readme.md file in the package for more information.

1. Client application

The client application runs on static files - html/css/js + additional assets. These files need to be moved to your HTTP server by:

1. Build the frontend app by npm run build-<env> to create/update the dist folder
2. Copy contents of dist folder to the directory used by your HTTP server.

2. Server

The server is also built in Javascript, using mainly the Node + Express libraries. You need to first build the application, move the build to your server and run it from there. 

1. Run yarn run build to transpile the code.
2. Move the dist folder to your server that supports the Node.js environment.
3. Do ENV_FILE=<env> yarn run start to run the built application with a loaded .env.<env> file.

3. Database

Follow tutorials on the official page to install RethinkDB on your machine. Then, use the import script to create the database structure and (optional) import some testing data by running `npm run import` and following the information in the prompt.

Firewall

Make sure the ports required by each application are not blocked. Required ports are listed in docker-compose.yml. Examples:

1. ufw: ufw allow <port>
2. firewalld: firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=<port>/tcp

Setup for additional system specific features (reverse proxies etc) are beyond the scope of this readme.