Deployment

UIX provides options for automated deployment with optional git integration.

Backend Endpoint Locations

The location of an endpoint describes the actual physical of a backend endpoint in a UIX app. By default, the location of a backend endpoint is the device where the UIX app is started.

This default behavior can be changed by defining a location property in the backend .dx file.

Besides the default local location, there are two other possible endpoint location types:

• Remote Docker hosts
• Local Dockers

Remote Docker Hosts

A remote Docker host is a special endpoint running on another device (e.g. on a deployment server) that manages Dockers on the device and can communicate with a UIX app to deploy new Docker containers.

The unyt.org entity provides public Docker hosts (@+app-host-eu2) that can be used to deploy UIX apps under the unyt.app domain.

If you want to set up you own Docker host on your machine, take a look at the Docker Host documentation.

The following options can be set in the backend .dx file to configure a remote Docker host to be used.

• location: (endpoint or text) A Docker host endpoint (e.g. @+app-host-eu2 or a self-hosted endpoint) where the UIX should be hosted. The default is @@local, meaning that the app is run locally and not on a Docker host.
• domain: (text or text[]) One or multiple custom domains on which the web server is listening. This only works if the domain is pointing to the ip address of the Docker host. The domain name may include characters a-z, digits 0-9, hypens, and dots as separator if part of a subdomain and must not start with a hypen.
• volumes: (url or url[]) Directories that are mapped to persistent Docker volumes on the Docker host

Inspecting UIX apps remote docker hosts

You can start a UIX app with --inspect to debug the app it is running on a remote Docker host. To access the inspect port, you must have ssh access to the Docker host server and run the following command to map the server inspect port to a port on your local device:

ssh -L 127.0.0.1:9229:127.0.0.1:9229 YOUR_USERNAME@YOUR_SERVER_DOMAIN

Example:

backend/.dx
endpoint: @+my_app,
location: @+app-host-eu2,
volumes:  [../data]

With this example configuration, every time you start your app by running uix, it will get deployed on @+app-host-eu2.

In order to run the application locally during development and get fine-grained control for the behavior in different stages, you can use the stage helper function from #public.uix. It allows you to select a value for endpoint/location/domain etc. depending on the current stage.

Note

The stage of a UIX app execution can be set with the --stage argument. The default stage is dev.

Example

backend/.dx
use stage from #public.uix;

// set different endpoints for different stages
endpoint: stage {
    dev:        @+my_app_dev,
    staging:    @+my_app_stag,
    prod:       @+my_app_prod
},

// set remote Docker host locations for 'staging'
// and 'prod'. The default 'dev' stage has no assigned value 
// and falls back to the default (running locally)
location: stage {
    staging:    @+app-host-eu1,
    prod:       @+app-host-eu2
}

Note

When using remote Docker hosts, it is currently required that your UIX app is available in a GitHub repository. Make sure that all files are committed and all commits are pushed.

Local Dockers

The local Docker location is similar to the default local location:
The endpoint still runs on the current device, but inside a Docker container.

To run a UIX app in a local Docker, simply set the following location value in the backend .dx file:

location: 'local-docker'

Now, you can start your app like always with the uix command.

Warning

Currently, only the following uix command line arguments are supported when running with 'local-docker'

• --watch
• --inspect
• --verbose
• --clear

GitHub deployment

The git_deploy plugin can be used in a app.dx file to automate app deployment:

app.dx
plugin git_deploy (
    // Deploy this app in the 'prod' stage
    // when a push to the main branch occurs
    // The 'MY_SECRET_TOKEN' GitHub secret is passed as an
    // environment variables to the UIX app
    prod: {
        branch: 'main',
        on: 'push',
        secrets: ['MY_SECRET_TOKEN']
    }
)

The git_deploy plugin takes an object where the keys are the stage names and the values are an object with the following options:

• branch: (text or text[]) One or more branches on which the deployment is triggered
• on: (text or text[]) GitHub event name that triggers the deployment
• secrets (text or text[]) List of GitHub secrets that are exposed to the app as environment variables
• tests: (boolean) If this option is enabled, tests for all *.test.ts, *.test.js and *.test.dx files in the repository are automatically executed before deployment (enabled by default)

When the git_deploy plugin is defined, GitHub workflow files are automatically generated when the app is run.