Dockerizing a basic Node.js/Nest.js application

Today we will Dockerize a Node.js application. We will use the Nest.js for today. But the commands and processes are exactly the same for any Node.js application built some other frameworks (like Express.js).

What is Nest.js and why we are using it?

Nest.js is a progressive Node.js framework. There are so many ways to structure Nodejs projects especially when we use express or other similar frameworks. But it can be a problem when multiple people work on the same project. Nest.js comes to the rescue in these scenarios. It follows a certain pattern of creating a project and helps to keep the different modules of our app separate from each other which is great!

Getting started with Nest.js

First, we need to install the Nest.js cli. run the following command on your terminal.

npm i -g @nestjs/cli

After installation is complete we can scaffold a new Nest.js app very easily like this.

nest new example-app

After initializing we can go into the project directory and start the project right away!

cd example-app
yarn start:dev

your project will run at port 3000 on your localhost. Open your browser and go to http://localhost:3000/ and you will get a ‘Hello World’ response!

The first response from NestJS app!

What is Docker and why we should use it?

Docker is a way of containerizing your application so that you don’t have to worry about the different runtime or dependencies or versions. If a docker Image runs on your local machine it will run on any machine. It’s great for easily deploying our apps or sharing with others. We will dockerize our app step by step now.

Step 1: Install Docker

For installation of docker go here https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/

Step 2: Add Docker to your project