Running dynamicweb with Docker Compose

A self-contained test/dev stack: Postgres, Redis, the web app and a Celery worker. Nothing else needs to be installed on the server.

Start

git clone <this repo> && cd dynamicweb
docker compose up -d --build
docker compose logs -f web      # wait for "Starting development server"

The first start takes a few minutes: it builds the image, creates the database, runs all migrations and generates a Django secret key (kept in the appdata volume).

The app listens on port 8000. Open it at http://<server-ip>:8000/ (open the port in the server firewall if needed).

Configuration

Defaults for everything are in .env.docker (committed, dev values only).
To override a value, create a .env file next to docker-compose.yml (optional, git-ignored). Values there win over .env.docker.

Using your own Postgres instead of the bundled one

Set the connection in .env:

POSTGRES_HOST=<host>
POSTGRES_PORT=5432
POSTGRES_DB=<db>
POSTGRES_USER=<user>
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=<password>

then start everything except the bundled database:

docker compose up -d --build --no-deps web celery redis

Testing all the sites

The project serves many websites from one app and chooses the site from the hostname. In this test setup you don't need DNS or /etc/hosts: a dev-only switcher (active when DEBUG=True) reads the site from the address, so every site is its own browser origin and you can open several at once.

On the machine running the stack, browsers resolve <domain>.localhost to the local machine, so the links below just work.
On a remote server, open http://<server-ip>:8000/dev-sites/: it lists every site as a link of the form http://<domain>.<server-ip>.sslip.io:8000/ (sslip.io is a public wildcard DNS service, so the server needs internet access from your browser, not from itself).
Fallback without wildcard names: http://<server>:8000/?site=<domain> remembers the site in a cookie (shared by all tabs, so prefer the addresses above).

Site	Link
ungleich.ch	http://ungleich.ch.localhost:8000/
blog.ungleich.ch	http://blog.ungleich.ch.localhost:8000/
comic.ungleich.ch	http://comic.ungleich.ch.localhost:8000/
digitalglarus.ch	http://digitalglarus.ch.localhost:8000/
datacenterlight.ch	http://datacenterlight.ch.localhost:8000/
rails-hosting.ch	http://rails-hosting.ch.localhost:8000/
django-hosting.ch	http://django-hosting.ch.localhost:8000/
node-hosting.ch	http://node-hosting.ch.localhost:8000/
devuanhosting.ch	http://devuanhosting.ch.localhost:8000/
devuanhosting.com	http://devuanhosting.com.localhost:8000/
ipv6onlyhosting.com	http://ipv6onlyhosting.com.localhost:8000/
digitalezukunft.ch	http://digitalezukunft.ch.localhost:8000/
hack4glarus.ch	http://hack4glarus.ch.localhost:8000/
xn--nglarus-n2a.ch	http://xn--nglarus-n2a.ch.localhost:8000/

To add a site, add it to UNGLEICH_SITE_CONFIGS in .env.docker (a Site row is created on start).

Dummy data

With SEED_DUMMY_DATA=True (the default in .env.docker), a start on a database without page content creates sample content that mimics production: per site a home page in that site's own template with four child pages (About, Services, Pricing, Contact), plus an admin and 12 customers. The text is written to look like a real site, and only hidden markers (page reverse_id starting with dummy-, dummy-*@example.com users) identify it. If the database already has page content (for example the owner's own Postgres) nothing is added. It is idempotent and only touches what it created.

Admin login (fixed): dummy-admin@example.com / dummy-admin at /en-us/admin/login/. Change the password with DUMMY_ADMIN_PASSWORD in .env (applies when the admin is first created).
Turn it off with SEED_DUMMY_DATA=False in .env.
Remove it at any time: docker compose exec web python manage.py seed_dummy_data --purge.

Real data can also be restored from a plain-SQL *.sql / *.sql.gz dump in db-init/ before the first start. To reload: docker compose down -v (deletes volumes) and start again. Dumps are git-ignored because they contain personal data.

Useful commands

docker compose ps                         # what is running
docker compose logs -f web celery         # logs
docker compose up -d --build              # rebuild after code changes (code is baked into the image)
docker compose exec web python manage.py createsuperuser
docker compose down                       # stop (keeps data); add -v to wipe it

Limitations of the test setup

OpenNebula (VM creation), LDAP login and Stripe payments use placeholders and will not work. Email is printed to the web container log. DEBUG=True is on.

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