eirslett/frontend-maven-plugin

frontend-maven-plugin

This plugin downloads/installs Node and NPM locally for your project, runs npm install, and then any combination of Bower, Grunt, Gulp, Jspm, Karma, or Webpack. It's supposed to work on Windows, OS X and Linux.

If you prefer Yarn over NPM for your node package fetching, this plugin can also download Node and Yarn and then run yarn install for your project.

What is this plugin meant to do?

• Let you keep your frontend and backend builds as separate as possible, by reducing the amount of interaction between them to the bare minimum; using only 1 plugin.
• Let you use Node.js and its libraries in your build process without installing Node/NPM globally for your build system
• Let you ensure that the version of Node and NPM being run is the same in every build environment

What is this plugin not meant to do?

• Not meant to replace the developer version of Node - frontend developers will still install Node on their laptops, but backend developers can run a clean build without even installing Node on their computer.
• Not meant to install Node for production uses. The Node usage is intended as part of a frontend build, running common javascript tasks such as minification, obfuscation, compression, packaging, testing etc.

Notice: This plugin does not support already installed Node or npm versions. Use the exec-maven-plugin instead.

Requirements

• Maven 3.6 and Java 17
• Maven 4 seems to work fine with this plugin. (Feel free to report any issues.)
• For Maven 2 support take a look at the wiki.

Installation

Include the plugin as a dependency in your Maven project. Change LATEST_VERSION to the latest tagged version.

<plugins>
    <plugin>
        <groupId>com.github.eirslett</groupId>
        <artifactId>frontend-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <!-- Use the latest released version:
        https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/github/eirslett/frontend-maven-plugin/ -->
        <version>LATEST_VERSION</version>
        ...
    </plugin>
...

Usage

Have a look at the example project, to see how it should be set up: https://github.com/eirslett/frontend-maven-plugin/blob/master/frontend-maven-plugin/src/it/example%20project/pom.xml

• frontend-maven-plugin - What is this plugin meant to do? - What is this plugin not meant to do?
  • Requirements
  • Installation
  • Usage
    • Installing node and npm
    • Installing node and yarn
    • Installing node and corepack
    • Installing bun
    • Running npm
      • npx
    • Running yarn
      • Yarn with Private Registry
    • Running corepack
    • Running bower
    • Running Grunt
    • Running gulp
    • Running jspm
    • Running Karma
    • Running Webpack
    • Running bun
    • Optional Configuration
      • Working directory
      • Installation Directory
      • Proxy settings
      • Environment variables
      • Ignoring Failure
      • Skipping Execution
  • Eclipse M2E support
  • Helper scripts
  • To build this project:
  • Issues, Contributing
  • License

Recommendation: Try to run all your tasks via npm scripts instead of running bower, grunt, gulp etc. directly.

Installing node and npm

The versions of Node and npm are downloaded from https://nodejs.org/dist, extracted and put into a node folder created in your installation directory . Node/npm will only be "installed" locally to your project. It will not be installed globally on the whole system (and it will not interfere with any Node/npm installations already present).

<plugin>
    ...
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <!-- optional: you don't really need execution ids, but it looks nice in your build log. -->
            <id>install node and npm</id>
            <goals>
                <goal>install-node-and-npm</goal>
            </goals>
            <!-- optional: default phase is "generate-resources" -->
            <phase>generate-resources</phase>
        </execution>
    </executions>
    <configuration>
        <nodeVersion>v24.12.0</nodeVersion>

        <!-- optional: with node version greater than 4.0.0 will use npm provided by node distribution -->
        <npmVersion>11.6.2</npmVersion>

        <!-- optional: where to download node and npm from. Defaults to https://nodejs.org/dist/ -->
        <downloadRoot>http://myproxy.example.org/nodejs/</downloadRoot>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

You can also specify separate download roots for npm and node as they are stored in separate repos. In case the root configured requires authentication, you can specify a server ID from your maven settings file:

<plugin>
    ...
    <configuration>
        <!-- optional: where to download node from. Defaults to https://nodejs.org/dist/ -->
        <nodeDownloadRoot>http://myproxy.example.org/nodejs/</nodeDownloadRoot>
	<!-- optional: credentials to use from Maven settings to download node -->
        <serverId>server001</serverId>
        <!-- optional: where to download npm from. Defaults to https://registry.npmjs.org/npm/-/ -->
        <npmDownloadRoot>https://myproxy.example.org/npm/</npmDownloadRoot>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

You can use Nexus repository Manager to proxy npm registries. See https://help.sonatype.com/display/NXRM3/Npm+Registry

Notice: Remember to gitignore the node folder, unless you actually want to commit it.

