Environments

    Nanobox is a portable, micro platform for developing and deploying apps. When working locally, Nanobox uses Docker to spin up and configure a virtual development environment configured to your specific needs. When you’re ready to deploy to live servers, Nanobox will take that same environment and spin it up on your cloud provider of choice, where you can then manage and scale your app through the Nanobox dashboard.

    Local Development

    Nanobox can be used for local development on any number of projects (not only restricted to PHP). To start working with nanobox you will first create a free Nanobox account, then . The account is used only to login to nanobox using the console command. Nanobox will remember your credentials so you only have to do this once. If your intent is only to use nanobox locally, you do not need to do anything else. The same login however can be used later on if you wish to deploy your application to a live environment.

    Create a project folder and into it:

    Add a boxfile.yml

    Nanobox uses the to build and configure your app’s runtime and environment. In the root of your project, create a boxfile.yml with the following:

    1. run.config:
    2.   engine: php
    3.   engine.config:
    4.     runtime: php-7.2
    5.     document_root: public
    6.     extensions:
    7.       - phalcon
    8.   extra_steps:
    9.     #===========================================================================
    10.     # PSR extension compilation
    11.     - |
    12.       (
    13.         CURRENT_FOLDER=$(pwd)
    14.         rm -fR /tmp/php-psr
    15.         cd /tmp/build
    16.         git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/jbboehr/php-psr.git
    17.         cd php-psr
    18.         set -e
    19.         phpize
    20.         make -j"$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)"
    21.         make install
    22.         cd $CURRENT_FOLDER
    23.         rm -fR /tmp/php-psr
    24.         unset CURRENT_FOLDER
    25.       )
    26.     - echo -e 'extension=psr.so' >> "/data/etc/php/dev_php.ini"
    27.     - echo "alias phalcon=\'phalcon.php\'" >> /data/var/home/gonano/.bashrc
    • Use the PHP engine, a set of scripts that build your app’s runtime.
    • Use PHP 7.2.
    • Set the Apache document root to .
    • Include the Phalcon extension. Nanobox takes a bare-bones approach to extensions, so you’ll likely need to include other extensions. More information can be found .
    • Install the required PSR extension
    • Add a bash alias for Phalcon Devtools so you can just use the phalcon command.Depending on the needs of your application, you might need to add additional extensions. For instance you might want to add mbcrypt, igbinary, json, session and redis. Your extensions section in the boxfile.yml will look like this:
    1. run.config:
    2.   engine: php
    3.   engine.config:
    4.     extensions:
    5.       - json
    6.       - mbstring
    7.       - igbinary
    8.       - session
    9.       - phalcon
    10.       - redis

    Create a composer.json file in the root of your project and add the phalcon/devtools package to your dev requirements:

    NOTE: The version of Phalcon Devtools depends on which PHP version as well as Phalcon version you’re using.

    Start Nanobox and Generate a New Phalcon App

    From the root of your project, run the following commands to start Nanobox and generate a new Phalcon app. As Nanobox starts, the PHP engine will automatically install and enable the Phalcon extension, run a composer install which will install Phalcon Devtools, then drop you into an interactive console inside the virtual environment. Your working directory is mounted into the /app directory in the VM, so as changes are made, they will be reflected both in the VM and in your local working directory.

    1. # start nanobox and drop into a nanobox console
    2. nanobox run
    4. cd /tmp
    7. phalcon project myapp
    9. # change back to the /app dir
    10. cd -
    12. # copy the generated app into your project
    13. cp -a /tmp/myapp/* .
    15. # exit the console
    16. exit
    1. nanobox dns add local phalcon.dev

    Alternatively you can use the IP address of your container. The IP address is displayed when you first run your container. If you forgot or did not notice it, on a separate terminal, navigate to the same folder that your project lives on your system and type

    The output of this command will show you all the IP addresses of your containers/components as well as passwords to databases (if applicable).

    Nanobox provides a php-server helper script that starts both Apache (or Nginx depending on your boxfile.yml config) and PHP. When passed with the nanobox run command, it will start the local dev environment and immediately run your app.

    1. nanobox run php-server

    Once running, you can visit your app at https://phalcon.dev.

    Check Out the Environment

    1. # drop into a Nanobox console
    2. nanobox run
    4. # check the php version
    5. php -v
    7. # check that phalcon devtools are available
    8. phalcon info
    10. # check that your local codebase is mounted
    11. ls