Setting up Wappler 5 for Docker w/ NodeJS & Postgres on macOS w/ help from community

I hesistate to ask, but have tried my best to figure this out and am questioning my sanity… is there anyone in the community willing to share their Wappler install process?

Essentially hoping someone would make a list of steps to make Wappler happy for a brand new user wanting to develop nodeJS + Postgres

:pray:

Edit: Thanks to Apple’s help, I was able to get past a “dead end bug” that was making me think I’d never figure Wappler out.

I found this, possibly to help others who were trying to ensure everything was set up correctly…

I stumbled across @Dave 's amazing Android dev setup post, but on my Ubuntu it seems Wappler wants to use linuxbrew to reinstall a lot of things that are part of the base install… which leads me to think I don’t know how to install Wappler on either platform.

Hey @nomad,
Now Wappler has Capacitor integration it is far easier to install for mobile devlopment. Essentially Wappler now prompts you on what to install. The only thing you may need to do is set the path to the Android SDK (using the path in Android Studio). Thanks for your kind words though.

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P.S: Don’t know about installing it on Ubuntu, so that’s as far as I can help, whenever you see the Docker option, you use that

That’s the impression I get, but I don’t think the self-check is super robust. I am wondering if some sort of setting that is “default” to me (aka I don’t recognize it might be the problem) is causing Wappler to be difficult to get installed on macOS or Ubuntu.

To be clear, I’m just looking to do web dev – not apps at this point. Thanks again for your time – I’ve gotten a lot of help already from reading your posts!

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There’s nothing required, just install the app on your OS and you can start it and set up a web project, as for example explained here: https://docs.wappler.io/t/setting-up-a-lightweight-dev-environment-with-nodejs-and-sqlite/36189

I have seen a lot of folks recommend docker, but it seems to me that it adds a whole additional layer of things that “must automatically work” … are you saying I do not need a local nodeJS install or a local postgres server to use docker?

Right now I have Docker running, but the moment it gave me problems I was more confused than when I wasn’t using docker. (Wappler crashed while Docker was open, didn’t close it, and now I have a few Dockers for the same project and am lost.)

Thanks again for your time and willingness to share!

Edit to add: This experience with Docker was on macOS using the GUI

successfully-docked

Thank you, Teodor! I see you have helped many just like me find their footing as they get started and I appreciate it.

I’d hoped the team was resting with their feet up and a cold beverage after the successful launch this week!

Thanks for the link – I wonder if the lack of understanding on my part comes from me trying to use Postgres rather than sqlite? Is there a major difference somewhere that I might be oblivious to?

I noticed that all the easy to understand tutorials I’ve found like Ben’s lovely series on YouTube seem to use sqlite… but I’m used to using postgresql on Heroku so I was going to stick wiht that and then push the app there.

I have thought I had a working install a few times, only to make a new page in Wappler and none of the dynamic stuff works when I click preview page and view it. That leads me to think I am not installing something correctly?

The point of Docker in this specific scenario is so you could avoid having a local NodeJS install or local PostgreSQL server - it runs all dependencies inside Linux containers (on MacOS, it runs inside a virtual machine). This way, you don’t install the dependencies your distro wants, but rather what the Wappler team wants - speaking for NodeJS/PostgreSQL.

Sorry to hear Wappler crashed when Docker was running. It should be pretty resilient though, meaning you won’t have duplicates or triplicates laying around once Wappler is running properly.

At this point, it’s my recommendation you should screen record the process of you installing Wappler so we can see what the heck is going on :wink: On MacOS you can use Quicktime, on Ubuntu I’m sure you could find some screen recorder

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Thanks for the idea. I have a brand new, clean install of macOS 12.4 here on an M1 mini.

I have trouble watching videos on the forums for some reason, so I’ve added some screenshots below of the install process…

DOWNLOAD & INSTALL

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.14.10 AM Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.14.24 AM

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.14.53 AM

SET UP NEW PROJECT & INSTALL DOCKER DESKTOP

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.17.50 AM

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.18.26 AM Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.19.05 AM Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.25.26 AM

RESTARTED

WAITED on Docker Desktop at reboot

Opened Wappler… here’s what came next:

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.26.47 AM Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.26.55 AM

At this point, what would your next step be? [I have run into problems beyond this step, so I don’t want to do it here and mess up another clean machine.]

On top find the pencil icon (“Project Settings”), go to Targets -> Development -> Database and enable PostgreSQL

It should re-deploy. If not, click the “Deploy” button:

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You rock for all the help! OK, I did the pencil step

some activity happened, followed by a Deploy…

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.42.55 AM

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.43.17 AM

This all seems fine, but when I go to the DB manager I get this (I didn’t do anything except expand the list as many times as it would allow; I did refresh it and also relaunched the project)

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.48.18 AM

I understand Docker comes with sample data… but it doesn’t seem to be visible to me inside Wappler yet in the DB view.

Thanks again for your guidance :slight_smile:

You’ve done everything right :slight_smile: No problem!

You’re now hitting a Wappler bug, I propose some solutions:

  1. Restart Wappler
  2. Right-click Changes and click “Apply latest changes”
  3. Right-click Tables and click “Refresh Schema”

If it doesn’t work, ask @ George (take out the space to ping him)

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Well, I’m in a better mood already thanks to your help!

OK, I successfully followed instructions up to a point… PS to anyone looking for it, here’s Restart Wappler on the Mac

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.56.39 AM

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.57.12 AM

Screen Shot 2022-07-23 at 10.57.16 AM

I didn’t get a screenshot, BUT I did see the gray sample tables show up! :eyes: Then the whole database connection and everything disappeared at the top and I got this:

I restarted Wappler and I still have the error on the database, but the Tables are now working. HOLY MOLY thank you @Apple for helping me understand what is going on here.

EDIT: After a total system reboot, the table errors are gone, too!

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