A Date with Daytona: Exploring AstroJS and Sanity CMS

Recently, while working on my blog application, I discovered Daytona—a powerful development environment manager—through the ongoing Quest 23 on quira.sh. In this blog, we’ll explore how AstroJS, Sanity, and Daytona significantly enhanced the development process of this blog application.

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What is Daytona?

Daytona is an open-source Development Environment Manager (DEM) designed to streamline the management and deployment of development environments, known as Workspaces. These Workspaces are built on Docker containers and are fully compatible with the DevContainer standard.

Key Features of Daytona:

• Modular Architecture: Enables compatibility with configuration standards such as Dockerfiles, Docker Compose, Nix, and Devfile.

• Simplified Deployment: Deploy fully functional development environments using a single command, while Daytona manages all underlying complexities for you.

• DevContainers Foundation: Utilizes the versatile DevContainers standard for defining and managing cloud-based development environments.

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DevContainers and Configuration

The DevContainers standard allows you to configure your development environment with ease using a devcontainer.json file placed under the .devcontainer folder on your repository.

Benefits of DevContainers:

DevContainers allow you to define custom, feature-rich, and optimized development environments tailored to your specific needs. It also supports Dockerfile and Docker Compose configurations for seamless integration.

For more details, explore DevContainers and their capabilities.

Example of a devcontainer.json

Here’s an example configuration for a project using AstroJS and Sanity:

{
    "name": "Astro + Sanity Dev Container",
    "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/typescript-node:latest",
    "features": {
        "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/node:1": {
            "version": "20",
            "pnpmVersion": "9.12.2"
        },
        "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/git:1": {}
    },
    "forwardPorts": [4321, 3333],
    "customizations": {
        "vscode": {
            "extensions": [
                "astro-build.astro-vscode",
                "esbenp.prettier-vscode",
                "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint",
                "eamodio.gitlens",
                "styled-components.vscode-styled-components",
                "ms-vscode.vscode-typescript-next"
            ],
            "settings": {
                "astro.enableAutoImport": true,
                "editor.formatOnSave": true,
                "typescript.tsdk": "/node_modules/typescript/lib",
                "eslint.format.enable": true,
                "files.eol": "\n",
                "prettier.requireConfig": true
            }
        }
    },
    "containerEnv": {
        "NODE_ENV": "development",
        "PNPM_HOME": "/tmp/pnpm-store"
    },
    "postCreateCommand": {
        "install-dependencies": "pnpm config set store-dir /tmp/pnpm-store && pnpm install",
        "env-file-create": "/bin/bash ./create-env-file.sh"
    },
    "portsAttributes": {
        "3333": { "label": "Sanity Studio" },
        "4321": { "label": "Astro Dev Port" }
    }
}

Key Sections:

• image: Specifies the base image for the development environment.
• features: Adds pre-configured tools or utilities to the container.
• forwardPorts: Maps ports from the container to the host machine.
• customizations: Specifies editor configurations, such as extensions, settings, and formatting preferences, particularly for VS Code.
• containerEnv: Sets environment variables for the container.
• postCreateCommand: Runs commands after the container is created (e.g., install dependencies).
• portsAttributes: Labels for specific ports used in development.

For more configuration options, check the DevContainer JSON reference.

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Prerequisites for Daytona

Before downloading Daytona, there are some prerequisites to be fulfilled:

• Docker
• Text Editor/IDE like VSCode, JetBrains, etc.
• SSH Client, required for accessing remote servers

Download Daytona

Daytona is available for all major operating systems. Follow the installation guide to set it up.

Then use the following command, to start daytona:

daytona

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Starting Daytona

For starting Daytona, you would need to start its server process either in daemon mode or in the current terminal session.

Note: Make sure the Docker Daemon is also running in the background.

• Start the Daytona server process in Daemon Mode:

daytona server start

Note: Daytona Daemon mode is not supported on Windows machines. You would need to use the following command to start the server in your current terminal session:

daytona serve

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Adding Your Git Providers

To connect your Git provider (e.g., GitHub, GitLab), use the following command:

daytona git-providers add

Follow the on-screen instructions to integrate your Git profiles. Once completed, you can access projects hosted on your Git repositories.

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Setting up your IDE

Daytona allows the development environment to be run on any of the popular IDEs. Just run the below command and choose the IDE of your choice:

daytona ide

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Using Daytona for Development

To utilize Daytona efficiently, you’ll need a project with a devcontainer.json file placed under a .devcontainer folder in your repository.

