My lessons of Node.js/Heroku/Docker/Caprover and the PHP world - bloody forehead

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I suppose it depends how much you complicate it yourself, and in saying that I suppose it really depends on your end goal and needs.

To simplify this to anyone reading.

Here are the different routes you can take

  1. Get a Domain Name through a domain registrar of your choice
  2. Get a shared linux hosting account through the hosting provider of your choice

If you want a standard PHP, MySQL type site

  1. Open cPanel, create a database
  2. In cPanel create a FTP user unless one is already created for you that you want to use.
  3. Open Wappler, create new PHP project, connect things in the simplest way first, and if successful then start upscaling, in other words, start by trying to connect to your FTP, but in the simplest way, no SSL certificates etc. Once working if you need add the SSL type stuff, etc.
  4. Connect to your database
  5. Start your job.

Advantages of this are cPanel has a nice little File Manager, it has phpMyAdmin if needed, it has IP blacklisting/whitelisting, you can generally have a simple SSL certificate on the sit for free, you can control your .htaccess file simply and add redirects in cPanel, you can easily see the files added to your server, you can upload directly to your server, you can easily look at error logs, you can add cPanel mail accounts as needed, with POP, IMAP, SMTP, and webmail interfaces.

Possible disadvantages, well there are a couple but my biggest one is many shared hosts do not auto support NodeJS if you wanted to switch later. And Slow in general.

OR

Same as above but get a VPS, or private dedicated server and the only real difference is you can control the WHM side behind the cPanel side.
This means you can control PHP versions per site, change certificate providers if desired, add NodeJS support with EasyApache, Switch between Maria DB vs normal MySQL, and many other things too.

No real disadvantages I can think of off hand, you can pretty much control everything and anything you like.

Both the Above setups worked great for years before, the only trouble is the learning curve for cPanel, WHM, and then the local staging accounts setup on your own computer, maybe having to add WAMP, MAMP, LAMP, or the PHP will not parse locally, Configuring local FTP servers etc.

OR

Docker, which is like having all the above and more and more and more in one, my examples will use Digital Ocean because I am more familiar with it.

  1. Get a Domain Name through a domain registrar of you choice, point either a few A records at Digital Ocean or the core NS records which is easier.
  2. Sign up on Digital Ocean for an account, and do nothing more.
  3. Optionally pre download Docker Desktop (You do not have to have an account there at all), pre download LTS version of NodeJS, both Wappler can do on Auto with its Homebrew, so up to you.

First lets deal with local staging environment setup, well you do not need anything, its all done for you. No local servers to install or configure.

If you want WHM/cPanel, then create a Docker Machine with that, and you can use it exactly like you used the shared, VPS, Private Dedicated Server setup, you can have NodeJS enabled through EasyApache, passenger, and PHP all running at the same time.
OR
Add a Docker Machine with only a Database server on it and use a shared database server for all your projects if you want that.
OR
Do the recommended Wappler style NodeJS/Docker configuration

  1. Open Digital Ocean, get an API Token, copy the long number
  2. Open Wappler setup your NodeJS/Docker project
  3. Make sure you local environment is all working
  4. Add a remote docker connection
  5. Manage Docker, paste in your API Token, choose the options and Wappler does it all for you.
  6. Add a database connection, it auto connects to it already.

Full instructions here

Don't get me wrong there are disadvantages with this too
Such as you need Traefik for SSL, you either need to check logs and files uploaded with SSH into the docker machine, or install portainer for ease. Luckily Wappler makes this very easy so not a big hurdle.

Here are the painful parts you find out as you go, I am talking specifically Docker Machine with NodeJS, MariaDB, Traefik, Portainer, and that all

There is no FTP client to view your remote files easily, so you have to use a standalone FTP client or SSH, if you use a client, your connection needs to be with SSL Certificates, so a slight pain

There is no mail server to speak of, so if you want mail its easier to point off some of your MX records to something like Google For Business.

User Uploads, Docker Machines use Containers / Images / Volumes, each time you deploy the container for Web is overwritten, so User Uploads either need to go into an AWS S3 Bucket, or Docker Spaces OR just a User Uploads Volume, which is the easiest.

In Wappler open your project setting and add a User Uploads Folder, wham, a new Docker Volume is created, that never get overwritten on deploy, point all your User Uploads to that folder path and your issues are over.
You can connect to the user uploads folder via SSH or via a standalone FTP Client.

The log files can be read via Portainer or directly in Wappler now, however scheduled tasks, (the same as cron jobs in cPanel, but for NodeJS) build up huge log files you may need to configure a little different to suit your needs.

Hopefully some of this points you in some kind of direction. I also know there are many other setups too like Plesk, but I am only talking about what is in my comfort zone.

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