A Docker Compose setup for containerized CakePHP Applications

This setup spools up the following containers

• mysql (5.7)
• nginx
• php-fpm (php 7.1)
• mailhog (smtp server for testing)

The guide will walk you thru the following things

• Quick Start
• Installation
• Now, how to use bin/cake, mysql and other commandline utils
• OK, so what did the defaults set up?
• Installing Docker on my Host

For those looking to get started in 60 sec using just the defaults (which are fine for dev) do the following:

1. Download the ZIP file for this repo
2. Create the following folder structure

• Put your CakePHP app inside the cakephp folder

• and the files from this repo into the docker folder

      somefolder
          docker
              .. put the zip files in here ..
          cakephp
              .. put your cake app in here ..
  

3. From commandline, cd into the docker directory and run docker-compose up

   $ cd /path/to/somefolder/docker
   $ docker-compose up
   
   Starting myapp-mysql
   Starting myapp-mailhog
   Starting myapp-php-fpm
   Starting myapp-nginx
   Attaching to myapp-mailhog, myapp-mysql, myapp-php-fpm, myapp-nginx
   myapp-mailhog    | 2017/06/15 16:34:26 Using in-memory storage
   ...
   myapp-mysql      | 2017-06-15T16:34:27.401334Z 0 [Note] mysqld (mysqld 5.7.17) starting as process 1 ...
   ...
   myapp-mysql      | 2017-06-15T16:34:27.408857Z 0 [Warning] Setting lower_case_table_names=2 because file system for /var/lib/mysql/ is case insensitive
   ...
   myapp-mysql      | 2017-06-15T16:34:28.332626Z 0 [Note] mysqld: ready for connections.
   myapp-mysql      | Version: '5.7.17'  socket: '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock'  port: 3306  MySQL Community Server (GPL)
   myapp-mailhog    | [APIv1] KEEPALIVE /api/v1/events
   ... you'll probably see more crap spit out here ...

4. That's it! Go to localhost:8180 and your app will be live.

All these defaults can be completely overridden. Start with the Installation section to get a feel for what's going on, and then tweak the defaults to suit your individual project needs.

Clone this repo (or just download the zip) and put it in a docker folder inside your root app folder

Here is an example of what my typical setup looks like

	myapp-folder
		cakephp
			src
			config
			..
		docker
			docker-compose.yml
			nginx
				nginx.conf
			php-fpm
				Dockerfile
				php-ini-overrides.ini

Then, Find/Replace myapp with the name of your app.

WHY? by default the files are set to name the containers based on your app prefix. By default this is myapp. A find/replace on myapp is safe and will allow you to customize the names of the containers

e.g. myapp-mysql, myapp-php-fpm, myapp-nginx, myapp-mailhog

Build and Run your Containers

cd /path/to/your/app/docker
docker-compose -up

That's it. You can now access your CakePHP app at

localhost:8180

Connecting to your database

Also by default the first time you run the app it will create a MySQL database with the following credentials

host : myapp-mysql
username : myapp
password : myapp
database : myapp

You can access your MySQL database (with your favorite GUI app) on

localhost:8106

Your app/config.php file should be set to the following (it connects through the docker link)

  'Datasources' => [
    'default' => [
      'host' => 'myapp-mysql',
      'port' => '3306',
      'username' => 'myapp',
      'password' => 'myapp',
      'database' => 'myapp',
    ],

To change these defaults edit the docker-compose.yml file under myapp-mysql's environment section.

Now that you're running stuff in containers you need to access the code a little differently

You can run things like composer on your host, but if you want to run bin/cake or use MySQL from commandline you just need to connect into the appropriate container first

access your php server

docker exec -it myapp-php-fpm /bin/bash

remember to replace myapp with whatever you really named the container

access mysql cli

docker exec -it myapp-mysql /usr/bin/mysql -u root -p myapp

remember to replace myapp with whatever you really named the container and with your actual database name and user login

There are 4 containers that I use all the time that will be spooled up automatically

First we're creating an nginx server. The configuration is set based on the CakePHP suggestions for nginx and myapp-nginx will handle all the incoming requests from the client and forward them to the myapp-php-fpm server which is what actually runs your PHP code.

This container runs php (and it's extensions) needed for your CakePHP app

It automatically includes the following extensions

• php7.1-intl (required for CakePHP 3.x +)
• php7.1-mbstring
• php7.1-sqlite3 (required for DebugKit)
• php7.1-mysql

It also includes some php ini overrides (see php-fpm\php-ini-overrides.ini)

This container will (by default) look for your web app code in ../cakephp/ (relative to the docker-compose file).

The first time you run the docker containers it will create a folder in your root structure called mysql and this is where it will store all your database data.

Since the data is stored on your host device you can bring the mysql container up and down or completely destroy and rebuild it without ever actually touching your data - it is "safely" stored on the host

This is just a built-in mail server you can use to 'send' and intercept mail coming from your application.

Set up your app/config.php with the following

    'EmailTransport' => [
        ...
	    'mailhog' => [
	        # These are default settings for the MailHog container - make sure it's running first
	        'className' => 'Smtp',
	        'host' => 'myapp-mailhog',
	        'port' => 1025,
	        'timeout' => 30,
	      ],
	      ...

You can access the Web GUI (using the defaults) for mailhog at

localhost:8125

To send mail over the transport layer just set your Email::transport('mailhog')

If you've never worked with Docker before they have some super easy ways to install the needed runtimes on almost any host

• Mac, Windows, Ubuntu, Centos, Debian, Fedora, Azure, AWS

You can download the (free) community edition here https://www.docker.com/community-edition#/download

Cloud Hosting Docker Applications

DigitalOcean has been super reliable for us as a host and has a one-click deploy of a docker host.

Just click CREATE DROPLET and then under Choose an Image pick the One-click Apps (tab) and choose Docker X.Y.Z on X.Y and you're good to go; DO will spool up a droplet with docker and docker-compose already installed and ready to run.