If I am planning on using Digital Ocean for my hosting and database it seems like the easiest way to do so is so use the resource manager.
Since you need to select “Server Type: Docker” for your production target with Digital Ocean does that mean you have to use Docker for your local development or can you stick with Wappler Local Server?
Hi, Eric!
That’s a good question you asked.
I am using Docker only for remote Targets and left local target with default Own/Wappler hosting.
I am allowed to do that because I use only cloud databases provided by my hosting provider, so I don’t need a DB in Docker container.
Only little trouble I have is packages list issue while using Redis. It is not critical, but a bit annoying.
Otherwise this approach works well, at least for me.
But seeing there are not any complaints about the mentioned issue from other folks, I can make a suggestion, that approach “Docker for remote. No Docker for local” in not very popular.
So I keep thinking about why that is.
And that’s why I am also very interested to hear some opinions about this matter.
As a heads up I am very new to hosting/databases and such (came from WordPress and Bubble) so I may just not understand, but I don’t really see the benefits of Docker locally outside of having the ease of setting up a database. Since I would be using a Digital Ocean managed database I can just create one for live and one for dev and not need one locally.
The main reason I didn’t want to use Docker unless necessary is because I like to work from both my desktop and laptop. My laptop is having issues setting up Docker and I’m also not sure how it would work if I setup Docker on one machine and then wanted to work on another. If the dev database is stored on my desktop I assume I wouldn’t be able to work on it from my laptop without syncing them or something.
If I am not using Docker locally but publish to Docker on Digital Ocean does it get converted to a Docker container when I publish my site or how does that work?
Yes, something like that.
One last thing. I just saw that Wappler is moving away from Docker machines
Do you see any issues down the line if I have Docker on Digital Ocean and want to switch away from it? Or since my databases would be separate and not in the Docker container, I could just redeploy it later on without Docker and it would be fine?
Or is it possible to deploy to Digital Ocean now without using Docker at all? I notice that when I use resource manager to setup a site on Digital Ocean it installs Docker.
You shouldn’t worry about Docker Machines. It is outdated technology, that was the main way for managing the servers in Wappler.
Now Wappler has switched to a better approach - using API from hosting providers. Resource Manager allows you exactly this.
Only downside of Resource Manager is that in its current state it only supports Digital Ocean, Hetzner and Linode.
If you are ok with that, then you can forget about Docker Machines and only focus on Resource Manager.
I am still using Docker Machines, because I need to deploy my project on VPS from a provider that is not listed.
I hope that eventually Resource Manager will support this option too, so Docker Machines don’t needed anymore at all.
About Docker. There are other options for deployment, but I believe Docker is an optimal way now, especially if you are not experienced in this area.
There is no problem for you to switch from Digital Ocean to another provider in future.
But in that case you better migrate your database too, you will have to do it yourself or with the help of provider’s support, but anyway it is not a big deal.
And yes, you can change the project’s hosting type in the future too. You can switch from Docker hosting to FTP, or to Heroku, or something else. But I doubt it will be relevant to you in the near future.
Overall, it seem like you choose the right way to start:
Wappler hosting for local target,
Docker hosting for remote targets (by Digital Ocean),
Managed Databases (by Digital Ocean).
All this is managed in Wappler by the Resource Manager.
All these project settings can be easily changed in the future, if needed, so do not worry about it.
I am not sure that I fully understood your question, so feel free to ask more, if I have missed something.
Thanks for the detailed response! I mistakenly assumed Docker machine just meant Docker. But it is just the tool that installs the Docker engine? So my website on Digital Ocean will still be using Docker, it is just the way that it gets set up that is getting depreciated? And that way was the old way of doing it in Wappler in your project target setting, now the resource manager will use a newer way?
And if I use the Wappler local server do I still need to have Docker installed on my local machine to use the resource manager or is the Docker side of things all handled by the Digital Ocean side?
Thanks again for all the help.
Now you got it right. Docker and “Docker machines” are different things. “Docker machines” is just a tool that helps with managing your Docker instances. But it is no longer officially supported.
But Docker itself lives and thrives. 
Yes. And you don’t need “Docker Machines” for using Docker.
Yep. Bye-bye, Docker Machines. Hello there, Resource Manager that uses the provider’s API.
There are several different questions.
Also, to be honest, I haven’t worked with the Resource Manager yet, so I can be mistaken here. 
But I’ll try to make assumptions. I hope someone corrects me if I lie here.
I think you don’t have to. You can use Wappler hosting for local and Docker hosting for remote.
I’m not sure, but I think it’s not necessary.
Yes, I believe you need to. As I recall, Wappler installs Docker itself when you start it for the first time.