Failed build on Heroku with custom heroku-postbuild script - node.js

Question

I have two main folders for my project: server and client. Heroku only seems to care about the server/package.json. Deployment is going fine until it returns an error when the process runs the "heroku-postbuild": "NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION=false npm install --prefix client && npm run build --prefix client" command from package.json.
Here's the error message from the console:
-----> Build
remote: Running heroku-postbuild
remote:
remote: > server#1.0.0 heroku-postbuild
remote: > npm install --prefix client && npm run build --prefix client
remote:
remote: npm ERR! code ENOENT
remote: npm ERR! syscall open
remote: npm ERR! path /tmp/build_25b1f86c/client/package.json
remote: npm ERR! errno -2
remote: npm ERR! enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/tmp/build_25b1f86c/client/package.json'
remote: npm ERR! enoent This is related to npm not being able to find a file.
remote: npm ERR! enoent
remote:
remote: npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
remote: npm ERR! /tmp/npmcache.3i4hV/_logs/2022-08-05T15_34_56_961Z-debug-0.log
remote:
remote: -----> Build failed
Here's server/package.json:
{
"name": "server",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "",
"main": "index.js",
"engines": {
"node": "16.16.0",
"npm": "8.11.0"
},
"scripts": {
"start": "node index.js",
"server": "nodemon index.js",
"client": "npm run start --prefix client",
"dev": "concurrently \"npm run server\" \"npm run client\"",
"heroku-postbuild": "NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION=false npm install --prefix client && npm run build --prefix client"
},
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"dependencies": {
"body-parser": "^1.20.0",
"concurrently": "^7.3.0",
"cookie-session": "^2.0.0",
"express": "^4.18.1",
"mongoose": "^6.5.0",
"nodemon": "^2.0.19",
"passport": "^0.5.3",
"passport-google-oauth20": "^2.0.0",
"stripe": "^10.0.0"
}
}
Here's client/package.json:
{
"name": "client",
"version": "0.1.0",
"private": true,
"dependencies": {
"#testing-library/jest-dom": "^5.16.4",
"#testing-library/react": "^13.3.0",
"#testing-library/user-event": "^13.5.0",
"axios": "^0.27.2",
"http-proxy-middleware": "^2.0.6",
"materialize-css": "^1.0.0-rc.2",
"react": "^18.2.0",
"react-dom": "^18.2.0",
"react-redux": "^8.0.2",
"react-router-dom": "^5.3.3",
"react-scripts": "5.0.1",
"react-stripe-checkout": "^2.6.3",
"redux": "^4.2.0",
"redux-thunk": "^2.4.1",
"web-vitals": "^2.1.4"
},
"scripts": {
"start": "react-scripts start",
"build": "react-scripts build",
"test": "react-scripts test",
"eject": "react-scripts eject"
},
"eslintConfig": {
"extends": [
"react-app",
"react-app/jest"
]
},
"browserslist": {
"production": [
">0.2%",
"not dead",
"not op_mini all"
],
"development": [
"last 1 chrome version",
"last 1 firefox version",
"last 1 safari version"
]
}
}
I tried removing parts of "heroku-postbuild": "NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION=false npm install --prefix client && npm run build --prefix client" to shorten it into "heroku-postbuild": "NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION=false" in other deployments and it worked. It seems "npm install --prefix client && npm run build --prefix client" is the part not working in the heroku-postbuild script.
Would you have any idea how to fix this? Thanks!

Answer 1

OK, found it. My course TA helped me figure it out. The solution below worked.
In my Github repo called server, the client directory was completely missing, so, the Heroku server was likely having the same problem. And it did. I had to delete the .git directory in the client so version control doesn't think this is a submodule. From the root repository:
cd client
rm -r .git
git rm --cached .
cd ..
git add client
git commit -m "remove submodule"
git push origin main
git push heroku main