Installing node and yarn

Instead of using Node with npm you can alternatively choose to install Node with Yarn as the package manager.

The versions of Node and Yarn are downloaded from https://nodejs.org/dist for Node and from the Github releases for Yarn, extracted and put into a node folder created in your installation directory. Node/Yarn will only be "installed" locally to your project. It will not be installed globally on the whole system (and it will not interfere with any Node/Yarn installations already present).

If your project is using Yarn Berry (2.x or above), the Yarn version is handled per project but a Yarn 1.x install is still needed as a "bootstrap". The plugin will try to detect .yarnrc.yml file in the current Maven project/module folder, at the root of the multi-module project if relevant, and in the folder from which the mvn command was run. If detected, the plugin will assume your project is using Yarn Berry. It will install the 1.x Yarn version you specify with yarnVersion as bootstrap, then hand over to your project-specific version.

Have a look at the example POM to see how it should be set up with Yarn: https://github.com/eirslett/frontend-maven-plugin/blob/master/frontend-maven-plugin/src/it/yarn-integration/pom.xml

<plugin>
    ...
    <execution>
        <!-- optional: you don't really need execution ids, but it looks nice in your build log. -->
        <id>install node and yarn</id>
        <goals>
            <goal>install-node-and-yarn</goal>
        </goals>
        <!-- optional: default phase is "generate-resources" -->
        <phase>generate-resources</phase>
    </execution>
    <configuration>
        <nodeVersion>v24.12.0</nodeVersion>
        <yarnVersion>v0.16.1</yarnVersion>

        <!-- optional: where to download node from. Defaults to https://nodejs.org/dist/ -->
        <nodeDownloadRoot>http://myproxy.example.org/nodejs/</nodeDownloadRoot>
        <!-- optional: where to download yarn from. Defaults to https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/releases/download/ -->
        <yarnDownloadRoot>http://myproxy.example.org/yarn/</yarnDownloadRoot>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Installing node and corepack

You can choose to let corepack manage the package manager version in use. Node is downloaded from https://nodejs.org/dist, and corepack either comes provided with Node, or will currently be downloaded from https://repository.npmjs.org, extracted and put into a node folder created in your installation directory.

Node/corepack and any package managers will only be "installed" locally to your project. It will not be installed globally on the whole system (and it will not interfere with any Node/corepack installations already present).

Have a look at the example POM to see how it should be set up with corepack: https://github.com/eirslett/frontend-maven-plugin/blob/master/frontend-maven-plugin/src/it/corepack-provided-integration/pom.xml or https://github.com/eirslett/frontend-maven-plugin/blob/master/frontend-maven-plugin/src/it/corepack-integration/pom.xml if you need to override the version of corepack in use.

<plugin>
    ...
    <execution>
        <!-- optional: you don't really need execution ids, but it looks nice in your build log. -->
        <id>install-node-and-corepack</id>
        <goals>
            <goal>install-node-and-corepack</goal>
        </goals>
        <!-- optional: default phase is "generate-resources" -->
        <phase>generate-resources</phase>
    </execution>
    <configuration>
        <nodeVersion>v24.12.0</nodeVersion>

        <!-- Optional - only needed if Node <16.9, or if you need to use a version different
             from the one packaged with Node -->
        <corepackVersion>v0.25.2</corepackVersion>

        <!-- optional: where to download node from. Defaults to https://nodejs.org/dist/ -->
        <nodeDownloadRoot>http://myproxy.example.org/nodejs/</nodeDownloadRoot>
        <!-- optional: where to download corepack from. Defaults to https://registry.npmjs.org/corepack/-/ -->
        <corepackDownloadRoot>http://myproxy.example.org/corepack/</corepackDownloadRoot>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Installing bun

The version Bun is downloaded from https://github.com/oven-sh/bun/releases/download/, extracted and put into a bun folder created in your installation directory . Bun will only be "installed" locally to your project. It will not be installed globally on the whole system (and it will not interfere with any Bun installations already present).

