Skip to main content

Install YAFFA using Docker for Windows

This guide will help you install a basic working instance of YAFFA on your Windows machine using Docker.

Docker is a platform for developing, shipping, and running applications in containers. At this point, we assume that you have already installed Docker and Docker Compose on your computer. This guide uses Windows and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2 to run Docker containers.

This Docker-based approach will take of installing the necessary server environment within containers. If needed, you can read about the environment requirements in the Technology stack guide.

1. Start your Docker environment​

Start Docker Desktop on your computer.

Screenshot of Docker Desktop running

2. Create a new directory for YAFFA​

Open a terminal of your choice to proceed with the installation. You can use the WSL Terminal, Command Prompt, or PowerShell. We will use the Ubuntu WSL in this guide.

You will download the necessary files to configure and run YAFFA in this directory.

  • Create a new directory for YAFFA, for example yaffa, and enter it.
mkdir yaffa-docker
cd yaffa-docker

3. Download YAFFA​

You'll need two files to run YAFFA with Docker: docker-compose.yml and .env.

A. You can download these files using your browser and save them in the yaffa-docker directory.

B. Alternatively, you can use the terminal to download the files directly.

curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kantorge/yaffa/refs/heads/main/docker/docker-compose.yml
curl -o .env https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kantorge/yaffa/refs/heads/main/.env.example

4. Configure YAFFA​

As any Laravel application, YAFFA needs to be configured to work with your environment. This includes setting up the database connection, application key, and other settings.

  • To do this, open the .env file in your text editor, e.g.
nano .env
  • Review and edit the database settings if you want to use a different database name, user, or password. Most importantly, you need to set the DB_HOST to db, which is the name of the MySQL service in the Docker Compose file.

Once you are done with all changes, save the file and exit the editor.

You also need change the application key, either manually by editing the .env file, or by running the following command in the terminal. This will fill in the APP_KEY value in the .env file, or overwrite it if it already exists. (It assumes, that you are in the yaffa-docker directory, and you have OpenSSL installed, which should be the case by default on most Linux/macOS systems.)

grep -q '^APP_KEY=' .env && \
  sed -i 's|^APP_KEY=.*|APP_KEY=base64:'"$(openssl rand -base64 32)"'|' .env || \
  echo "APP_KEY=base64:$(openssl rand -base64 32)" >> .env

5. Start YAFFA​

Start YAFFA using Docker Compose.

docker-compose up -d

This command will download the necessary Docker images, create the containers, and start the services. It will take a few minutes to complete, depending on your internet connection and computer performance. The -d flag will run the containers in the background, so you can continue using the terminal.

Screenshot of Docker containers running

During the launch of the containers, Docker will also take care of migrating the database, and creating the necessary tables for YAFFA.

6. Access YAFFA​

Once the containers are running, you can access YAFFA from your browser at http://localhost.

Screenshot of YAFFA login page

For instructions on the first steps to start using YAFFA, please visit the guide on the registration.

7. Stop YAFFA​

When you are done using YAFFA, you can stop the containers.

docker-compose down

Note that this will stop the application, its scheduled cron jobs, and the database, but the data will be preserved.

caution

You now have a working instance of YAFFA, which stores its data in a MySQL database. The MySQL files, logs, and any uploaded content are located in the yaffa_db and yaffa_storage Docker volumes, respectively.

  • If you delete these volumes, you will lose all your data.
  • If you want to back up your YAFFA data, you need to back up the Docker volumes.
  • If you want to keep your data private, you need to secure access to the Docker volumes.

These are not handled by YAFFA or Docker, nor covered by this guide.