[docs] Add a web-app deployment guide (#1427)

docs/docs/.vitepress/sidebar.ts

@@ -180,6 +180,10 @@ export const sidebar = [
                         text: "Connect to custom server",
                         link: "/self-hosting/guides/custom-server/",
                     },
+                    {
+                        text: "Hosting the web app",
+                        link: "/self-hosting/guides/web-app",
+                    },
                     {
                         text: "Administering your server",
                         link: "/self-hosting/guides/admin",

docs/docs/self-hosting/guides/web-app.md

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+---
+title: Hosting the web app
+description: Building and hosting Ente's web app, connecting it to your self-hosted server
+---
+
+# Web app
+
+The getting started instructions mention using `yarn dev` (which is an alias of
+`yarn dev:photos`) to serve your web app.
+
+```sh
+cd ente/web
+git submodule update --init --recursive
+yarn install
+NEXT_PUBLIC_ENTE_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:8080 yarn dev:photos
+```
+
+This is fine for trying this out and verifying that your self-hosted server is
+working correctly etc. But if you would like to use the web app for a longer
+term, then it is recommended that you use a production build.
+
+To create a production build, you can run the same process, but instead do a
+`yarn build` (which is an alias for `yarn build:photos`). For example,
+
+```sh
+NEXT_PUBLIC_ENTE_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:8080 yarn build:photos
+```
+
+This creates a production build, which is a static site consisting of a folder
+of HTML/CSS/JS files that can then be deployed on any standard web server.
+
+Nginx is a common choice for a web server, and you can then put the generated
+static site (from the `web/apps/photos/out` folder) to where nginx would serve
+them. Note that there is nothing specific to nginx here - you can use any web
+server - the basic gist is that yarn build will produce a web/apps/photos/out
+folder that you can then serve with any web server of your choice.
+
+If you're new to web development, you might find the [web app's README], and
+some of the documentation it its source code -
+[docs/new.md](https://github.com/ente-io/ente/blob/main/web/docs/new.md),
+[docs/dev.md](https://github.com/ente-io/ente/blob/main/web/docs/dev.md) -
+useful. We've also documented the process we use for our own production
+deploypments in
+[docs/deploy.md](https://github.com/ente-io/ente/blob/main/web/docs/deploy.md),
+though be aware that that is probably overkill for simple cases.
+
+## Using Docker
+
+We currently don't offer pre-built Docker images for the web app, however it is
+quite easy to build and deploy the web app in a Docker container without
+installing anything extra on your machine. For example, you can use the
+dockerfile from this
+[discussion](https://github.com/ente-io/ente/discussions/1183), or use the
+Dockerfile mentioned in the
+[notes](https://help.ente.io/self-hosting/guides/external-s3) created by a
+community member.
+
+## Public sharing
+
+If you'd also like to enable public sharing on the web app you're running,
+please follow the [step here](https://help.ente.io/self-hosting/faq/sharing).