Dockerize Rails app with Dev Containers

If you’ve been hesitant to try Docker for your Rails projects, or any other framework, I highly recommend giving it a shot. The Dev Containers extension for VSCode makes the process surprisingly smooth and simplifies local development.

If you’ve already used Docker in your CI/CD pipeline or for deployments, you’re probably familiar with the advantages of containerization. But let’s be real, for local development, Docker isn’t always the most convenient. Having to add docker or docker-compose commands to everything can get tedious.

That’s where DevContainers come in. It simplifies the whole Docker setup for your local Rails development environment (and for any other frameworks). No more command-line clutter — just a smooth, consistent development experience.

Here is a short tutorial on Dockerizing Rails using Dev Containers in VSCode, and it also shows how to work inside the container environment without needing to run docker or docker-compose commands:

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

• Seamlessly create a new Rails project within a Docker container using the DevContainers extension in VSCode editor
• Eliminate the need for complex Docker commands in your terminal
• Build a two-tier architecture with a MySQL database container for data persistence
• Run MySQL as a container alongside Rails in a container
• Optimize image builds for both development and production environments using multi-stage Dockerfiles
• Achieve a streamlined and efficient Rails development workflow within VSCode

I hope this article and the accompanying tutorial have inspired you to give Dev Containers a try for your Rails projects. It’s a fantastic way to streamline your development process, improve collaboration, and ensure consistent environments. Happy coding!

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Additional Learning:

• Learn Multi-Stage Docker Build
• Learn how to set up a local DevOps environment with DevContainers
• VSCode Extension DevContainers