Add documentation about deployment

[fabcor-maxiv]

Preview: https://mxcubeweb--1193.org.readthedocs.build/en/1193/dev/deployment.html

[fabcor-maxiv]

@axelboc What about the JavaScript part? Anything that could be mentioned? What should one pay attention to when deploying for production regarding the JavaScript part? Some special flags to set when building? Anything like that?

[axelboc]

@axelboc What about the JavaScript part? Anything that could be mentioned? What should one pay attention to when deploying for production regarding the JavaScript part? Some special flags to set when building? Anything like that?

Well, I guess you could copy the steps from the README: 1) install the front-end dependencies with pnpm --prefix ui install; 2) build the front-end with pnpm --prefix ui build 3) point maxcube-server to where the built files are located (ui/build).

There's a .env file in the ui folder but it's meant to be removed. I don't see anything else but @marcus-oscarsson may have a better idea.

[marcus-oscarsson]

Yes the .env file is no longer used and can be removed.

[marcus-oscarsson]

I'm wondering if we should not provide a pre-built UI and bundle that with the python package.

[marcus-oscarsson]

Should we make sure that there is a requirements.txt that is up to date in the repository if we recommend using pip for deployment or de we leave that up to each and everyone to decide ?

[marcus-oscarsson]

Thanks, looks good to me !

[axelboc]

I'm wondering if we should not provide a pre-built UI and bundle that with the python package.

If there are no longer any environment variables and no other build-time configuration, then for sure! Not having to build the front-end would definitely make deployment simpler.

[fabcor-maxiv]

I'm wondering if we should not provide a pre-built UI and bundle that with the python package.

I can not think of a way to do this that would not be a pain, but I have not thought about it very long. If someone comes up with a good solution, then that would be great of course.

Should we make sure that there is a requirements.txt that is up to date in the repository if we recommend using pip for deployment or de we leave that up to each and everyone to decide ?

Yes, I have already experimented with this a bit. I think with pre-commit hooks it can be done without too much pain and suffering inflicted on contributors. But I would do it in a separate effort (pull request).

There's a .env file in the ui folder but it's meant to be removed. I don't see anything else but @marcus-oscarsson may have a better idea.

Yes the .env file is no longer used and can be removed.

No idea about this. Feel free to do it in a separate pull request, I guess.

[marcus-oscarsson]

I see, I think that if we agree that we should use pip for deployment then we should IMO make sure that there is either a script that generates the requirements.txt and performs the pip install or automatically create the requirements.txt

[marcus-oscarsson]

I think we can come up with a way to build and bundle the UI with the python package in someway.

[fabcor-maxiv]

@marcus-oscarsson @axelboc dedicated issues to discuss the tangential topics:

• Build the UI and bundle it in Python packages #1219
• Remove ui/.env file #1220

[fabcor-maxiv]

I have thought about adding a section about the Javascript UI part that would not be a complete copy/paste of the other page, and I can not come up with anything. So I rather leave this out. We can always add something when we have something concrete to write that is actual additional information.

So I guess this is ready to be merged from my point of view.