Myflix - Production Deployment Guide

This guide provides instructions for configuring and deploying the Myflix application to a production environment using Google Cloud Run and Firestore.

Architecture Overview

• Frontend: A React application that is served by the backend.
• Backend: A Node.js/Express server that serves the frontend and provides a content API.
• Database: Google Firestore is used as a persistent NoSQL database to store movie and category information.
• Deployment: The entire application is containerized using Docker and deployed as a stateless service on Google Cloud Run.

---

Prerequisites

1. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Account: You need a GCP account with billing enabled.
2. gcloud CLI: The Google Cloud SDK installed and authenticated on your local machine.
3. Docker: Docker Desktop installed on your local machine.

---

Step 1: Set Up Google Cloud Project & Firestore

1. Create or Select a GCP Project:

   • Go to the GCP Console and create a new project or select an existing one.
   • Note your Project ID.

2. Enable Required APIs:

   • In your project, enable the following APIs:
     • Cloud Run Admin API
     • Cloud Build API
     • Cloud Firestore API
   • You can do this by navigating to "APIs & Services" > "Library" in the console.

3. Create a Firestore Database:

   • Navigate to "Firestore" in the GCP console.
   • Click "Create database".
   • Choose Native Mode.
   • Select a location (e.g., us-central1).
   • Click "Create".

---

Step 2: Configure Service Account (for Local Development)

To run the server locally while connected to your live Firestore database, you need to authenticate using a service account.

1. Create a Service Account:

   • In the GCP console, go to "IAM & Admin" > "Service Accounts".
   • Click "+ Create Service Account".
   • Give it a name (e.g., myflix-server-dev).
   • Grant it the "Cloud Datastore User" role (this role provides permissions for Firestore).
   • Click "Done".

2. Download the Key File:

   • Find the service account you just created in the list.
   • Click on the three-dot menu under "Actions" and select "Manage keys".
   • Click "Add Key" > "Create new key".
   • Choose JSON as the key type and click "Create".
   • A JSON file will be downloaded to your computer. Keep this file secure and do not commit it to version control.

3. Set Environment Variable:

   • Move the downloaded JSON file to the root of this project and rename it to gcp-credentials.json.
   • Set an environment variable that points to this file. The Node.js client library will automatically find and use it.
   • In your terminal (for macOS/Linux):

     export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="[PATH_TO_YOUR_PROJECT]/gcp-credentials.json"

   • For Windows (Command Prompt):

     set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="[PATH_TO_YOUR_PROJECT]\gcp-credentials.json"

---

Step 3: Run the Application Locally

1. Install Dependencies:

   npm install

2. Start the Server:

   npm start

   • The server will start, connect to your Firestore database, and seed it with initial data if it's empty.

---

Step 4: Deploy to Google Cloud Run

1. Configure gcloud CLI:

   • Set your project: gcloud config set project [YOUR_PROJECT_ID]
   • Set your region: gcloud config set run/region [YOUR_CHOSEN_REGION] (e.g., us-central1)

2. Deploy the Service:

   • Run the following command from the root of your project directory:

   gcloud run deploy myflix-service --source . --allow-unauthenticated

   • This command will:
     • Use the Cloud Build API to build a container image from your Dockerfile.
     • Push the image to the Artifact Registry.
     • Deploy the image to a new Cloud Run service named myflix-service.
     • The --allow-unauthenticated flag makes the service publicly accessible.

3. Access Your Application:

   • After the deployment is complete, the gcloud command will output a Service URL. You can access your fully deployed application at this URL.
   • Note: On Cloud Run, you do not need the gcp-credentials.json file. The service runs with the identity of the default Compute Engine service account, which has sufficient permissions to access other services like Firestore within the same project.