<plugin>
    ...
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <!-- optional: you don't really need execution ids, but it looks nice in your build log. -->
            <id>install bun</id>
            <goals>
                <goal>install-bun</goal>
            </goals>
            <!-- optional: default phase is "generate-resources" -->
            <phase>generate-resources</phase>
        </execution>
    </executions>
    <configuration>
        <!-- The version of Bun to install. IMPORTANT! Most Bun version names start with 'v', for example -->
        <bunVersion>v1.1.34</bunVersion>

        <!-- optional: where to download bun from. Defaults to https://github.com/oven-sh/bun/releases/download/ -->
        <bunDownloadRoot>http://myproxy.example.org/bun/</bunDownloadRoot>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Running npm

All node packaged modules will be installed in the node_modules folder in your working directory. By default, colors will be shown in the log.

<execution>
    <id>npm install</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>npm</goal>
    </goals>

    <!-- optional: default phase is "generate-resources" -->
    <phase>generate-resources</phase>

    <configuration>
        <!-- optional: The default argument is actually
        "install", so unless you need to run some other npm command,
        you can remove this whole <configuration> section.
        -->
        <arguments>install</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Notice: Remember to gitignore the node_modules folder, unless you actually want to commit it. Npm packages will always be installed in node_modules next to your package.json, which is default npm behavior.

npx

You can also use npx command, enabling you to execute the CLI of installed packages without a run-script, or even packages that aren't installed at all.

<execution>
    <id>say hello</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>npx</goal>
    </goals>

    <phase>generate-resources</phase>

    <configuration>
        <arguments>cowsay hello</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Running yarn

As with npm above, all node packaged modules will be installed in the node_modules folder in your working directory.

<execution>
    <id>yarn install</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>yarn</goal>
    </goals>
    <configuration>
         <!-- optional: The default argument is actually
         "install", so unless you need to run some other yarn command,
         you can remove this whole <configuration> section.
         -->
        <arguments>install</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Yarn with Private Registry

NOTE: if you have a private npm registry that mirrors the npm registry, be aware that yarn.lock includes URLs to the npmjs.org module registry and yarn install will use these paths when installing modules.

If you want yarn.lock to use your private npm registry, be sure to run these commands on your local machine before you generate yarn.lock:

yarn config set registry <your_registry_url>
yarn install

This will create URLs in your yarn.lock file that reference your private npm registry.

Another way to set a registry is to add a .npmrc file in your project's root directory that contains:

registry=<your_registry_url>

Also you can set a registry using a tag npmRegistryURL

<execution>
    <id>yarn install</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>yarn</goal>
    </goals>
    <configuration>
         <!-- optional: The default argument is actually
         "install", so unless you need to run some other yarn command,
         you can remove this whole <configuration> section.
         -->
        <arguments>install</arguments>
	<!-- optional: where to download npm modules from. Defaults to https://registry.yarnpkg.com/ -->
	<npmRegistryURL>http://myregistry.example.org/</npmRegistryURL>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Running corepack

If your packageManager specifies yarn, then you'll want to have something like:

<execution>
    <id>install</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>corepack</goal>
    </goals>
    <configuration>
        <arguments>yarn install</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
    <id>build</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>corepack</goal>
    </goals>
    <configuration>
        <arguments>yarn build</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

and if you're using pnpm instead, you'll want something like

<execution>
    <id>install</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>corepack</goal>
    </goals>
    <configuration>
        <arguments>pnpm install</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
    <id>build</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>corepack</goal>
    </goals>
    <configuration>
        <arguments>pnpm build</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Running bower

All bower dependencies will be installed in the bower_components folder in your working directory.

<execution>
    <id>bower install</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>bower</goal>
    </goals>

    <configuration>
        <!-- optional: The default argument is actually
        "install", so unless you need to run some other bower command,
        you can remove this whole <configuration> section.
        -->
        <arguments>install</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Notice: Remember to gitignore the bower_components folder, unless you actually want to commit it.

Running Grunt

It will run Grunt according to the Gruntfile.js in your working directory. By default, colors will be shown in the log.

