Blinko
Stack
Blinko is an innovative open-source project designed for individuals who want to quickly capture and organize their fleeting thoughts. Blinko allows users to seamlessly jot down ideas the moment they strike, ensuring that no spark of creativity is lost.
Services
blinko-website
Configuration
Ports1111:1111NODE_ENV=productionNEXTAUTH_URL=http://localhost:1111NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:1111NEXTAUTH_SECRET=my_ultra_secure_nextauth_secretDATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:mysecretpassword@postgres:5432/postgresalways[object Object]blinko-postgres
Configuration
Imagepostgres:145432:5432POSTGRES_DB=postgresPOSTGRES_USER=postgresPOSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpasswordalwaysImage details
Standalone Install
Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying Blinko
Install on Portainer
Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys
- Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
- Log into your Portainer web UI
- Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
- Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
- Select Blinko, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy
Template Import URL
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me
Original stackfile
The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:
networks:
blinko-network:
driver: bridge
services:
blinko-website:
container_name: blinko-website
build:
context: .
args:
USE_MIRROR: "true"
dockerfile: ./dockerfile
environment:
NODE_ENV: production
NEXTAUTH_URL: http://localhost:1111
NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL: http://localhost:1111
NEXTAUTH_SECRET: my_ultra_secure_nextauth_secret
DATABASE_URL: postgresql://postgres:mysecretpassword@postgres:5432/postgres
depends_on:
blinko-postgres:
condition: service_healthy
restart: always
ports:
- 1111:1111
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://blinko-website:1111/"]
interval: 30s
timeout: 10s
retries: 5
start_period: 30s
networks:
- blinko-network
blinko-postgres:
image: postgres:14
container_name: blinko-postgres
restart: always
ports:
- 5432:5432
environment:
POSTGRES_DB: postgres
POSTGRES_USER: postgres
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: mysecretpassword
healthcheck:
test:
["CMD", "pg_isready", "-U", "postgres", "-d", "postgres"]
interval: 5s
timeout: 10s
retries: 5
networks:
- blinko-network
Or deploy it directly from the source:
git clone https://github.com/xneo1/portainer_templates
cd portainer_templates
docker compose -f Template/Stack/blinko.yml up -dMore install options in our documentation.
Container Documentation
blinko-postgres Documentation
The PostgreSQL object-relational database system provides reliability and data integrity.
Serve Blinko on your own domain behind Caddy, Nginx or Traefik. Fill in your domain and copy the result. It's a starting point, some apps need their own base URL or extra headers set too.
Proxying blinko.example.com to http://blinko-website:1111
Add this to your Caddyfile
blinko.example.com {
reverse_proxy http://blinko-website:1111
}Check the logs first
Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.
- In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run
docker logs <container> - Exit codes help too:
137means killed, usually out of memory.126or127means the command inside the image is broken.
Port already in use
If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:1111 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.
- Find what's using it:
sudo ss -tlnp | grep :1111 - Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In
1111:1111only the left number is yours to change, the right one belongs to the app.
Running but the page won't load
The container is up but nothing appears in your browser.
- Use your server's real IP:
http://your-server-ip:1111. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address. - Give it a minute after first deploy, blinko can take a while to initialise.
- Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g.
sudo ufw allow 1111
Image won't pull
Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull postgres:14
- "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists.
- "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with
docker loginto raise it. - "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with
docker system prune
"exec format error"
This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.
- Check yours with
uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.
Container keeps restarting
The always restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.
- Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
- Get the exit code with
docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}' - Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to
noso the failure stays visible.
Stack won't deploy
Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.
- YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.
Raise an issue
Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.
- Bug within the app: Open an issue within blinko's repo
- Template not working: Open an issue on xneo1/portainer_templates
- This website not working: Open an issue on lissy93/portainer-templates
A Compose stack
Blinko is a Compose stack, a set of containers (2 of them) defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.
The services
This stack is built from 2 containers that run side by side. Here's each one, with the image it runs and anything it waits for first:
blinko-website, starts after blinko-postgresblinko-postgresrunspostgres:14
Ports
A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 1111:1111 means it's reachable on port 1111 of your server, where the left number is yours to change and the right one belongs to the app. It opens:
1111:11115432:5432
Environment variables
Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. Blinko takes 8 of them, all with defaults you can leave alone or tweak:
NODE_ENV, defaults toproductionNEXTAUTH_URL, defaults tohttp://localhost:1111NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL, defaults tohttp://localhost:1111NEXTAUTH_SECRET, defaults tomy_ultra_secure_nextauth_secretDATABASE_URL, defaults topostgresql://postgres:mysecretpassword@postgres:5432/postgresPOSTGRES_DB, defaults topostgresPOSTGRES_USER, defaults topostgresPOSTGRES_PASSWORD, defaults tomysecretpassword
Restart policy
The restart policy here is always, so Docker brings Blinko back up after a crash and again when the server reboots. Good for anything you want running around the clock. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).
Networking
Portainer puts these services on one shared private network, so they can find each other by name (like blinko-website) while only the ports above are open to you.
Platform
The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.
Portainer app templates
Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set Blinko up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying Blinko is a click rather than a wall of config.