Creating and running an Angular application in a Docker container

Application example built with Angular 17 and running the image in a Docker container.

Jan 03, 2024

Introduction

In this article, a WEB application will be created using the latest version of Angular, a Docker image will be created and this image will be run in a Docker container.

Prerequisites

Before you start, you need to install and configure the tools below to create the Angular application and the Docker image.

git: Git is a distributed version control system and it will be used to sync the repository.
Node.js and npm: Node.js is a JavaScript code runtime software based on Google's V8 engine. npm is a package manager for Node.js (Node.js Package Manager). They will be used to build and run the Angular application and install the libraries.
Angular CLI: Angular CLI is a command line utility tool for Angular and it will be used to create the base structure of the Angular application.
Docker Engine: Docker Engine is a command line utility tool for Docker and it will be used to create and run containers.
IDE (e.g. Visual Studio Code or WebStorm): IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is a tool with a graphical interface to help in the development of applications and it will be used to develop the Angular application.

Getting started

Create the Angular application

Angular is a development platform for building WEB, mobile and desktop applications using HTML, CSS and TypeScript (JavaScript). Currently, Angular is at version 17 and Google is the main maintainer of the project.

1. Let's create the application with the Angular base structure using the @angular/cli with the server-side rendering (SSR) disabled, the route file and the SCSS style format.

ng new angular-docker --ssr false --routing true --style scss
CREATE angular-docker/README.md (1067 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/.editorconfig (274 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/.gitignore (548 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/angular.json (2806 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/package.json (1045 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/tsconfig.json (903 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/tsconfig.app.json (263 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/tsconfig.spec.json (273 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/.vscode/extensions.json (130 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/.vscode/launch.json (470 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/.vscode/tasks.json (938 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/main.ts (250 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/favicon.ico (15086 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/index.html (299 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/styles.scss (80 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/app/app.component.scss (0 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/app/app.component.html (20884 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/app/app.component.spec.ts (940 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/app/app.component.ts (373 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/app/app.config.ts (227 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/app/app.routes.ts (77 bytes)
CREATE angular-docker/src/assets/.gitkeep (0 bytes)
✔ Packages installed successfully.
    Successfully initialized git.

2. Now we will run the application with the command below.

npm start

> angular-docker@0.0.0 start
> ng serve


Initial Chunk Files | Names         |  Raw Size
polyfills.js        | polyfills     |  82.71 kB | 
main.js             | main          |  23.23 kB | 
styles.css          | styles        |  96 bytes | 

                    | Initial Total | 106.03 kB

Application bundle generation complete. [1.504 seconds]
Watch mode enabled. Watching for file changes...
  ➜  Local:   http://localhost:4200/

3. Ready! Next, we will access the URL http://localhost:4200/ and check if the application is working.

Create the Docker image

Docker is a software that allows developers to create and run container applications.

1. Let's create the Dockerfile file with the Docker image configuration in the root directory of the Angular application.

touch Dockerfile

2. Now we will configure the Dockerfile file with the content below.

FROM node:alpine

WORKDIR /usr/src/app

COPY . /usr/src/app

RUN npm install -g @angular/cli

RUN npm install

CMD ["ng", "serve", "--host", "0.0.0.0"]

Notes:

The FROM node:alpine setting defines the base Docker image.
The WORKDIR /usr/src/app setting defines the default application directory. The defined directory is created if it does not exist.
The COPY . /usr/src/app setting copies the local application files and directories to the defined directory.
The npm install -g @angular/cli setting installs the global command line dependency for Angular.
The RUN npm install setting installs the Angular application dependencies.
The CMD ["ng", "serve", "--host", "0.0.0.0"] setting creates and runs the Angular application for external access.

3. Next, we will create the image with with the command below.

docker build -t angular-docker .

4. After create the image, we will check if the image was created with the command below.

docker images
REPOSITORY       TAG      IMAGE ID       CREATED          SIZE
angular-docker   latest   73bfa0093a57   10 seconds ago   463MB

5. Ready! The Docker image with ID 73bfa0093a57 and 463MB was created.

Run the Docker container

1. Let's run the Docker container using the image created of the Angular application with the command below.

docker run -p 4201:4200 angular-docker

2. Now we will check if the container is running with the command below.

docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE            COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS         PORTS                                       NAMES
b9f106cbdcca   angular-docker   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   5 seconds ago   Up 4 seconds   0.0.0.0:4201->4200/tcp, :::4201->4200/tcp   eloquent_elgamal

3. Ready! Next, we will access the URL http://localhost:4201/ and check if the application is working inside the Docker container.

Conclusion

Summarizing what was covered in this article:

We create an Angular application.
We create a Docker image.
We run a Docker container.
We tested the Angular application inside the Docker container.

You can use this article to create a Docker container with an Angular application image.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the article!

This tutorial was posted on my blog in portuguese.

To stay updated whenever I post new articles, follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Rodrigo Kamada

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