Deploy Sample Apps to App Platform

App Platform is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering that allows developers to publish code directly to DigitalOcean servers without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.

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App Platform offers sample applications that you can fork into your GitHub account and then deploy on App Platform. Each app deploys a basic “Hello, world!” style website that you can view in your browser after deployment. This can help you learn how App Platform works and test different languages on the service.

Along with the application itself, each app contains a spec file and a file native to its programming language that App Platform uses to detect the app’s language. For example, in the Node.js sample app, App Platform uses the app spec file (.do/app.yaml) to configure the app for deployment, and the package.json file to determine that the app uses the Node.js framework. These files are important for understanding how App Platform works.

For a list of available languages, see our list of sample apps.

Deploy a Sample App

To deploy a sample app in App Platform, open the DigitalOcean Control Panel, click the Create button, and then select Apps from the drop-down menu.

On the Create Resource From Source Code screen, select the Other: Choose Sample App option. This opens a drop-down where you can select the sample app you want to deploy.

In the Choose popular languages or frameworks section, select the language of the sample app you want to deploy. You can use the search bar to locate specific language or framework options.

Once you’ve chosen an app, in the Fork or deploy directly from temporary repository section, select whether to fork the app into your GitHub account or deploy the app directly from the sample app’s repository. We recommend forking the app so that you can customize it later and redeploy it as needed.

If you choose Fork repository, provide a GitHub account name and a new name for the forked repository. If this is your first time using App Platform, the repository service prompts you to provide DigitalOcean with read and write permissions to your account.

If you choose to the Deploy directly from template repository option, the app deploys directly from the sample app’s repository and you do not need to provide any additional information.

Once you’ve selected your app, click Next.

Resources

Resources are deployable runtime apps and databases. Each app resource contains a list of its components, which can be web services, workers, jobs, or static sites. Web services, workers, and jobs are built from source code repositories or container images and are hosted in containers. Static sites are built from a directory of static files and hosted on DigitalOcean’s CDN.

Configure Component Settings

Each component in an app has its own settings that determine its deployment configuration, including its instance size, build and run commands, and available HTTP ports. To configure the settings for a component, click Edit beside the component you want to change on the Resources screen.

App Platform displays the settings for the component, several of which may be auto-filled by App Platform’s detection system. You can configure the following settings for your app:

• Name: A unique name for the component.

• Resource Type: - The type of app to be deployed, either a web service, static site, or worker service. This field determines which additional configuration options are available for your app on this screen.

• Resource Size - The amount of memory (RAM), number of CPUs, and bandwidth allocated to the component. You can select a size that uses either shared or dedicated CPUs. Shared CPUs share their processing power with other DigitalOcean users. Dedicated CPUs are dedicated solely to your app. We recommend dedicated CPUs for more resource-intensive applications that require consistent high performance and autoscaling.

  You can also configure your app’s scaling settings in this section. Depending on what instance size you select determines the scaling options available to the component. For more information about scaling, see How to Scale Apps in App Platform.

• Build Phase - Add a custom build command to run before the app is deployed. This is useful for compiling assets, installing dependencies, or running tests before deployment.

• Run Command - For web and worker services only. You can specify custom run commands for the application to run after deployment. If no run commands are specified, the default run command for your app’s language is used, such as npm start for a Node.js app. For Dockerfile-based builds, entering a run command overrides the Dockerfile’s entrypoint.

• HTTP Port - For web services only. The port that the app receives HTTP requests on. The default port is 8080.

• HTTP Request Routes - For web services and static sites only. The URL path where the app can be accessed, such as your-app-v3cl4.ondigitalocean.app/api. If not specified, the app is accessible from the provided hostname’s root.

• Output Directory - For static sites only. An optional path to where the build assets are located, relative to the build context. If not set, App Platform automatically scans for these directory names: _static, dist, public, build.

App Platform uses cloud-native buildpacks to build your app and uses the buildpack’s default build and run commands. Refer to the cloud-native buildpack reference for more information about specific buildpacks.

After you configure the resource settings, click Back to go back to the Resources screen.

Add Additional Resources (Optional)

Once you configure your app’s components, you can optionally add additional resources to the app, such as a database or another app resource.

To add another resource click Add Resource (Optional), then select one of the following options:

Detect from Source Code: This adds another app resource to your app and guides you through configuring its components similar to how you added your first app resource.

Database: This option guides you through how to add either a Developer Database or a previously existing DigitalOcean Managed Database to your app. Developer Databases are not meant for production workloads but are helpful for development and testing. For production use, we recommend using DigitalOcean Managed Databases.

Select either option and then click Add. The control panel guides you through how to add the new resource to your app.

Once you configure the resources and their components, click Next.

Environment

If your app requires environment variables, such as the app’s URL or database connection strings, you can define them in this section. These can be runtime and build time environment variables. We also provide several app-specific dynamic environment variables that the app can reference. App-level variables can be accessed by all resources in your app.

On the Environment screen, click the corresponding Edit link to specify app-level or component-level environment variables. Click the Encrypt checkbox to obscure the variable’s values from all build, deployment, and application logs.

Once you configure the environment variables, click Next.

Info

On the Info screen, you can specify that app’s name, project, and the datacenter region to deploy it into.

Click Edit beside App Info to specify the name of your app and the project your app belongs to. The name can only contain lowercase alphanumeric characters and dashes.

Click Edit beside the Region field to specify app’s datacenter region. For performance purposes, it is best to select the region geographically closest to the app’s user base.

You cannot select a region for static sites. Static resources are served on DigitalOcean’s global CDN.

Once you enter a name for your app and select a region, click Next.

Review

On the Review screen, review your app’s configuration and billing information and then click Create Resources.

Once your app deploys, you can view the app at the URL at the top of the app’s Overview page.

List of Available Sample Apps

We offer sample apps for the following languages and frameworks. Each link opens the sample app’s repository in GitHub.

We provide the following sample apps:

• Django
• Docker
• Express.js
• Flask
• Gatsby
• Go
• Hexo
• Hugo
• Jekyll
• Laravel
• Next.js
• Node.js
• Nuxt.js
• PHP
• Python
• React
• React using Vite
• Ruby
• Static assets
• TypeScript
• Vue.js