MWdSE Dagger Demo

This repository contains a demo project for the course
“Methoden und Werkzeuge der Softwareentwicklung (MWdSE)”.

The goal is to show how Dagger can be used as a lightweight, cross-platform CI pipeline to:

• install dependencies inside a container
• run automated tests
• build a small TypeScript/Node.js application
• export build artifacts to the user’s Desktop

The code is intentionally simple so that CI/CD concepts stay in focus.

---

What This Repository Demonstrates

• A minimal TypeScript/Node.js project (src/)
• A small unit test suite using Vitest (tests/)
• A Dagger pipeline defined in ci.mts that:
  • uses a node:22-alpine container
  • runs npm install and npm test
  • runs npm run build
  • exports build artifacts to a folder on the user’s Desktop

This repo is meant as a teaching example, not a production-ready application.

---

Requirements

To run the pipeline locally, you need:

• Git
• Node.js (version 18 or later)
• TypeScript (tsc)
• Docker Desktop (installed and running)
• Dagger CLI

---

Installation Instructions

macOS

1. Install Homebrew (if not already installed):
   See: https://brew.sh

2. Install Node.js and Git:

    brew install node git
   

3. Install TypeScript globally:

    npm install -g typescript
   

4. Install Docker Desktop:

    brew install --cask docker
   

5. Install Dagger CLI:

    brew install dagger/tap/dagger
   

---

Windows

1. Install Node.js via winget (or from nodejs.org):

    winget install OpenJS.NodeJS
   

2. Install TypeScript globally:

    npm install -g typescript
   

3. Install Docker Desktop:
   Download from: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop
   After installation, start Docker so that the Docker daemon is running.

4. Install Dagger CLI via winget:

    winget install Dagger.Cli
   

---

Using the CI Pipeline

The CI pipeline is defined in ci.mts and executed via the Dagger CLI.

1. Clone the repository

    git clone https://github.com/moearzini/mwdse-dagger
    cd mwdse-dagger

2. Install Node dependencies (once)

    npm install

3. Run tests locally (optional check)

    npm test

4. Run the Dagger CI pipeline

Recommended commands:

    dagger run --progress plain node --loader ts-node/esm ./ci.mts

Explanation:

• dagger run
  Starts a Dagger session and runs the pipeline.

• --progress plain
  Shows a simple, readable log output (good for demos and screenshots).

• node --loader ts-node/esm
  Tells Node to execute the TypeScript module ci.mts directly using ts-node in ESM mode.

• ./ci.mts
  The pipeline definition file. It:

  1. mounts the project into a node:22-alpine container
  2. runs npm install
  3. runs npm test
  4. runs npm run build
  5. exports the compiled build and a container image as artifacts to a folder on the user’s Desktop (e.g. mwdse-dagger-artifacts)

After a successful run, you will find the exported build artifacts in a directory created on your Desktop.

In order to run an artefact, use...

    docker load < app-image.tar
    docker images
    docker run -it <image_name> /bin/sh

---

📁 Repository Structure

    src/                # Application logic (TypeScript)
    tests/              # Unit tests (Vitest)
    ci.mts              # Dagger CI pipeline definition
    package.json        # Node.js project configuration
    tsconfig.json       # TypeScript configuration
    README.md           # This documentation

---

License

This project is intended for educational use only as part of the MWdSE course @DHBW Mannheim.