• simpletables.xyz
  • Overview
  • How to run
  • How to deploy
    • Register a domain
    • Set up hosting
    • Initial server configuration
    • Issue Let's Encrypt certificate
    • Set up a free email
    • Renew certificate

^{Sign up page}

^{Log in page}

^{Reset password page}

^{Databases page}

^{Tables page}

^{Records page}

^{Database's users page}

• ./run.sh <password> = start app, password argument is to be used as MySQL root user password
  • access phpMyAdmin and import the database dump
• docker compose down = stop app

• register a domain on Namecheap

• create an account on DigitalOcean
• create a project and a SSH key on settings
• create a droplet inside the project created previously and select the SSH key created on the previous step as the authentication method
• change DNS provider from Namecheap to DigitalOcean
  • access the domain config page at Namecheap and change "nameservers" from "Namecheap BasicDNS" to "Custom DNS" and add DigitalOcean's nameservers (instructions)
  • access DigitalOcean, add domain to the droplet and create a wildcard A record pointing to *
  • NOTE: later you'll revert to use Namecheap but for now using DigitalOcean is necessary to easily issue a SSL certificate

• access the droplet using SSH — example: ssh [email protected]
• create user and give they root privileges
• install docker on your server
• install docker compose on your server

• enable SSL using Let's Encrpyt
  • NOTE: at section 'Step 3 - Issuing a Certificate', instead of using one of the commands provided as example, use instead (source): sudo certbot certonly --dns-digitalocean --dns-digitalocean-credentials ~/certbot-creds.ini -d simpletables.xyz -d '*.simpletables.xyz' to acquire a wildcard certificate
  • NOTE: during step 2 you'll need to create a DigitalOcean token (instructions)
  • NOTE: DigitalOcean must be the DNS provider because you're using the certbot-dns-digitalocean plugin, if using any other provider you will get the error Unable to determine base domain for simpletables.xyz

• until now you used DigitalOcean as the DNS provider, however Namecheap offers functionalities DigitalOcean doesn't because of that you'll switch to Namecheap
  • on DigitalOcean, delete domain
  • on Namecheap, remove DigitalOcean's nameservers by choosing 'Namecheap BasicDNS' and adding the following records:
    • type: A record, host: @, value: droplet ip
    • type: A record, host: *, value: droplet ip
• configure Namecheap to forward emails sent to a custom domain address (e.g. [email protected]) to a regular email (e.g. [email protected]) — at 'REDIRECT EMAIL' section add the following record (source):
  • alias: admin, forwards to: [email protected]
• to be able to send emails with your custom domain, you must set up a SMTP server — sign up to SMTP2GO with a custom domain email and follow given instructions
  • in SMTP2GO, SMTP username must be simpletables and have the same password as the one passed to run.sh script.

• first, you'll need to switch back to DigitalOcean from Namecheap when it's time to renew the SSL certificate otherwise you'll get the error Unable to determine base domain for simpletables.xyz
  • access the domain config page at Namecheap and change "nameservers" from "Namecheap BasicDNS" to "Custom DNS" and add DigitalOcean's nameservers (instructions); now on DigitalOcean, add domain to droplet the droplet and create a wildcard A record pointing to *
• run sudo certbot renew --dry-run -v first to check everything will work and then sudo certbot renew to actually renew certificates that're near their expiration date
  • if you encounter the error Error finding domain using the DigitalOcean API: Unable to authenticate you (Did you provide a valid API token?) it's because the DigitalOcean's personal access token expired and you need to generate a new one and replace it on the file you created at Issue Let's Encrypt certificate section (if you followed the instructions precisely, file path is ~/certbot-creds.ini)
• restart the droplet for the changes to take effect
• when everything is working, you can switch back to Namecheap - check Set up a free email section for instructions