Deployment and DevOps

Deployment & DevOps

TopicsFlow is designed to be deployed using Docker and is optimized for Microsoft Azure (Container Apps).

☁️ Azure Deployment

The project includes configuration for deploying to Azure Container Apps, utilizing:

• Azure Container Apps: For hosting the Backend and Frontend containers.
• Azure CosmosDB for MongoDB: For the database layer.
• Azure Cache for Redis: For session management and caching.

Deployment Files

• azure-container-apps.yaml: Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) definition for the container apps environment.
• .github/workflows/azure-deploy.yml: GitHub Actions workflow for automated deployment on push to main.
• Dockerfile.azure: Optimized Dockerfile for the backend in Azure.
• Dockerfile.frontend: Dockerfile for the Next.js frontend.

Environment Variables (Azure)

When deploying to Azure, ensure these variables are set in the Container App secrets/env:

Variable	Description
MONGO_URI	Connection string for CosmosDB.
REDIS_URL	Connection string for Azure Redis.
FLASK_ENV	Set to production.
IS_AZURE	Set to true to enable Azure-specific tweaks.
FRONTEND_URL	URL of the deployed frontend (for CORS).

🐳 Docker Deployment

For generic deployment (VPS, other clouds), use docker-compose.prod.yml.

1. Build Images:

   docker-compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml build

2. Start Services:

   docker-compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

🔄 CI/CD Pipelines

The project uses GitHub Actions for Continuous Integration and Deployment.

Workflows

1. Test & Lint (main_topicsflowrinte.yml):

   • Runs on every push.
   • Executes backend tests (pytest).
   • Checks code style.

2. Azure Deploy (azure-deploy.yml):

   • Triggered on push to main.
   • Builds Docker images.
   • Pushes to Azure Container Registry (ACR).
   • Updates Azure Container Apps revision.

🛠️ Maintenance Scripts

The scripts/ directory contains useful tools for database maintenance:

• migrate_database_schema.py: Applies schema updates to existing documents.
• fix_indexes_and_migrate.py: Rebuilds MongoDB indexes.
• cleanup_locales.py: Manage translation files.

Run these from the backend container or a machine with access to the database.