Avoid minifying certain packages in meteor - node.js

In my project, I have some npm dependencies which use ejs templates - this works fine locally, but as soon as they are minified for production using standard-minifier-js, the packages crash because the template can't find required components.
Can I tell the standard-minifier-js to skip certain npm packages, or is there any other way to have ejs templates run in production?
Edit: I also tried running in production without standard-minifier-js, everything works fine.

Related

React npm run build, what is that, why we need that?

Currently I made a simple app with react, it works perfectly and I use react-scripts. I installed React by following the Facebook github page, and it written that "When you're ready to deploy to production, running npm run build will create an optimized build of your app in the build folder. ". After I press npm run build, a folder build created, but I do not know what to do with this folder. I tried some method like, move all folders except build and npm run, but it did not work. Anyone can explain me what is this folder "build" ? Thank you
npm run build builds the app for production to the build folder.
It correctly bundles React in production mode and optimizes the build for the best performance.
The build is minified and the filenames include the hashes.
npm run build creates a build directory with a production build of your app. Set up your favourite HTTP server so that a visitor to your site is served index.html, and requests to static paths like /static/js/main..js are served with the contents of the /static/js/main..js file.

Easy Install of Node js package on without publishing

I am looking for a way to deploy a node js app to multiple machines locally.
Is there some way to create a batch file to zip, or installer file, that will put my node js application and all its dependencies, and possibly get node js too easily on multiple machines by sending one or more files to install?
Also, is there some way to provide updates if the code is updated to all these machines?
Basically, I want to be able to install my node js package/application on multiple locations locally without having to publish my work to npm. Any ideas? cant seem to find anything out there except for putting node js on a web server, or publishing to npm?
This is quite vast. Without using advanced tools these two could work :
git pull origin master
npm install
or a solution with rsync
node js application and all its dependencies
Run an npm install where you're developing your application. Then, just tarball the whole thing, including the node_modules directory. When you deploy your tarball to another machine, be sure to run npm rebuild so that any binary dependencies are built for the platform you just deployed to. If you do your initial npm install on the same platform type, you can usually skip the rebuild step.
Also, is there some way to provide updates if the code is updated to all these machines?
There are an infinite number of ways, and what you pick depends on your needs. You could check-in your whole project including node_modules to version control and just have a Bash script regularly pull from a branch and bounce things as necessary for your specific needs. Beware though that node_modules tends to be huge... it's usually left out of version control. Perhaps stick to the tarball on a server and pull that as necessary.
and possibly get node js too
Keep that separate. You don't need to deploy Node.js every time you deploy your application.

Using Grunt on Heroku without defiling devDependencies

I understand, in general, the most frequent way Grunt is used on Heroku -- load the buildpack, specify your grunt heroku task(s), and include any Grunt plugins you want to use on the Heroku dyno in your package.json:dependencies.
However, I find this to be a rather poor solution, because it miscommunicates about my app. My Grunt plugins are all more like devDependencies, as I will only run anything with Grunt one time (per deploy). My app doesn't directly depend on them to run, as it's mostly minification and template compilation.
I'm also trying to keep compiled files (e.g. .css and .html files when I'm writing in Sass and Handlebars) out of source control, so pushing them over from Github is possible but definitely not what I want.
Is there a way to do all of the following?
exclude .css and .html files from Git
write stylesheets and markup using Sass and Handlebars
push a basic Express app containing these files to Heroku
have Heroku run a server-relative version of my grunt build task (naming it whatever is necessary is fine) to compile and prepare all of the views and assets before launching the web: process
have Heroku's Grunt task intelligently understand that I just want some pre-launch compilation so it will look at devDependencies and install the relevant ones in a perhaps-temporary kind of way
launch the Express server via the web: process
I'm fine with having to write my own buildpack, or whatever needs to be done to do this (what I perceive to be) the right way.
I created the buildpack heroku-buildpack-webapp-client that supports grunt, compass/sass and installs your devDependencies. Maybe you can use this one or have a look at the bin/compile script to see how it works.

What are the main differences of demeteorizer and meteor bundle?

Having gone through and used demeteorizer. I wonder what are the main differences between setting up meteor vs demeteorizer and running it via node; on own server?
meteor only
hot swappable code?
problem in maintaining packages similar from production and dev
same meteor versions running on prod and dev
hardcoded environment settings (i.e. mongo)
demeteorizer
platform independant as this auto bundles dependancies and uses pure nodejs
organise and maintain mongodb how you like (backup scripts etc)
I have been using demeteorizer (packaging->upload->running forever), but wonder if there are any performance or issues in the long run.
I have seen packages such as "authentication" running okay locally but very slow on the test server (hangs on submit, indicating sync problems?)
thanks in advance.
ref: https://twitter.com/SachaGreif/status/424908644590030848
Demeteorizer builds on top of meteor bundle with one small difference: Demeteorizer builds a package.json for you and deletes the node_modules directories.
Without demeteorizer you would have a bit of trouble deploying your app, particularly if it was on a different platform to the one you built your app on.
If you see meteor's own docs, you have to remove fibers and manage your npm modules yourself, manually. With a package.json you can run npm install and have them all installed for you, including ones from packages.
Why is this useful? For services like modulus it means you can upload an app and have it install all your dependencies for you without you having to think about it, as if it were an ordinary node-js app.
Everything that applies to meteor bundle will also apply to demeteorizer as it is still the same meteor bundled app, just with the package.json. So you can use forever, hard coded/environment based settings, etc the same way.

