Docker container called in Laravel - laravel

Question

How do I call a docker container within Laravel? I am using the following package to download PDFs https://packagist.org/packages/spatie/browsershot, I have an npm container which I am trying to use with this package.
My site container doesn't have node or npm installed which is why I need to use my npm container instead.
Here is my docker file
version: '3'
networks:
laravel:
services:
site:
build:
context: .
dockerfile: docker/nginx/Dockerfile
container_name: nginx
ports:
- 80:80
volumes:
- ./src:/var/www/html:delegated
depends_on:
- php
- mysql
networks:
- laravel
mysql:
image: mysql:5.7.29
container_name: mysql
restart: unless-stopped
tty: true
ports:
- 3306:3306
environment:
MYSQL_DATABASE: odc
MYSQL_USER: admin
MYSQL_PASSWORD: ".d3aP/7N,c)&^EdC"
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: "%3h_Ssxm7sSj#bw!"
SERVICE_TAGS: dev
SERVICE_NAME: mysql
networks:
- laravel
php:
build:
context: .
dockerfile: docker/php/Dockerfile
container_name: php
volumes:
- ./src:/var/www/html:delegated
networks:
- laravel
composer:
build:
context: .
dockerfile: docker/composer/Dockerfile
container_name: composer
volumes:
- ./src:/var/www/html
working_dir: /var/www/html
depends_on:
- php
user: laravel
entrypoint: ['composer', '--ignore-platform-reqs']
networks:
- laravel
npm:
image: node:13.7
container_name: npm
volumes:
- ./src:/var/www/html
working_dir: /var/www/html
entrypoint: ['npm']
networks:
- laravel
chrome:
image: zenika/alpine-chrome:latest
container_name: headless-chrome
networks:
- laravel
command: [chromium-browser, "--headless", "--disable-gpu", "--no-sandbox", "--remote-debugging-address=0.0.0.0", "--remote-debugging-port=9222"]
Here is the code I am trying to use with Browsershot to point to my npm container
Browsershot::html($html)
->setIncludePath('npm')
->setNodeModulePath("npm")
->setChromePath('chrome')
->noSandbox()
->showBackground()
->format('A4')
->savePdf($path . '/portrait.pdf');
As you can see I am using the ->setIncludePath('npm') to try and call my npm container but I am still receiving this error when I try and run this code
sh: npm: not found sh: node: not found

Answer 1

You dont need a seperate Node / NPM Container. The Browsershot is part of your applications core. To make it work you need nodejs and npm. That saying I would construct my own container image incuding PHP and Node. That makes the implementation of Browershot more simple.
If neede you can split them up later. But in that case I would create a new BrowserShot service (PHP + Node).
As you can see, there are multiple ways doing it.
What about using NGINX Unit for your applications container base? You could use the Unit PHP base image and add node on top of it.
I did that here:
https://github.com/nginx/unit-examples/blob/master/Dockerfile
FROM nginx/unit:1.22.0-php7.3
RUN mkdir /var/apphome/ && groupadd -r appuser && useradd --no-log-init -r -g appuser appuser && \
chown -R appuser:appuser /var/apphome/ && \
apt-get update && apt-get install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests -y gnupg && \
curl -sL https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key | apt-key add - && \
echo "deb https://packages.nginx.org/unit/debian/ buster unit" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/unit.list && \
echo "deb-src https://packages.nginx.org/unit/debian/ buster unit" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/unit.list && \
apt update && apt install -y unit-dev npm php7.3-mysql php7.3-gd && \
npm install -g --unsafe-perm unit-http -y
COPY src/ /var/apphome/app/
RUN chown -R appuser:appuser /var/apphome/
COPY .unit.conf.json /docker-entrypoint.d/.unit.conf.json
CMD ["unitd", "--no-daemon", "--control", "unix:/var/run/control.unit.sock"]
Note! This is a demo purpose. You can adapt it for your production needs!