DocPad websites can be deployed anywhere. Here are a few of the most common deployments.

To a Node.js Hosting Provider

Inside your website's directory

  1. Add the following to your website's package.json file. Add all the dependencies you are using and make sure their versions are correct - as well as ensure all commas are correctly placed.

    "engines" : {
    "node": "0.10",
    "npm": "1.2"
},
"dependencies": {
    "docpad": "6.x",
    "docpad-plugin-blah": "2.x"
},
"main": "node_modules/docpad/bin/docpad-server",
"scripts": {
    "start": "node_modules/docpad/bin/docpad-server"
}

For deployment to Heroku

  1. Create a Procfile file inside your project that contains:

    web: node_modules/docpad/bin/docpad-server

  2. Set your heroku instance to run in production mode

    heroku config:add NODE_ENV=production

  3. Follow the rest of the Heroku guide here

For deployment to AppFog

  1. Create a app.js file inside your project that contains:

    module.exports = require(__dirname+'/node_modules/docpad/out/bin/docpad-server');

  2. Follow the rest of the AppFog guide here

For deployment to Windows Azure

  1. Create a deployment script that triggers the static content generation. To create the script run the following command using the Windows Azure CLI Tools:

    azure site deploymentscript --basic -t bash

  2. Modify the deploy.sh file by chaning the # Deployment section to the following lines. You can see a complete example of the deploy.sh file here.

    echo Handling deployment.

# 1. Install npm packages
if [ -e "$DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE/package.json" ]; then
  cd "$DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE"
  npm install --production --silent
  exitWithMessageOnError "npm failed"
  cd - > /dev/null
fi

# 2. Build DocPad Site
echo Building the DocPad site
cd "$DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE"
node ./node_modules/docpad/bin/docpad generate
exitWithMessageOnError "Docpad generation failed"

# 3. KuduSync
echo Kudu Sync from "$DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE/out" to "$DEPLOYMENT_TARGET"
$KUDU_SYNC_COMMAND -q -f "$DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE/out" -t "$DEPLOYMENT_TARGET" -n "$NEXT_MANIFEST_PATH" -p "$PREVIOUS_MANIFEST_PATH" -i ".git;.deployment;deploy.sh" 2> /dev/null
exitWithMessageOnError "Kudu Sync failed"

  3. Last, create a web.config file in the files directory of your site with the URL rewrite rules shown below. These rules remove the html extensions from your urls. You can see the main portions of this web.config file below. You can download the complete file here.

    <rule name="RemoveHTMLExtensions" stopProcessing="true">
    <match url="^(.*)\.html$" />
    <action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}" appendQueryString="true" />
</rule>
<rule name="RewriteHTMLExtensions" stopProcessing="true">
    <match url="(.*)" />
    <conditions>
        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true"/>
        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true"/>
    </conditions>
    <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:1}.html" />
</rule>

  4. Follow the rest of the Azure guide here

For deployment to Nodejitsu

  1. Follow the rest of the Nodejitsu guide here

For deployment to Modulus

  1. Follow getting started guide

Optional: Custom domains

If you're also wanting to use custom domains for your website, follow the Heroku Guide here, or alternatively here is a generic guide:

  1. Ping your server e.g. ping balupton.herokuapp.com

  2. Grab the IP address from the output

  3. Login to your domain's DNS manager

  4. Create an A Record for your domain pointing to that IP address

To Static Servers (Apache, Nginx, etc)

  1. Perform a generation for a static production environment using docpad generate --env static

  2. Upload the generated directory to your server's public_html or htdocs directory

To GitHub Pages

  1. Install the GitHub Pages Plugin

    npm install --save docpad-plugin-ghpages

  2. Deploy to GitHub Pages using the plugin

    docpad deploy-ghpages

To a Cloud Data Storage Provider (AWS S3, Google Storage, etc)

  1. Checkout the DocPad Sunny Plugin
IRC Chat