Deploying a decoupled restaurant review site to production with Strapi and Platform.sh

Strapi's admin interface can be customized through the 'config' folder in the Strapi application directory. This includes settings for the admin UI, API tokens, and other configurations that dictate the behavior of the CMS.

Platform.sh is a cloud hosting platform that automatically manages the infrastructure, application, and services. It integrates with Git to provide a workflow where each branch can be a separate environment, allowing for automated testing, merging, and deployment.

Strapi is an open-source, Node.js-based headless CMS. It allows developers to easily build, manage, and distribute their content through APIs. Strapi is highly customizable and can be used to manage content for mobile apps, websites, or other digital platforms.

Platform.sh handles deployments by associating each project with a repository. It automatically builds and deploys applications based on commit hashes, providing environments for each branch. The platform ensures security by making file systems read-only post-build and allows writing during runtime only through defined mounts.

As of Strapi version 4, it supports SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. However, it does not support MongoDB. Strapi allows configuration adjustments for different databases through its 'database.js' configuration file.

The FoodAdvisor app is an official demo application provided by Strapi that illustrates how to use Strapi with a frontend technology (in this case, Next.js) to build a restaurant review website. It includes functionality for managing restaurants, reviews, and user authentication.

The 'platform.app.yaml' file is a key configuration file in Platform.sh that defines the runtime and behavior of an application. It specifies the runtime environment, build and deploy hooks, dependencies, and other crucial settings that determine how the application operates in the cloud environment.

A main advantage of using Platform.sh is its ability to create isolated development environments for each Git branch, which includes cloning both the application and its data. This feature supports robust testing and QA processes without impacting the live production environment.

Decoupled architecture in web development refers to separating the frontend and backend of a web application into two distinct parts that communicate via APIs. This separation allows for more flexible development and deployment options, as each part can be developed and scaled independently.

Environment variables in Platform.sh are used to manage application settings across different environments securely. They can be used to store sensitive information such as API keys, database credentials, and custom configuration settings that should not be hard-coded into the application code.