Rock-Spotter

🚀 Quick Deploy Commands

One-line commands to deploy Rock Spotter to any platform.

🐳 Docker (Fastest - 1 minute)

git clone https://github.com/jmenichole/Rock-Spotter.git && cd Rock-Spotter && docker-compose up -d

Then visit: http://localhost:3000/api/health

🎨 Render (Free - 5 minutes)

1. Create MongoDB Atlas: https://www.mongodb.com/cloud/atlas (free tier)
2. One-click deploy: Fork repo → https://dashboard.render.com → New Blueprint → Connect repo
3. Add MONGODB_URI in environment variables
4. Done! ✅

🚂 Railway (Easiest - 2 minutes)

npm i -g railway && railway login && railway init && railway add && railway up

MongoDB included! No external setup needed.

🟣 Heroku (Classic - 5 minutes)

heroku login && \
heroku create rock-spotter-api && \
heroku addons:create mongolab:sandbox && \
heroku config:set JWT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32) && \
git push heroku main

🌊 DigitalOcean App Platform

Via Dashboard (10 minutes):

1. Create account: https://www.digitalocean.com (get $200 credit)
2. Apps → Create App → GitHub → Select repo
3. Set build: cd backend && npm install
4. Set run: cd backend && npm start
5. Add MONGODB_URI and JWT_SECRET
6. Deploy!

⚡ Vercel (Not Recommended)

Note: Vercel is for frontend/serverless. Rock Spotter uses Express with persistent connections. Use Render/Railway instead.

🏗️ AWS Elastic Beanstalk

pip install awsebcli && \
eb init -p node.js rock-spotter-api && \
eb create rock-spotter-env && \
eb setenv MONGODB_URI="your-uri" JWT_SECRET="your-secret"

🔷 Azure App Service

az login && \
az webapp up --name rock-spotter-api --runtime "NODE:18-lts" && \
az webapp config appsettings set --settings MONGODB_URI="your-uri" JWT_SECRET="your-secret"

☁️ Google Cloud Platform (Cloud Run)

gcloud run deploy rock-spotter-api \
  --source ./backend \
  --platform managed \
  --region us-central1 \
  --allow-unauthenticated \
  --set-env-vars MONGODB_URI="your-uri",JWT_SECRET="your-secret"

📦 Fly.io

fly launch --name rock-spotter-api && \
fly secrets set MONGODB_URI="your-uri" JWT_SECRET="your-secret" && \
fly deploy

🔧 VPS (Ubuntu/Debian) with PM2

# On your VPS
git clone https://github.com/jmenichole/Rock-Spotter.git && \
cd Rock-Spotter/backend && \
npm install && \
npm install -g pm2 && \
cp .env.example .env && \
# Edit .env with your settings
pm2 start src/server.js --name rock-spotter && \
pm2 startup && \
pm2 save

🏠 Local Development

cd Rock-Spotter/backend && \
npm install && \
cp .env.example .env && \
npm start

🧪 Test Any Deployment

./verify-deployment.sh https://your-api-url.com

📊 Platform Recommendations

Your Need	Platform	Why
Quick test	Docker	Instant local setup
Free forever	Render	750 hrs/month free
Easiest	Railway	MongoDB included, $5 credit
Production	DigitalOcean	$200 credit, professional
Enterprise	AWS/Azure/GCP	Scalable, full control
Hobby	Heroku	Classic, reliable

🎯 Recommended Path

For Learning/Testing:

docker-compose up -d  # Start locally

For Personal Project:

# Railway (easiest with MongoDB)
npm i -g railway && railway login && railway up

For Production:

1. MongoDB Atlas (free tier)
2. Render or DigitalOcean (reliable hosting)
3. Set up monitoring and backups

🔐 Don’t Forget!

Before deploying:

# Generate secure JWT secret
openssl rand -hex 32

# Or with Node.js
node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"

Set this as JWT_SECRET in your deployment platform!

📚 Need Help?

• Detailed guides: See DEPLOYMENT.md
• Interactive setup: Run ./deploy-setup.sh
• Verify deployment: Run ./verify-deployment.sh YOUR_URL
• File explanations: See DEPLOYMENT-FILES.md

⚡ Super Quick Start (Absolute Fastest)

Already have Docker? Just run:

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jmenichole/Rock-Spotter/main/docker-compose.yml | docker-compose -f - up -d

Want Railway? Just run:

npx railway login && npx railway up

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Pick a platform, copy-paste, deploy! 🚀

Most platforms take 2-5 minutes to get your API live!

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