Docker with Directus + MySQL + Adminer + GraphiQL

A quick-start installer and launcher for Docker compose, containing Directus with MySQL, an Adminer UI for managing the database, and a GraphiQL playground. Plus a helper app to walk you through initializing environment variables and launching all services.

Requirements

You need Docker and Node installed on your machine:

• Install Docker Desktop
• Install Node

Installation & Usage

npx create-directus-docker@latest <my-project>

Once installed, simply run:

cd <my-project>
npm install
npm start

The wizard will walk you through configuring your environment variables, and will launch all services for you.

Boom! You're done. Now you can access the URLS from here:

Directus CMS: http://localhost:8055
Adminer (for MySQL): http://localhost:8080
GraphQL Playground: http://localhost:4000/graphql

Seeding MySQL data

If you want to seed your database with data on first launch, place your .sql file(s) in the "init" directory at the root of this package, BEFORE you run all services. MySQL will run any files in this directory the first time it launches.

Snapshot the Data Model

Directus can automatically generate a snapshot of your current data model in YAML format. This includes all collections, fields, and relations, and their configuration. This snapshot can be checked in version control and shared with your team. To generate the snapshot, run:

npm run snapshot

The 'directus' container must be running in order to take a snapshot.

Apply a Snapshot

To overwrite the current Directus instance with the data model specified in that snapshot, you can apply a snapshot by running:

npm run snapshot-apply --snapshot=snapshot-file.yaml

Change the name of the file in the command to match an actual snapshot file in your 'snapshots' directory.

By applying the snapshot, Directus will auto-detect the changes required to make the current instance up to date with the proposed data model in the snapshot file, and will run the required migrations to the database to make it match the snapshot. This is useful when migrating to/from another directus instance.

It is recommended that you test this first by doing a dry-run like this:

npm run snapshot-test --snapshot=snapshot-file.yaml

Starting/stopping with Docker Compose

To stop your running containers, simply run either npm run stop or docker compose down from within the project directory. All containers will be stopped.

To restart your stopped containers, you can let the helper app do it for you:

npm start

The helper app waits for MySQL to be ready before starting the rest of the services (otherwise, you'd get errors).

Check on running containers:

Simply run docker compose ps to see the status of running containers. Or, run docker compose ps -a to see all containers, running or not.

CORS problems on localhost

When using the GraphiQL playground on localhost, you'll run into some browser problems related to CORS. Here's how to get around it:

Safari:

1. Enable the developer menu by opening up Settings > Advanced, then check "Show Develop bar in menu"
2. Click the Develop menu and check "Disable Cross-Origin Restrictions"

Chrome

Temporarily Disable CORS in Chrome (MacOS):

1. Quit Chrome
2. Open terminal and run:

open -n -a "/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome" --args --user-data-dir="/tmp/chrome_dev_test" --disable-web-security

Windows:

1. Right click on desktop, add new shortcut
2. Add the target as "[PATH_TO_CHROME]\chrome.exe" --disable-web-security --disable-gpu --user-data-dir=~/chromeTemp
3. Click OK

Firefox:

For Firefox you can simply install CORS Everywhere addon.