Dockerize wrangler

Suggestion

• It would be great to have a dockerized version of this program that is self-contained
• include an option to for build-required files (i.e. cache the template requirements in the image so they don’t have to be downloaded everytime you call build
• include node version option

[lisotton]

I still think that this ticket is very important!

[mrpatrick]

Hi @gabbifish - thanks for considering. See inline below

1. How does this dockerized version of Wrangler improve Wrangler setup and usage? What pain points does it address?

Doesn’t rely on npm/node (or knowledge on using node/npm), os libraries, software updates, etc. You just need docker - that’s it. This makes “installing” easy (i.e. I can use this program even though I don’t have node/npm on my laptop). It always makes updates easier and doesn’t rely on 3rd party libraries / software other than docker (i.e. no conflicts / issues with updates). it’s fully self contained. Docker is well established platform and most CLI’s and services have an official docker version. This would help wrangler become more widely accepted and provide greater availability / visibility.

1. What is the intended workflow for using this dockerized Wrangler binary?

Suggested workflow is documented here: https://github.com/cloudflare/wrangler/pull/338

This is of course how I’m using it and others may have better suggestions / improvements to this.

How would this dockerized distribution of wrangler be distributed? Would folks need to always build the container themself? Would this be an image folks would use from the docker registry?

I would suggest providing both methods (as keeping with docker best practices and standards). If you take a look at my PR, it’s just adding 2 files: Dockerfile, .dockerignore to the repo. That allows other to build the image as they see fit as well as provide an docker image via docker registry like I’m currently doing via our company repo:

https://hub.docker.com/r/avatarnewyork/wrangler

How will the dockerized wrangler binary be maintained and updated with new point releases? (Maintaining a docker registry binary would be an additional burden on the Wrangler maintainers if there’s not a huge benefit to using wrangler via docker anyways).

I would suggest having an official wrangler docker repo (or maybe under cloudflare’s docker repo)? Of course it’s not required but would give it more visibility to the community and make it easier to find / use. In regards to image builds/maint, I would suggest integrating the build within your existing CI workflow (or, if that is too much of a pain, a less ideal option would be to kick off an automated build on the docker registry. This of course, wouldn’t allow you to run any tests though, which could be done as part of your CI process). If you prefer NOT to host your own binary / image, you could just provide the dockerfile to allow others to build, but won’t have the same impact.