Docker

This page describes both running and developing virtualtabletop in a Docker container.

Running virtualtabletop in a Docker container

This section explains how to run virtualtabletop in a Docker container. Hopefully we can get this into the Docker Hub but for now this is how you get it up and running:

Save this as Dockerfile in an empty directory (I use /path/to/vtt as an example):

FROM node:18-alpine
RUN apk add curl unzip \
    && curl -LO https://github.com/ArnoldSmith86/virtualtabletop/archive/refs/heads/main.zip \
    && unzip main.zip \
    && rm main.zip \
    && apk del curl unzip \
    && cd virtualtabletop-main \
    && npm install --prod
EXPOSE 8272
VOLUME /virtualtabletop-main/save
WORKDIR /virtualtabletop-main
CMD ["npm", "start"]

Now run docker build to create an image (named virtualtabletop in this example):

sudo docker build -t virtualtabletop /path/to/vtt

Afterwards you can run it in a new container (also named virtualtabletop) like this:

sudo docker run --name virtualtabletop -v vtt:/virtualtabletop-main/save -p 0.0.0.0:80:8272 -e "NODE_ENV=production" virtualtabletop

• --name names the resulting container. This can be anything you want.
• -e sets an environment variable.
• -v creates a persistent volume in /var/lib/docker/volumes/vtt to store save data.
• -p makes the internal port 8272 available from the outside of the machine as port 80.

Developing virtualtabletop in a container

This is an example setup to isolate node environment just for developing virtualtabletop.

First, prepare directories, repo, and config.json:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

mkdir -p virtualtabletop
cd virtualtabletop
# put git repo in a directory called code
git clone https://github.com/ArnoldSmith86/virtualtabletop.git code
# create config.json, and edit it as needed. This will be mounted later.
cp code/config.template.json config.json

# home directory for docker-compose to mount as node home
# so we can keep global node tools persistent (see docker-compose.yaml)
mkdir -p nodehome/app

Then create virtualtabletop/docker-compose.yaml:

version: "3.7"
services:
  virtualtabletop:
    image: node:19.3.0-alpine3.16
    user: "node"
    working_dir: /home/node/app
    environment:
      #- NODE_ENV=production
      - PORT=8272
    volumes:
      - ${PWD}/nodehome:/home/node
      - ${PWD}/code:/home/node/app
      - ${PWD}/config.json:/home/node/app/config.json
    ports:
      - "8272:8272"
    # development
    command: sh -c "npm i; NOCOMPRESS=1 npx nodemon -e js,mjs,css,html,json --ignore save/ --ignore coverage/ --ignore tests/ --inspect server.mjs"
    # uncomment this if you don't want the app to automatically start
    #command: tail -F /dev/null

Then you can use docker-copmose up to bring up the container. You can edit the files directly in virtualtabletop/code from the host system.

Shell access

If you need to run specific commands in the container, access its shell by:

$ docker-compose exec virtualtabletop sh

(use exit to leave)

To enter the root shell:

$ docker-compose exec -u root virtualtabletop sh

No testcafe support yet

Note that this setup does not support testcafe, which requires a graphic setup in the container. While there there various techniques (e.g. mount X sockets, vnc, ssh -X, etc.), it is beyond the scope here. If you have a simple setup that can achieve this, please share with us.

Adding games to the library on a local server

If you want to put your own games files on your local server, you must set the allowPublicLibraryEdits property in the config.json file to true. For more info, see https://github.com/ArnoldSmith86/virtualtabletop/wiki/config.json#allowpubliclibraryedits