For ease of use, we will be using this project.

Commands to Get Started with Daytona:

• Create a development container with granular control on starting out your environment like a specific project or trying out one of the sample projects:

{
    "name": "Astro + Sanity Dev Container",
    "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/typescript-node:latest",
    "features": {
        "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/node:1": {
            "version": "20",
            "pnpmVersion": "9.12.2"
        },
        "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/git:1": {}
    },
    "forwardPorts": [4321, 3333],
    "customizations": {
        "vscode": {
            "extensions": [
                "astro-build.astro-vscode",
                "esbenp.prettier-vscode",
                "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint",
                "eamodio.gitlens",
                "styled-components.vscode-styled-components",
                "ms-vscode.vscode-typescript-next"
            ],
            "settings": {
                "astro.enableAutoImport": true,
                "editor.formatOnSave": true,
                "typescript.tsdk": "/node_modules/typescript/lib",
                "eslint.format.enable": true,
                "files.eol": "\n",
                "prettier.requireConfig": true
            }
        }
    },
    "containerEnv": {
        "NODE_ENV": "development",
        "PNPM_HOME": "/tmp/pnpm-store"
    },
    "postCreateCommand": {
        "install-dependencies": "pnpm config set store-dir /tmp/pnpm-store && pnpm install",
        "env-file-create": "/bin/bash ./create-env-file.sh"
    },
    "portsAttributes": {
        "3333": { "label": "Sanity Studio" },
        "4321": { "label": "Astro Dev Port" }
    }
}

• Directly start a development container from a Git repository:

daytona

You will start seeing the logs of the development container in the console:

After waiting for a while, you will see a success message and a new window of your chosen IDE open, with an SSH connection to the development container already set up where you can start out developing your project like you would do on your native PC or laptop.

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Developing with Daytona

We will follow the README.md of our sample AstroJS Sanity Blog to start out developing with Daytona.

Next Steps: Generating Credentials for Sanity and Setting Up Environment Variables

1. Sign in to Sanity: Begin by logging into your Sanity account and creating a new project to get started.

2. Generate an API Token: Navigate to the API section in your Sanity project settings and create a new token. This will provide the key required for setting up the environment variables.

Once the API token is generated, use it to configure your project’s environment variables as described in the documentation.

Running the project

Now, run the below commands in a separate terminal windows:

To start our AstroJS application, run below command:

daytona server start

The AstroJS application is the frontend where we can read the blogs that we publish from the backend i.e. Sanity CMS!

To access our Sanity Studio, run below command:

{
    "name": "Astro + Sanity Dev Container",
    "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/typescript-node:latest",
    "features": {
        "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/node:1": {
            "version": "20",
            "pnpmVersion": "9.12.2"
        },
        "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/git:1": {}
    },
    "forwardPorts": [4321, 3333],
    "customizations": {
        "vscode": {
            "extensions": [
                "astro-build.astro-vscode",
                "esbenp.prettier-vscode",
                "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint",
                "eamodio.gitlens",
                "styled-components.vscode-styled-components",
                "ms-vscode.vscode-typescript-next"
            ],
            "settings": {
                "astro.enableAutoImport": true,
                "editor.formatOnSave": true,
                "typescript.tsdk": "/node_modules/typescript/lib",
                "eslint.format.enable": true,
                "files.eol": "\n",
                "prettier.requireConfig": true
            }
        }
    },
    "containerEnv": {
        "NODE_ENV": "development",
        "PNPM_HOME": "/tmp/pnpm-store"
    },
    "postCreateCommand": {
        "install-dependencies": "pnpm config set store-dir /tmp/pnpm-store && pnpm install",
        "env-file-create": "/bin/bash ./create-env-file.sh"
    },
    "portsAttributes": {
        "3333": { "label": "Sanity Studio" },
        "4321": { "label": "Astro Dev Port" }
    }
}

The Sanity Studio is used for managing content for our AstroJS application. We can create, delete and manipulate the data for our AstroJS application right from the Sanity Studio.

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Conclusion

With just one tool, we can set up a fully-fledged development environment that offers all the features of a native setup. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting out, Daytona's robust features and seamless integration with modern tools like AstroJS and Sanity are worth exploring.

My development journey with Daytona has been exceptional, and I’ve gained in-depth knowledge about DevContainers, Docker, and development environments in general.

Do check them out and star them – they are Open Source: Daytona!

Also, feel free to explore my sample project on daytona: AstroJS Sanity Blog.

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