Skip to main content

Deployment

This guide covers deploying SnapCart to a production server using Docker Compose or a manual server setup.

Docker Compose bundles the backend, frontend, and MySQL database into a single orchestrated setup.

Prerequisites​

  • Docker 24+
  • Docker Compose 2.x
  • A server with at least 2 GB RAM and 10 GB disk

Steps​

  1. Clone the repository on your server:
git clone https://github.com/your-org/snapcart.git
cd snapcart
  1. Create production configuration:
cp backend/src/main/resources/application.example.yml backend/src/main/resources/application.yml

Edit application.yml with your production database credentials, JWT secret, SMTP settings, and storage configuration.

  1. Create the frontend environment file:
cp frontend/.env.example frontend/.env

Edit .env:

VITE_API_BASE_URL=https://api.yourdomain.com
VITE_APP_NAME=SnapCart
  1. Start the stack:
docker compose up -d

Docker Compose will:

  • Pull/build the backend image and run Flyway migrations
  • Build and serve the frontend
  • Start MySQL and wait for it to be healthy before starting the backend
  1. Check running containers:
docker compose ps

Stopping and Restarting​

docker compose down       # stop without removing volumes
docker compose down -v    # stop and delete all data (irreversible)
docker compose restart    # restart all services

Manual Server Deployment​

1. Install dependencies​

# Java 17
sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk -y

# MySQL 8
sudo apt install mysql-server -y

# Node.js 20
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install nodejs -y

2. Configure MySQL​

CREATE DATABASE snapcart CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'snapcart'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strong_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON snapcart.* TO 'snapcart'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

3. Build and deploy the backend​

cd backend
mvn clean package -DskipTests
java -jar target/snapcart-backend.jar

For production, run the JAR as a systemd service:

# /etc/systemd/system/snapcart.service
[Unit]
Description=SnapCart Backend
After=network.target mysql.service

[Service]
User=snapcart
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -jar /opt/snapcart/snapcart-backend.jar
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
sudo systemctl enable snapcart
sudo systemctl start snapcart

4. Build and deploy the frontend​

cd frontend
npm install
npm run build

The built assets are in frontend/dist/. Serve them with Nginx:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;
    root /opt/snapcart/frontend/dist;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
    }

    location /api/ {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

SSL / HTTPS​

Use Certbot with Let's Encrypt for a free SSL certificate:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com

Certbot automatically modifies your Nginx config to redirect HTTP to HTTPS and renews the certificate every 90 days.

Post-Deployment Checklist​

  • Change all demo passwords (superadmin@demo.io, admin@demo.io, finance@demo.io)
  • Switch payment gateways from sandbox to production mode
  • Configure SMTP and test email delivery
  • Set VITE_API_BASE_URL to your production API domain
  • Enable and configure SSL
  • Set up automated MySQL backups
  • Configure a firewall to block all ports except 80, 443, and SSH