Introduction

Having built out all the features of our application, preparing it for deployment is the next step so that everyone around the world will easily access it. We will deploy our apps (backend and frontend) on free hosting platforms — fly.io for backend and vercel.

Source code

The source code for this series is hosted on GitHub via:

Implementation

Step 1: Dockerization of the backend

Though fly.io supports Golang natively and we can deploy it just like that, our file structure doesn't make it that easy since main.go isn't at the root of the project. To ease the process, we'll just dockerize it. We will adopt multi-stage builds pattern to greatly reduce our docker image size. With this, we'll have a Dockerfile that looks like this:

<!-- go-auth/Dockerfile -->

FROM golang:1.20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY ./go-auth-backend/ .
RUN go mod download
RUN go build -ldflags='-s' -o=./bin/api ./cmd/api


FROM alpine:latest AS runner
WORKDIR /
COPY --from=builder /app/bin/api /api
EXPOSE 8080
ENTRYPOINT ["/api"]

At the builder stage, we are using the compact-sized and secured alpine-based docker image. This image is just enough to build our application. Then, we specified /app as the directory which our system's source files are copied into. Since we have external dependencies, they need to be downloaded hence the RUN go mod download. With everything intact, we then built our application which generated an executable (binary) in /bin/api. The binary generated will be reduced in size because we stripped off "DWARF and Symbol table".

In the runner stage, we simply "brought forward" the output of the builder stage — in this case /app/bin/api — and deposit it in /api which was then used as the application's entry point.

It should also be noted that to reduce the image's size further, we ignored some folders and files and they weren't copied to the docker image using a .dockerignore:

# flyctl launch added from frontend/.gitignore
frontend/*
# flyctl launch added from go-auth-backend/.gitignore
go-auth-backend/**/.env.*
go-auth-backend/**/.envrc
go-auth-backend/**/bin
fly.toml

Step 2: Deploying the backend

Before deploying, some changes need to be made to config.go and the changes can be seen here.

Before proceeding, kindly create an account on fly.io.

Having wrapped our app in a docker container, it's time to deploy on fly.io. Ensure you are at the base of the entire project. Then follow the steps below:

• Install fly.io's CLI
• Login into your account via fly auth login

• Run fly launch. This automatically detects the Dockerfile at the root of the project. Follow the prompts. However, don't deploy it yet because we need to set our environment variables. By now, you should see a fly.toml file generated. You should create an [env] section in the file with the following filled in:
  

  [env]
  PORT = "8080"
  DEBUG = "false"
  TOKEN_EXPIRATION = 
  SESSION_EXPIRATION = 
  DB_MAX_OPEN_CONNS = 
  DB_MAX_IDLE_CONNS = 
  DB_MAX_IDLE_TIME = 
  EMAIL_HOST_SERVER = "smtp.gmail.com" # if you are using google's gmail
  EMAIL_SERVER_PORT = "587"
  FRONTEND_URL = 
  

  If you have some secrets you can't put here such as EMAIL_USERNAME, EMAIL_PASSWORD, AWS_S3_BUCKET_NAME, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, and AWS_REGION, they can be loaded using:
  

  flyctl secrets set SECRET_NAME=value
  

  NOTE: If you opted to create a PostgreSQL database and Redis provided by fly.io, they will automatically be added to your environment variable. Ensure you copy the credentials of the PostgreSQL database provisioned most especially the DATABASE_URL. This is needed to migrate the database locally.

  After setting them all, then:

• Run fly deploy.

• If successful, run the following command to migrate your database:
  

  ~/Documents/Projects/web/go-auth/go-auth-backend$ migrate -path=./migrations -database=<DATABASE_URL> up
  

Step 3: Deploying the frontend

Deploying the front-end on vercel is a breeze. Just install sveltekit's vercel adapter:

~/Documents/Projects/web/go-auth/frontend$ npm i -D @sveltejs/adapter-vercel

Then add the adapter to your svelte.config.js:

// frontend/svelte.config.js
import adapter from '@sveltejs/adapter-vercel';

/** @type {import('@sveltejs/kit').Config} */
const config = {
    kit: {
        adapter: adapter({
            runtime: 'edge'
        })
    }
};

export default config;

With that, just go to your Vercel dashboard and link the front-end of your GitHub version of the application to it. Within seconds, your app will be deployed.

Ensure you set the URL of the backend as the VITE_BASE_API_URI_PROD environment variable.

Congratulations. The next article will be about automated testing. It's also going to be the last article in this series. See you.

Outro

Enjoyed this article? I'm a Software Engineer and Technical Writer actively seeking new opportunities, particularly in areas related to web security, finance, health care, and education. If you think my expertise aligns with your team's needs, let's chat! You can find me on LinkedIn: LinkedIn and Twitter: Twitter.

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