Works

Deployment Guide - AMVRS ARMED

This guide explains how to deploy AMVRS ARMED to production using GitHub Actions, Docker, or traditional hosting.

Table of Contents

GitHub Secrets Setup

Never commit .env files or hardcoded credentials. Instead, use GitHub repository secrets for CI/CD pipelines.

Step 1: Navigate to Secrets

  1. Go to your GitHub repository: https://github.com/ajiko2505/Works
  2. Click Settings (top right)
  3. On the left sidebar, click Secrets and variables → Actions

Step 2: Add SMTP Secrets

Click New repository secret for each of the following:

Secret Name Value Example
MAIL_HOST Your SMTP server hostname smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_USER SMTP username/email your-email@gmail.com
MAIL_PASS SMTP password or app password (Gmail app password, not regular password)
MAIL_PORT SMTP port 587
MAIL_ENCRYPTION Encryption type tls or ssl
MAIL_FROM Sender email your-email@gmail.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME Sender display name AMVRS Admin

Step 3: Add Database Secrets (Optional, for CI only)

Secret Name Value Example
DB_HOST Database host localhost or AWS RDS endpoint
DB_USER Database username amvrs_user
DB_PASS Database password (Strong password)
DB_NAME Database name amvrss

Step 4: Gmail Setup (if using Gmail)

If using Gmail SMTP:

  1. Enable 2-factor authentication on your Google account
  2. Go to Google App Passwords
  3. Select Mail and Windows Computer (or your setup)
  4. Google generates a 16-character app password
  5. Use that in MAIL_PASS secret (NOT your regular Gmail password)

Step 5: Verify Secrets

GitHub Actions CI/CD

The workflow file .github/workflows/ci.yml automatically runs on every push and pull request.

What the Pipeline Does

✅ PHP Syntax Check — Validates all PHP files for syntax errors
✅ Security Check — Searches for hardcoded credentials
✅ Mail Config Test — Validates mail_config.php loads env variables
✅ Database Schema — Imports and validates the database schema
✅ Config Loading — Tests database.php and env loading
✅ CSRF Check — Verifies CSRF protection functions exist
✅ Docker Build — Builds the Docker image (on main branch)

Viewing Workflow Results

  1. Push code to GitHub
  2. Go to Actions tab in your repo
  3. Click the latest workflow run
  4. View job results and logs

Secrets are Safe

GitHub Actions SSH Deploy

The repository includes an SSH-based deploy workflow at .github/workflows/deploy.yml. It syncs the repository to a remote server using rsync over SSH and runs optional post-deploy commands.

Add these repository secrets in GitHub Settings > Secrets & variables > Actions before using the workflow:

How it works:

Notes & server setup:

This workflow provides a safe, secret-backed deploy path. If you’d like an alternative (push Docker image to registry, GitHub Packages, or use a cloud provider action), tell me which target and I will add it.

Docker Image Publishing (GitHub Container Registry)

There is a workflow .github/workflows/publish-image.yml that builds the project’s Dockerfile and publishes an image to GitHub Container Registry (GHCR) on pushes to main.

Image name and tags:

No additional secrets are required for GHCR publishing because the workflow uses $ with packages: write permissions. If you’d prefer Docker Hub instead, I can switch the workflow to use DOCKERHUB_USERNAME and DOCKERHUB_TOKEN repository secrets.

Docker Deployment

Local Docker Testing

cd "C:\xampp\htdocs\AMVRS ARMED"
docker compose up --build

Open: http://localhost:8080

Docker Secret Injection

Option 1: Pass secrets as environment variables

docker run \
  -e DB_HOST=mysql-server \
  -e MAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com \
  -e MAIL_USER=your-email@gmail.com \
  -e MAIL_PASS=your-app-password \
  -p 80:80 \
  amvrs-armed:latest

Option 2: Use docker-compose with .env (local only)

version: '3.8'
services:
  web:
    environment:
      - MAIL_HOST=${MAIL_HOST}
      - MAIL_USER=${MAIL_USER}
      - MAIL_PASS=${MAIL_PASS}
      # ... other vars

Then create .env locally (not in git):

MAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_USER=your-email@gmail.com
MAIL_PASS=your-app-password

Run:

docker compose up

Option 3: Use Docker secrets (for Swarm/orchestration) Create a secrets.txt:

mail_pass=your-app-password
db_pass=strong-db-password

Traditional Server Deployment

Step 1: Upload Files

  1. Connect via SFTP/FTP to your hosting server
  2. Upload all files from the repository (excluding .git, .env, docker-compose.yml)
  3. Ensure directory structure is: 
    /public_html/
├── index.php
├── login.php
├── database.php
├── mail_config.php
├── csrf.php
├── database/
├── assets/
└── ... (other files)

Step 2: Create .env on Server

  1. SSH into server
  2. Navigate to project root
  3. Create .env file: 
    nano .env
  4. Add your credentials: 
    DB_HOST=localhost
DB_USER=db_username
DB_PASS=db_password
DB_NAME=amvrss
MAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_USER=your-email@gmail.com
MAIL_PASS=your-app-password
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM=your-email@gmail.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME="AMVRS Admin"
  5. Save (Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X)

Step 3: Set Permissions

# Restrict .env to owner only
chmod 600 .env

# Set directory ownership
chown -R www-data:www-data .
chmod 755 .
chmod 644 *.php
chmod 755 assets database

Step 4: Import Database

mysql -h localhost -u db_username -p db_name < database/amvrss.sql
# Enter password when prompted

Step 5: Access Application

Security Checklist

Before deploying to production:

Code & Configuration

SMTP / Email

Database

HTTPS / SSL

File Permissions

Monitoring

Troubleshooting

Email not sending

Database connection fails

Secrets not available in workflow

GitHub Actions fails

Next Steps

  1. Set GitHub Secrets (see above)
  2. Test locally with Docker: docker compose up
  3. Push to GitHub and monitor Actions tab
  4. Deploy to production using traditional or Docker method
  5. Monitor logs and error reports

Last Updated: February 9, 2026
Version: 1.0.0

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