How to use other buildpacks with dokku-alt

Question

I installed dokku-alt from the github repo, with the instructions provided, at a digital ocean droplet. I was able to run a node app and a python app, BUT I'm interested using Shiny Buildpack with dokku-alt to deploy Shiny Apps.

I already read the instructions a lot of times but I'm not understanding how to get this. I'm trying to install this example: https://github.com/btubbs/shiny-example-1

Answer 1

The dokku docs have instructions on how to specify a custom buildpack:

If buildpack detection isn't working well for you or you want to specify a custom buildpack for one repository you can create & commit a file in the root of your git repository named .env containing export BUILDPACK_URL= before pushing. This will tell buildstep to fetch the specified buildpack and use it instead of relying on the built-in buildpacks & their detection methods.

For example, one can put

export BUILDPACK_URL=https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-python

in .env

Answer 2

Some time ago I tryed hard to solve this problem and I've found the best solution. I could state the problem as: How can I git push a Shiny App on dokku/dokku-alt, the same way that it's possible to do with Django/Node apps?

The solution was the following feature: Dockerfile deployment .

So, I created a small example, available on github: Dockerized Shiny App . It's available at Docker Hub too: Dockerized Shiny App .

I wrote an article on r-bloggers stating the problem, the solution and I recorded a video with more instructions and examples: Dockerizing a Shiny App .