webapp.io connects directly to your GitHub, BitBucket, or GitLab repository and runs everytime you make a commit to a repository that contains a Layerfile In this sense, there’s no traditional installation (you don’t need to download a CLI tool), all you need is a Layerfile in a repository that’s connected to webapp.io.

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Project Breakdown

To view the power of preview environments in action, let’s go through an example with our open-source version of Slack, Livechat Example, that uses Docker Compose. For the purpose of this quickstart guide, the codebase is monorepository, so all of the services are within a single folder (/services). Our Livechat Example contains the following within the /services folder:
  • /api (our api to handle all requests)
  • /cypress (for running tests)
  • /migrate (for populating our database)
  • /web (our React frontend)
Most importantly, in the root directory, we have our Layerfile which is a set of instructions that tells webapp.io how to install, build, and run the Livechat Example. The Layerfile for the Livechat example is shown below:
Layerfile
FROM vm/ubuntu:18.04

# install the latest version of Docker, as in the official Docker installation tutorial.
RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release && \
    sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings && \
    curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg && \
    echo \
    "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" |\
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null && \
    apt-get update && \
    apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

# Install docker-compose
RUN curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.27.4/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose && \
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

# Copy repository files
COPY / /root

RUN /root/pull-images.sh
RUN REPEATABLE docker-compose build --parallel
RUN BACKGROUND docker-compose up

# EXPOSE WEBSITE creates an internet visible link
EXPOSE WEBSITE localhost:8000

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Comprehensive step-by-step Tutorial

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1. Fork Example Repo

Go to the GitHub repository for the Livechat example and fork the repository. Screenshot of the Livechat Example repo Screenshot after clicking on the button in GitHub to fork the repository.

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2. Clone To Local

Clone the new Livechat Example repository to your local machine. Click on the “Code” button to get the URL to clone locally.
Shell
git clone (INSERT URL HERE)

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3. Sign up to webapp.io

Sign up to webapp.io and install webapp.io on your GitHub account, ensuring that webapp.io has access to the repository you created. Screenshot of the sign-up page for webapp.io Screenshot of the installations buttons on webapp.io

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4. Make a Local Change

Make a change to the project locally, and push your changes to the repository you created. 
git add .
git commit -m "making some change to Livechat example"
git push

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5. View Website

Go to your dashboard on webapp.io to see your run, click on “Details”,“main-layerfile”, then “View website”. Click on “main-layerfile” here, followed by “View Website”.

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6. View Preview Environment

Wait for the server to start, you’ll be redirected to a preview environment with the Livechat Example. That’s all you need to view the full-stack preview environment with webapp.io!

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Conclusion

In this tutorial we’ve gone through the steps needed to set up the CI/CD and preview environments for the Livechat example on webapp.io.
The full-stack Livechat example is just one example of many webapps you can run on webapp.io. If your webapp runs locally, webapp.io should be able to support - regardless of what stack you use.