Caprover Nextjs with Digital Ocean and Github Actions

Caprover Nextjs with Digital Ocean and Github Actions is a powerful combination for deploying and managing your Nextjs application. This setup allows you to automate the deployment process using Github Actions.

By integrating Caprover with Digital Ocean, you can easily create and manage droplets, which are essentially virtual servers, to host your Nextjs application. This integration also enables you to automate the scaling of your application based on traffic demand.

With Github Actions, you can automate the deployment process by creating a workflow that triggers on push events to your repository. This workflow can then deploy your application to Digital Ocean using Caprover.

To set up Caprover, start by signing up on Digital Ocean and creating a droplet. Select CapRover from the marketplace and choose a region with 1GB RAM, which can be upgraded later.

Once the droplet is created, access the Caprover dashboard by visiting http://YOUR_IP_ADDRESS:3000 or clicking the Get started link. You can then add a domain name to your app by logging in to your domain registrar and pointing the domain name to the droplet's IP address.

To add a private Docker registry to CapRover, provide your GitHub username, personal access token, domain, and image prefix. For example, if your Docker images are stored in the format your-username/your-image, use your GitHub username as your image prefix.

Here are the required credentials for a private Docker registry:

Note that sensitive information like API keys or database credentials should be encrypted using Dokku's built-in encryption for environment variables.

To set up Digital Ocean, sign up for an account if you don't already have one, and note that Digital Ocean requires a payment method to verify your identity.

Once you've signed up, create a droplet and select CapRover from the marketplace.

Choose a region and specify the CPU as 1GB RAM, which can be upgraded later if needed.

Next, access the CapRover dashboard by visiting http://YOUR_IP_ADDRESS:3000 or clicking the Get started link.

CapRover has a marketplace of apps that can be created with one click, including postgres and supabase.

To add a domain name, log in to your domain registrar and point the domain name to the droplet's IP address.

You'll also need to add a wildcard to your domain to change the CapRover server link from an IP address to a domain name.

Force HTTPS and click the "save and update" button to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

CapRover issues a Let's Encrypt certificate for domains, so you don't need to worry about setting that up yourself.

Next.js and GitHub Actions can be used together to automate tasks and make it easy to deploy applications. This combination is a popular choice among indiehackers because it helps them save time and resources.

Using Next.js with GitHub Actions can be efficient, allowing you to automate tasks and deploy applications with ease. This is especially helpful for indiehackers with limited budgets.

Here are some key benefits of using Next.js and GitHub Actions together:

This combination can also be cost-effective, as both tools are often free or low-cost.

To set your production environment variables on Dokku, use the actual values for your production environment. This ensures that your application has the necessary settings to run smoothly.

For sensitive information like API keys or database credentials, consider using Dokku's built-in encryption for environment variables. This encrypts sensitive data at rest on your server.

Remember to prefix client-side variables with NEXT_PUBLIC_ if you need them available in the client side, such as in react components. This is a crucial step to ensure your application functions as expected.

To set up a Next.js app on CapRover, start by creating a Dockerfile that uses the node:16-alpine image as a base. This lightweight version of Node.js is optimized for production use.

The Dockerfile should set the environment variable NODE_ENV to production, which tells Next.js to use its production build configuration. This is done with the line ENV NODE_ENV=production.

Next, the Dockerfile should copy the application files into the image, including the package.json and package-lock.json files, which are used to install the application's dependencies. The line COPY package*.json ./ does this.

The Dockerfile should also copy the built application files into the image, which are the static files that are served by the Next.js server. This is done with the line COPY ./.next ./.next.

To expose port 3000 on the image, which is the port that the Next.js server will listen on, use the line EXPOSE 3000.

Finally, the Dockerfile should tell Docker to run the npm start command when the container is started, which will start the Next.js server. This is done with the line CMD ["npm", "run", "start"].

To deploy the Next.js app, you'll need to specify the PORT on CapRover as 3000.