Pro Notes: Full-Stack Docker Containerized Application

This is a robust, production-ready Notes application featuring a React frontend, Node.js Express API, PostgreSQL database and Redis caching.

I designed this project to showcase my understanding on advanced Docker orchestration and container optimization techniques.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Node.js, Express.js
• Cache: Redis (Key-value store for note caching)
• Database: PostgreSQL (Relational storage)
• Reverse Proxy: Nginx (Serving the React build)

Docker Concepts Implemented

This project goes beyond basic Dockerfile creation, utilizing industry-standard patterns for security, speed and efficiency:

1. Multi-Stage Builds

Both the Frontend and Backend utilize multi-stage builds. This allowed me to use large builder images containing build tools and then copy only the necessary artifacts into a slim production-grade Alpine image.

• Result: Significantly smaller image sizes and a reduced attack surface.

2. Dependency Optimization (npm prune)

In the backend build, I ran npm prune --production before final packaging. This ensures that all devDependencies are excluded from the production image.

3. Docker Secrets Management

Rather than passing sensitive database passwords via insecure environment variables which can be leaked in logs or docker inspect, I used Docker Secrets.

• The password is read from a file on the host (db-password.txt) and mounted as a temporary file in memory at /run/secrets/database_password inside the container.

4. Resilient Service Discovery & Networking

• Internal Communication: The Express API communicates with Redis and Postgres using their service names (redis, postgres_db) defined in the compose.yaml.
• Port Mapping: The frontend is served via Nginx on port 8080, while the API is gated behind port 5000.

5. Persistent Data Volumes

PostgreSQL data is mapped to a named volume all-notes-data. This ensures that all app notes persist even if the containers are stopped, removed or updated.

How To Run This Project Locally

Prerequisites

• Install Docker Desktop.
• Create a file named db-password.txt in the project's root directory containing your desired Postgres DB password.

Project Structure

.
├── backend/            # Express API & Dockerfile (Multi-stage)
├── frontend/           # React App, Nginx config & Dockerfile (Multi-stage)
├── compose.yaml        # Main Docker orchestration file
├── db-password.txt     # Local secret for Postgres DB password (Git ignored)
└── volumes/            # Persistent DB storage (Managed by Docker)

Deployment

Run this command to build and start the entire app stack:

docker compose up -d --build

The application will be live and available at:

• Frontend: http://localhost:8080
• Backend: http://localhost:5000/api/notes

Tear down

To delete the running app containers only, run:

docker compose down

To tear down all the containers and delete the persistent volumes the app uses, run:

docker compose down --volumes