How to package & deploy Node.js + express web application?

I am new to Node.js programming and I have recently created a sample working web application using (express, backbone & other complimentary view technologies, with mongoDB). Now i am at a point where I want to deploy the same on a staging environment and I am not sure how to package this application and distribute the same. [I can take care of mongoDb and setting it up seperately]
I am from Java world and in there we create jars for reusable libs and war/ear packages for web applications which is deployed in a servlet container. Now in this case since node.js itself acts as a web container as well, how do i package my webapp?
Is there any standard format/guidelines of packaging node webapps built using express? (Is there a similar jar/war packaging systems for node apps?)
How do I deploy it once packaged? Would it become an exe, since it is also its own container?
PS: As of now I am thinking of just manually copying all the required source files into the staging environment and run npm commands to download all dependencies on that machine and then use 'forever' or some other mechanism to run my server.js. (Also, add some sort of monitoring, just in case app crashes and forever fails) I am not sure if that is the right way? I am sure there must be some standardized way of addressing this problem.
Deploying Node.js applications is very easy stuff. In maven, there is pom.xml. Related concept in Node.js is package.json. You can state your dependencies on package.json. You can also do environmental setup on package.json. For example, in dev environment you can say that
I want to run unit tests.
but in production;
I want to skip unit tests.
You have local repositories for maven under .m2 folder. In Node.js, there is node_modules folder under your Node.js project. You can see module folders with its name.
Let's come to the grunt part of this answer. Grunt is a task manager for your frontend assets, html, javascript, css. For example, before deployment you can minify html, css, javascript even images. You can also put grunt task run functions in package.json.
If you want to look at a sample application, you can find an example blog application here. Check folder structure and package.json for reference.
For deployment, I suggest you heroku deployment for startup applciations. You can find howto here. This is simple git based deployment.
On project running part, simply set your environment NODE_ENV=development and node app.js. Here app.js is in your project.
Here is relative concept for java and nodejs;
maven clean install => npm install
.m2 folder => node_modules(Under project folder)
mvn test => npm test(test section on package.json)
junit, powermock, ... => mocha, node-unit, ...
Spring MVC => Express.JS
pom.xml => package.json
import package => require('module_name')
There is no standardized way, but you're on the right track. If your package.json is up to date and well kept, you can just copy/zip/clone your app directory to the production system, excluding the node_modules.
On your production system, run
npm install to install your dependencies, npm test if you have tests and finally NODE_ENV=production node server.js
Some recent slides I considered to be quite helpful that also include the topic of wrappers like forever, can be found here.
Hope this might be helpful for somebody looking for the solution,Packaging of Node js apps can be done using "npm pack" command.It creates a zip file of your application which can be run in production/staging environment.
Is there any standard format/guidelines of packaging node webapps
built using express? (Is there a similar jar/war packaging systems for
node apps?)
Yes, the CommonJS Packages specification:
This specification describes the CommonJS package format for
distributing CommonJS programs and libraries. A CommonJS package is a
cohesive wrapping of a collection of modules, code and other assets
into a single form. It provides the basis for convenient delivery,
installation and management of CommonJS components.
For your next question:
2. How do I deploy it once packaged? Would it become an exe, since it is also its own container?
I second Hüseyin's suggestion to deploy on Heroku for production. For development and staging I use Node-Appliance with VirtualBox and Amazon EC2, respectively:
This program takes a Debian machine built by build-debian-cloud or
Debian-VirtualBox-Appliance and turns it into a Node.js "appliance",
capable of running a Node application deployed via git.
Your webapp will not become an exe.
few ways to approach this:
Push your code into Git repository, excluding everything that isn't your code (node_modules/**), then pull it in your staging environment, run npm install to restore all dependencies
create an NPM package out of it , install it via npm in your staging environment (this should also take care of all of the dependencies)
manual copy/ssh files to your staging environment (this can be automated with Grunt), than restore your dependencies via npm
I used zeit's pkg module. It can create cross platform deliverables for linux/win/macos. Actually used it in production and works fine without any issues.
It takes in all the js scripts and packages it into a single file.
The reason I used it is because it helps in securing your source code. That way in production at customers environment they will have access to application but not the source code.
Also one of the advantages is that at production environment, you do not actually need to have the customer install node.js as the node binaries also get packaged inside the build.
https://www.npmjs.com/package/pkg

Resources