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Deploying the Admin UI

Compiling the Admin UI​

If you have customized the Admin UI with extensions, you should compile your custom Admin UI app ahead of time before deploying it. This will bundle the app into a set of static files which are then served by the AdminUiPlugin.

warning

It is not recommended to compile the Admin UI on the server at runtime, as this can be slow and resource-intensive. Instead, compile the Admin UI ahead of time and deploy the compiled assets, as covered in the guide linked above.

Setting the API host & port​

When running in development mode, the Admin UI app will "guess" the API host and port based on the current URL in the browser. Typically, this will be http://localhost:3000. For production deployments where the Admin UI app is served from a different host or port than the Vendure server, you'll need to configure the Admin UI app to point to the correct API host and port.

src/vendure-config.ts
import { VendureConfig } from '@vendure/core';
import { AdminUiPlugin } from '@vendure/admin-ui-plugin';

const config: VendureConfig = {
    // ...
    plugins: [
        AdminUiPlugin.init({
            port: 3001,
            route: 'admin',
            adminUiConfig: {
                apiHost: 'https://api.example.com',
                apiPort: 443,
            },
        }),
    ],
};

Deploying a stand-alone Admin UI​

Usually, the Admin UI is served from the Vendure server via the AdminUiPlugin. However, you may wish to deploy the Admin UI app elsewhere. Since it is just a static Angular app, it can be deployed to any static hosting service such as Vercel or Netlify.

Metrics​

The AdminUiPlugin not only serves the Admin UI app, but also provides a metricSummary query which is used to display the order metrics on the dashboard. If you wish to deploy the Admin UI app stand-alone (not served by the AdminUiPlugin), but still want to display the metrics on the dashboard, you'll need to include the AdminUiPlugin in your server's plugins array, but do not call init():

src/vendure-config.ts
import { AdminUiPlugin } from '@vendure/admin-ui-plugin';

const config: VendureConfig = {
    plugins: [
        AdminUiPlugin, // <== include the plugin, but don't call init()
    ],
    // ...
};

Example Script​

Here's an example script that can be run as part of your host's build command, which will generate a stand-alone app bundle and configure it to point to your remote server API.

This example is for Vercel, and assumes:

  • A BASE_HREF environment variable to be set to /
  • A public (output) directory set to build/dist
  • A build command set to npm run build or yarn build
  • A package.json like this:
    package.json
    {
      "name": "standalone-admin-ui",
      "version": "0.1.0",
      "private": true,
      "scripts": {
        "build": "ts-node compile.ts"
      },
      "devDependencies": {
        "@vendure/ui-devkit": "^1.4.5",
        "ts-node": "^10.2.1",
        "typescript": "~4.3.5"
      }
    }
compile.ts
import { compileUiExtensions } from '@vendure/ui-devkit/compiler';
import { DEFAULT_BASE_HREF } from '@vendure/ui-devkit/compiler/constants';
import path from 'path';
import { promises as fs } from 'fs';

/**
 * Compiles the Admin UI. If the BASE_HREF is defined, use that.
 * Otherwise, go back to the default admin route.
 */
compileUiExtensions({
    outputPath: path.join(__dirname, 'build'),
    baseHref: process.env.BASE_HREF ?? DEFAULT_BASE_HREF,
    extensions: [
        /* any UI extensions would go here, or leave empty */
    ],
})
    .compile?.()
    .then(() => {
        // If building for Vercel deployment, replace the config to make 
        // api calls to api.example.com instead of localhost.
        if (process.env.VERCEL) {
            console.log('Overwriting the vendure-ui-config.json for Vercel deployment.');
            return fs.writeFile(
                path.join(__dirname, 'build', 'dist', 'vendure-ui-config.json'),
                JSON.stringify({
                    apiHost: 'https://api.example.com',
                    apiPort: '443',
                    adminApiPath: 'admin-api',
                    tokenMethod: 'cookie',
                    defaultLanguage: 'en',
                    availableLanguages: ['en', 'de'],
                    hideVendureBranding: false,
                    hideVersion: false,
                }),
            );
        }
    })
    .then(() => {
        process.exit(0);
    });