The Cloud Hurdle: GCP and the Quest for a Custom Domain
“It works on my machine” is a phrase that should haunt every developer. The real test of a project is when it lives on the public internet. For Growing-Together, I decided to go “all-in” on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Why GCP?
I wanted to learn the Cloud Run workflow. Containerize the app, push it, and let Google handle the scaling. Plus, I wanted a custom domain (growingtogether.ie) to make it feel like a real product.
The Containerization Dance
Step one was the Dockerfile. Next.js in a container is standard, but you have to be careful with environment variables. I learned the hard way that Prisma needs to know the database URL during the build if you’re not careful, but I wanted to inject it at runtime using GCP Secret Manager.
The “Cloud Build” Nightmare
Automating the deployment with cloudbuild.yaml was where the real “fun” began. Managing permissions between Cloud Build, Cloud Run, and Cloud SQL is a delicate dance of IAM roles.
I wrote a PowerShell script (deploy-gcp.ps1) to wrap the complexity. It handles:
- Building the Docker image.
- Pushing to Artifact Registry.
- Deploying to Cloud Run with the correct secrets and SQL connections.
Custom Domains & SSL
There’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing your side project behind an https:// lock on a custom domain. It took a few hours for the DNS to propagate, but once it did, Growing-Together was officially “live.”
Of course, once people can actually use the app, you realize you need a better way to get data in than one-by-one forms.
Next post: Handling the data deluge with Bulk Imports.
cloud-run docker gcp deployment