<execution>
    <id>grunt build</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>grunt</goal>
    </goals>

    <!-- optional: the default phase is "generate-resources" -->
    <phase>generate-resources</phase>

    <configuration>
        <!-- optional: if not specified, it will run Grunt's default
        task (and you can remove this whole <configuration> section.) -->
        <arguments>build</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Running gulp

Very similar to the Grunt execution. It will run gulp according to the gulpfile.js in your working directory. By default, colors will be shown in the log.

<execution>
    <id>gulp build</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>gulp</goal>
    </goals>

    <!-- optional: the default phase is "generate-resources" -->
    <phase>generate-resources</phase>

    <configuration>
        <!-- optional: if not specified, it will run gulp's default
        task (and you can remove this whole <configuration> section.) -->
        <arguments>build</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Running jspm

All jspm dependencies will be installed in the jspm_packages folder in your working directory.

<execution>
    <id>jspm install</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>jspm</goal>
    </goals>

    <configuration>
	    <!-- optional: The default argument is actually
	    "install", so unless you need to run some other jspm command,
	    you can remove this whole <configuration> section.
	    -->
        <arguments>install</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Running Karma

<execution>
    <id>javascript tests</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>karma</goal>
    </goals>

    <!-- optional: the default plase is "test". Some developers
    choose to run karma in the "integration-test" phase. -->
    <phase>test</phase>

    <configuration>
        <!-- optional: the default is "karma.conf.js" in your working directory -->
        <karmaConfPath>src/test/javascript/karma.conf.ci.js</karmaConfPath>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Skipping tests: If you run maven with the -DskipTests flag, karma tests will be skipped.

Ignoring failed tests: If you want to ignore test failures run maven with the -Dmaven.test.failure.ignore flag, karma test results will not stop the build but test results will remain in test output files. Suitable for continuous integration tool builds.

Why karma.conf.ci.js? When using Karma, you should have two separate configurations: karma.conf.js and karma.conf.ci.js. (The second one should inherit configuration from the first one, and override some options. The example project shows you how to set it up.) The idea is that you use karma.conf.js while developing (using watch/livereload etc.), and karma.conf.ci.js when building - for example, when building, it should only run karma once, it should generate xml reports, it should run only in PhantomJS, and/or it should generate code coverage reports.

Running Karma through Grunt or gulp: You may choose to run Karma directly through Grunt or through gulp instead, as part of the grunt or gulp execution. That will help to separate your frontend and backend builds even more.

Running Webpack

<execution>
    <id>webpack build</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>webpack</goal>
    </goals>

    <!-- optional: the default phase is "generate-resources" -->
    <phase>generate-resources</phase>

    <configuration>
        <!-- optional: if not specified, it will run webpack's default
        build (and you can remove this whole <configuration> section.) -->
        <arguments>-p</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Running bun

<execution>
    <id>bun install</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>bun</goal>
    </goals>

    <!-- optional: default phase is "generate-resources" -->
    <phase>generate-resources</phase>

    <configuration>
        <!-- optional: The default argument is actually
        "install", so unless you need to run some other bun command,
        you can remove this whole <configuration> section.
        -->
        <arguments>install</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Optional Configuration

Working directory

The working directory is where you've put package.json and your frontend configuration files (Gruntfile.js or gulpfile.js etc). The default working directory is your project's base directory (the same directory as your pom.xml). You can change the working directory if you want:

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.github.eirslett</groupId>
    <artifactId>frontend-maven-plugin</artifactId>

    <!-- optional -->
    <configuration>
        <workingDirectory>src/main/frontend</workingDirectory>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Notice: Npm packages will always be installed in node_modules next to your package.json, which is default npm behavior.

Installation Directory

The installation directory is the folder where your node and npm are installed. You can set this property on the different goals. Or choose to set it for all the goals, in the maven configuration.

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.github.eirslett</groupId>
    <artifactId>frontend-maven-plugin</artifactId>

    <!-- optional -->
    <configuration>
        <installDirectory>target</installDirectory>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Proxy settings

If you have configured proxy settings for Maven in your settings.xml file, the plugin will automatically use the proxy for downloading node and npm, as well as passing the proxy to npm commands.

