How to Install Docker for Drupal and use Composer to download the Code

First you need to set up in your local development environment all the Docker Containers such as MariaDB, PHP, nginx, mailhog, pma, portainer and traefik:

I made my setting available on my Github Account for Maria Consulting web site.

Drupal 8 is built using Composer Install. Clone my repository, before running compose install, first change your web site settings inside .env:

### PROJECT SETTINGS

PROJECT_NAME=maria_consulting
PROJECT_BASE_URL=maria-consulting.local

Note: Somehow the extension for your development web site must be ".local" otherwise the Browser will not trust the connection (if you try to use for example ".dev") because the site usually run on the 8080 port which I set it up for the traefik container, this port works well with ".local" or ".localhost"

  traefik:
    image: traefik:v2.0
    container_name: "${PROJECT_NAME}_traefik"
    command: --api.insecure=true --providers.docker
    ports:
      - '8080:80'
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock

Place inside composer.json all the contributed modules that need to be installed and remember that they do not need to be kept in Git as the Core /drupal/web/core and /drupal/vendor folders. For example my .gitignore file looks like:

# Ignore directories generated by Composer
/drush/contrib/
/vendor/
/htdocs/core/
/htdocs/modules/contrib/
/htdocs/themes/contrib/
/htdocs/profiles/contrib/
/htdocs/libraries/

I always keep inside my composer.jon all these very useful modules such as: Capthca, Code Snippet, Cookie Consent, Features, Ctools, MetaTag, simple sitemap, Webform, Token, Path auto, Bootstrap theme (version 3.21) so that each time I start a new Drupal 8 my composer json looks like:

    "require": {
        "php": ">=7.0.8",
        "composer/installers": "^1.2",
        "cweagans/composer-patches": "^1.6.5",
        "drupal/backup_migrate": "^4.1",
        "drupal/block_visibility_groups": "^1.3",
        "drupal/bootstrap": "^3.21",
        "drupal/captcha": "^1.0",
        "drupal/codesnippet": "^1.6",
        "drupal/console": "^1.0.2",
        "drupal/cookieconsent": "^1.4",
        "drupal/core": "^8.8.0",
        "drupal/core-composer-scaffold": "^8.8.0",
        "drupal/ctools": "^3.4",
        "drupal/devel": "^2.1",
        "drupal/ds": "^3.5",
        "drupal/features": "^3.8",
        "drupal/field_group": "^3.0",
        "drupal/flexslider": "^2.0@beta",
        "drupal/layout_plugin": "^1.0@alpha",
        "drupal/libraries": "^3.0@alpha",
        "drupal/metatag": "^1.12",
        "drupal/migrate_source_csv": "^3.3",
        "drupal/migrate_tools": "^4.5",
        "drupal/migrate_upgrade": "^3.1",
        "drupal/module_filter": "^3.1",
        "drupal/pathauto": "^1.6",
        "drupal/prism": "^1.0",
        "drupal/simple_sitemap": "^3.6",
        "drupal/token": "^1.6",
        "drupal/webform": "^5.9",
        "drush/drush": "^9.7.1 | ^10.0.0",
        "vlucas/phpdotenv": "^4.0",
        "webflo/drupal-finder": "^1.0.0",
        "zaporylie/composer-drupal-optimizations": "^1.0"
    },
    "require-dev": {
        "drupal/core-dev": "^8.8.0"
    },

If you need more contributed module you can add them using composer, for example this is the way I added these 2 modules:

composer require drupal/cookieconsent
composer require drupal/simple_sitemap

Voila, only what you need to run is:

composer install

After the installation check that Composer create the following folders:

/vendor/
/htdocs/core/
/htdocs/modules/contrib/
/htdocs/themes/contrib/

In order to complete the installation you need the Data Base credential and run the PROJECT_BASE_URL/install.php In my Project I use Bootstrap version 3.2 and I set up a sub-theme inside maria_consulting.

Note: After you uploaded all files (for D8 you also need to upload the vendor folder) on the server you need to make sure that the /sites/default directory has got written permission, the private folder must be outside htdocs, then the installer will ask you the data base details, you need to specify the data base user and password. Please check the Admin Reports status to see it everything went well: /admin/reports/status

In my D8 installation, in order to resolve 2 security warnings it was advising to set these 2 variables in the settings.php:

// Outside Doc Root folder to make it private
$settings['file_private_path'] = $app_root . '/../private';

// Set up your trusted hosts:
$settings['trusted_host_patterns'] = [
   '^www\.maria-consulting\.local$', '^maria-consulting\.local$',
];

and in settings.php the database connection are the end of the file:

$settings['config_sync_directory'] = '../config/sync';
$databases['default']['default'] = array (
  'database' => 'drupal',
  'username' => 'drupal',
  'password' => 'drupal',
  'prefix' => '',
  'host' => 'mariadb',
  'port' => '3306',
  'namespace' => 'Drupal\\Core\\Database\\Driver\\mysql',
  'driver' => 'mysql',
);

As you can see, it contains the values which I entered inside the .env file:

DB_NAME=drupal
DB_USER=drupal
DB_PASSWORD=drupal
DB_ROOT_PASSWORD=password
DB_HOST=mariadb
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DRIVER=mysql

If you have any questions on how to set it up, please contact us.