CI/CD guide to deploy your Node.js + Express + MySQL project to cPanel via FTP every time you push to GitHub.

🚀 GitHub Actions CI/CD for Node.js + Express + MySQL on cPanel via FTP

📁 Prerequisites

✅ A Node.js + Express project

✅ A cPanel hosting with FTP access

✅ A MySQL database set up in cPanel

✅ A GitHub repository

🔧 Step 1: Prepare Your Project

Make sure your project is structured like:

/my-app
  ├── public/
  ├── routes/
  ├── .env
  ├── index.js (main server)
  ├── package.json
  └── ...

Also, ensure your .env file is ignored:

# .gitignore
.env
node_modules

🔑 Step 2: Create FTP User in cPanel

1. Log in to cPanel
2. Go to FTP Accounts
3. Create an FTP user and note down:
   • FTP Host (like ftp.yourdomain.com)
   • FTP Username
   • FTP Password
   • FTP Port: typically 21
   • FTP Path (like /public_html/subdomain/ or similar)

🧪 Step 3: Test FTP Access Locally

Use FileZilla or similar to test your credentials.

If successful, continue.

🧬 Step 4: Add Secrets in GitHub

Go to your GitHub repo → Settings → Secrets → Actions and add:

Name	Value
FTP_HOST	ftp.yourdomain.com
FTP_USERNAME	Your FTP username
FTP_PASSWORD	Your FTP password
FTP_PORT	21 (or as needed)
FTP_PATH	/public_html/subdomain/

⚙️ Step 5: Add GitHub Action Workflow

Create a new file:

📄 .github/workflows/deploy.yml

name: 🚀 Deploy to cPanel via FTP

on:
  push:
    branches: [main] # or your default branch

jobs:
  ftp-deploy:
    name: 📦 Deploy using FTP
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: ⬇️ Checkout Repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: 📂 Upload via FTP
        uses: SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action@v4.3.4
        with:
          server: ${{ secrets.FTP_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.FTP_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.FTP_PASSWORD }}
          protocol: ftp
          port: ${{ secrets.FTP_PORT }}
          local-dir: ./ # root of repo
          server-dir: ${{ secrets.FTP_PATH }}
          exclude: |
            **/.git*
            **/.github*
            node_modules/
            .env

🧠 Optional Enhancements

• Add .env.example for reference.
• Add scripts like:

  "scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js",
    "dev": "nodemon index.js"
  }

🧪 Step 6: Push to GitHub

git add .
git commit -m "Initial deploy with CI/CD"
git push origin main

GitHub Actions will now:

• Build your project (if needed)
• Upload your files via FTP automatically to cPanel

🐞 Common Troubleshooting

Issue	Fix
FTP login fails	Double-check username, password, and port
Files not uploaded	Make sure correct server-dir is set
Too many files skipped	Check the exclude list

🛠️ MySQL Setup (in cPanel)

1. Create MySQL Database
2. Create MySQL User
3. Assign user to database
4. Update .env in cPanel with:

   DB_HOST=localhost
   DB_USER=your_mysql_user
   DB_PASS=your_mysql_pass
   DB_NAME=your_database_name

🎉 Done!

Your Express + Node.js server will now auto-deploy to cPanel every time you push to GitHub. 🔥