Non Proxy Hosts: npm does not currently support non proxy hosts - if you are using a proxy and npm install is not downloading from your repository, it may be because it cannot be accessed through your proxy. If that is the case, you can stop the npm execution from inheriting the Maven proxy settings like this:

<configuration>
    <npmInheritsProxyConfigFromMaven>false</npmInheritsProxyConfigFromMaven>
</configuration>

If you have configured proxy settings for Maven in your settings.xml file, the plugin will automatically pass the proxy to bower commands. If that is the case, you can stop the bower execution from inheriting the Maven proxy settings like this:

<configuration>
    <bowerInheritsProxyConfigFromMaven>false</bowerInheritsProxyConfigFromMaven>
</configuration>

If you want to disable proxy for Yarn you can use yarnInheritsProxyConfigFromMaven. When you have proxy settings in your settings.xml file if you don't use this param it will run code below with proxy settings, in some cases you don't want that. Adding this param into the configuration section will solve this issue

<execution>
    <id>tests</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>yarn</goal>
    </goals>
    <phase>compile</phase>
    <configuration>
        <yarnInheritsProxyConfigFromMaven>false</yarnInheritsProxyConfigFromMaven>
        <arguments>run test</arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

Environment variables

If you need to pass some variable to Node, you can set that using the property environmentVariables in configuration tag of an execution like this:

<configuration>
    <environmentVariables>
        <!-- Simple var -->
        <Jon>Snow</Jon>
        <Tyrion>Lannister</Tyrion>

        <!-- Var value take from maven properties -->
        <NODE_ENV>${NODE_ENV}</NODE_ENV>
    </environmentVariables>
</configuration>

Ignoring Failure

Ignoring failed tests: If you want to ignore test failures in specific execution you can set that using the property maven.test.failure.ignore in configuration tag of an execution like this:

<configuration>
    <testFailureIgnore>true</testFailureIgnore>
</configuration>

Skipping Execution

Each frontend build tool, package manager, and installation goal allows skipping execution. This is useful for projects that contain multiple builds (such as a module containing Java and frontend code).

Note that if the installation goals or package manager (npm or yarn) are skipped, other build tools will also need to be skipped because they would not have been downloaded. For example, in a project using npm and gulp, if npm is skipped, gulp must also be skipped or the build will fail.

Installation goals and property to enable skipping:

• install-node-and-npm -Dskip.installnodenpm
• install-node-and-yarn -Dskip.installyarn
• install-node-and-pnpm -Dskip.installnodepnpm
• install-node-and-corepack -Dskip.installnodecorepack
• install-bun -Dskip.installbun

Build tools and property to enable skipping:

• npm -Dskip.npm
• yarn -Dskip.yarn
• bower -Dskip.bower
• bun -Dskip.bun
• corepack -Dskip.corepack
• ember -Dskip.ember
• grunt -Dskip.grunt
• gulp -Dskip.gulp
• jspm -Dskip.jspm
• karma -Dskip.karma
• npx -Dskip.npx
• pnpm -Dskip.pnpm
• webpack -Dskip.webpack

Eclipse M2E support

This plugin contains support for M2E, including lifecycle mappings and support for incremental builds in Eclipse. The install-node-and-npm goal will only run on a full project build. The other goals support incremental builds to avoid doing unnecessary work. During an incremental build the npm goal will only run if the package.json file has been changed. The grunt and gulp goals have new srcdir and triggerfiles optional configuration options; if these are set they check for changes in your source files before being run. See the wiki for more information.

Helper scripts

During development, it's convenient to have the "npm", "bower", "grunt", "gulp" and "karma" commands available on the command line. If you want that, use those helper scripts!

To build this project:

Run $ mvn clean install

Issues, Contributing

Please post any issues on the Github's Issue tracker. You can find a full list of contributors here. The project is being maintained, but not actively. New features are only added if there is a popular demand for them and time allows. Development of this project has no financial backing, therefore it can sometimes take a while for changes to be merged and/or released.

Pull requests that fix security issues are generally welcome. Note that most security vulnerabilities in library dependencies are not that relevant to this plugin, because it only processes trusted input (In the sense that we trust the official Node.js website to not contain malware.)

License

Apache 2.0