diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 37d799fd01e21b67ccd879a8142a83b9459e4bbd..ce0340be47e83cd58d230151c82e571403516517 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -1 +1,27 @@
 include: "https://git.autistici.org/ai3/build-container/raw/master/common.yml"
+
+# test the newly built container before releasing it.
+stages:
+  - build
+  - test
+  - release
+
+test:
+  stage: test
+  image: ${CI_DEPENDENCY_PROXY_GROUP_IMAGE_PREFIX}/debian:stable
+  services:
+    - name: ${IMAGE_TAG}
+      alias: noblogs
+    - name: ${CI_DEPENDENCY_PROXY_GROUP_IMAGE_PREFIX}/mysql:latest
+      alias: mysql
+  variables:
+    APACHE_PORT: 8080
+    SITE_URL: "http://noblogs:8080"
+    MYSQL_DATABASE: noblogstest
+    MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: changeme
+    PHP_FPM_USER: www-data
+  script:
+    - apt -q update
+    - env DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt -y --no-install-recommends install curl
+    - "curl -H 'Host: noblogs.org' -v ${SITE_URL}"
+
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 8ead4316408e2f349adc50e353a4c37627a5c4f4..1866a5648a911edb81d4855095d37fc00ba2489c 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -17,3 +17,6 @@ COPY docker/post-upgrade.sh /post-upgrade.sh
 
 RUN /tmp/build.sh && rm /tmp/build.sh
 
+# For testing purposes (8080 is the default port of apache2-php-base).
+EXPOSE 8080/tcp
+
diff --git a/docker/conf/php/7.3/fpm/pool.d/www.conf b/docker/conf/php/7.3/fpm/pool.d/www.conf
index 2deb81cc83d613cec114479dbf78441722b15ea7..9be0c6090846a616c871f7910b9d02ddc81e9f79 100644
--- a/docker/conf/php/7.3/fpm/pool.d/www.conf
+++ b/docker/conf/php/7.3/fpm/pool.d/www.conf
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 [www]
+user = ${PHP_FPM_USER}
 listen = /run/php/php7.3-fpm.sock
 
 pm = dynamic
diff --git a/docker/wp-config.php b/docker/wp-config.php
index 1b464007a992a92c565586768059e0af62a356f6..d9695b9e17fe2473d8f74907768af0af3ca14da5 100644
--- a/docker/wp-config.php
+++ b/docker/wp-config.php
@@ -4,8 +4,38 @@
  * First of all, read our own configuration file.
  *
  * Store the result in an associative array '$noblogs_config'.
+ *
+ * If the configuration file does not exist, start with a testing
+ * configuration that is meant to work with our CI.
  */
-$noblogs_config = json_decode(file_get_contents('/etc/noblogs/config.json'), true);
+$noblogs_config = array(
+                        "secrets" => array(
+                                           "auth_key" => "testkey",
+                                           "secure_auth_key" => "testkey",
+                                           "logged_in_key" => "testkey",
+                                           "nonce_key" => "testkey",
+                                           "auth_salt" => "testkey",
+                                           "secure_auth_salt" => "testkey",
+                                           "logged_in_salt" => "testkey",
+                                           "nonce_salt" => "testkey"
+                                           ),
+                        "db_config" => array(
+                                             "backends" => array(
+                                                                 "default" => array(
+                                                                                    "host" => "mysql",
+                                                                                    "port" => "3306",
+                                                                                    "name" => getenv("MYSQL_DATABASE"),
+                                                                                    "user" => "root",
+                                                                                    "password" => getenv("MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD")
+                                                                                    )
+                                                                 )
+                                             )
+                        );
+
+$noblogs_config_json = file_get_contents('/etc/noblogs/config.json');
+if ($noblogs_config_json) {
+  $noblogs_config = json_decode($noblogs_config_json, true);
+}
 
 /**
  * The base configurations of the WordPress.