How to run my react app in Docker container - node.js

Question

I have this react app I want to dockerize. But the problem is, even though I tried, it doesn't work. But it works pretty well locally
This is how the current directories look like:
docker-compose.yaml
frontend_v2
- node_modules
- public
- src
- <react jsx files>
- Dockerfile
- package.json
- package-lock.json
So this is the content of the above Dockerfile:
# Use an official node runtime as a parent image
FROM node:latest
WORKDIR /app
# Install dependencies
COPY package.json /app
RUN npm install
# Add rest of the client code
COPY . /app
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["npm", "start"]
And I am using a docker-compose.yml to spin up the container, and this is how it looks like:
This is in the root directory.
version: "3.2"
services:
frontend:
build: ./frontend_v2
environment:
CHOKIDAR_USEPOLLING: "true"
volumes:
# - /app/node_modules
- ./frontend_v2/src:/app/src
ports:
- 80:3000
Problem I am facing is, even though the container is running I get the below error (which I don't get I run locally)
When i try
docker logs <exited-container-id> i get this below output
> cyberhr-rv18.0.4#0.1.0 start /app
> react-scripts start
There might be a problem with the project dependency tree.
It is likely not a bug in Create React App, but something you need to fix locally.
The react-scripts package provided by Create React App requires a dependency:
"webpack-dev-server": "3.11.0"
Don't try to install it manually: your package manager does it automatically.
However, a different version of webpack-dev-server was detected higher up in the tree:
/app/node_modules/webpack-dev-server (version: 3.10.3)
Manually installing incompatible versions is known to cause hard-to-debug issues.
If you would prefer to ignore this check, add SKIP_PREFLIGHT_CHECK=true to an .env file in your project.
That will permanently disable this message but you might encounter other issues.
To fix the dependency tree, try following the steps below in the exact order:
1. Delete package-lock.json (not package.json!) and/or yarn.lock in your project folder.
2. Delete node_modules in your project folder.
3. Remove "webpack-dev-server" from dependencies and/or devDependencies in the package.json file in your project folder.
4. Run npm install or yarn, depending on the package manager you use.
In most cases, this should be enough to fix the problem.
If this has not helped, there are a few other things you can try:
5. If you used npm, install yarn (http://yarnpkg.com/) and repeat the above steps with it instead.
This may help because npm has known issues with package hoisting which may get resolved in future versions.
6. Check if /app/node_modules/webpack-dev-server is outside your project directory.
For example, you might have accidentally installed something in your home folder.
7. Try running npm ls webpack-dev-server in your project folder.
This will tell you which other package (apart from the expected react-scripts) installed webpack-dev-server.
If nothing else helps, add SKIP_PREFLIGHT_CHECK=true to an .env file in your project.
That would permanently disable this preflight check in case you want to proceed anyway.
P.S. We know this message is long but please read the steps above :-) We hope you find them helpful!
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! cyberhr-rv18.0.4#0.1.0 start: `react-scripts start`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the cyberhr-rv18.0.4#0.1.0 start script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /root/.npm/_logs/2020-09-18T08_32_25_268Z-debug.log
[Update]
Here's my package.json file:
{
"name": "cyberhr-rv18.0.4",
"version": "0.1.0",
"private": true,
"homepage": "",
"dependencies": {
"3d-force-graph": "^1.60.11",
"#blueprintjs/core": "^3.26.1",
"#coreui/coreui": "^2.1.12",
"#coreui/coreui-plugin-chartjs-custom-tooltips": "^1.3.1",
"#coreui/icons": "0.3.0",
"#coreui/react": "^2.5.1",
"#emotion/core": "^10.0.35",
"#material-ui/core": "^4.11.0",
"#tensorflow/tfjs": "^1.7.2",
"#tensorflow/tfjs-tsne": "^0.2.0",
"axios": "^0.19.2",
"bootstrap": "^4.3.1",
"chart.js": "^2.8.0",
"classnames": "^2.2.6",
"core-js": "^3.1.4",
"d3-dsv": "^1.2.0",
"enzyme": "^3.10.0",
"enzyme-adapter-react-16": "^1.14.0",
"evergreen-ui": "^4.27.4",
"flag-icon-css": "^3.3.0",
"font-awesome": "^4.7.0",
"google-maps-react": "^2.0.2",
"jquery": "^3.4.0",
"material-dashboard-react": "^1.8.0",
"mdbreact": "4.25.3",
"node-sass": "^4.12.0",
"prop-types": "^15.7.2",
"react": "^16.8.4",
"react-animations": "^1.0.0",
"react-app-polyfill": "^1.0.1",
"react-bootstrap": "^1.0.0-beta.5",
"react-chartjs-2": "^2.7.6",
"react-chat-popup": "^1.1.2",
"react-dom": "^16.8.4",
"react-dropzone": "^11.0.1",
"react-force-graph": "^1.32.1",
"react-full-screen": "^0.2.4",
"react-loadable": "^5.5.0",
"react-nvd3": "^0.5.7",
"react-perfect-scrollbar": "^1.4.4",
"react-pure-grid": "^2.1.1",
"react-redux": "^6.0.1",
"react-reveal": "^1.2.2",
"react-router-config": "^5.0.1",
"react-router-dom": "^4.3.1",
"react-scripts": "^3.4.3",
"react-spinners": "^0.9.0",
"react-step-wizard": "^5.3.2",
"react-table": "^7.2.1",
"react-test-renderer": "^16.8.6",
"react-toastify": "^6.0.8",
"react-window-size": "^1.2.2",
"reactstrap": "^8.0.0",
"redux": "^4.0.1",
"simple-line-icons": "^2.4.1",
"tabler-react": "^2.0.0-alpha.1",
"three": "latest",
"tsne-js": "^1.0.3"
},
"scripts": {
"start": "react-scripts start",
"build": "react-scripts build",
"test": "react-scripts test",
"eject": "react-scripts eject"
},
"eslintConfig": {
"extends": "react-app"
},
"browserslist": [
">0.2%",
"not dead",
"not ie <= 11",
"not op_mini all"
],
"devDependencies": {
"react-to-print": "^2.1.1"
}
}
Can someone please help me?

Answer 1

Firstly, make sure you are copying the same package-lock.json file that you use to install deps locally, to make sure you have the same dependency tree in your container as you do locally.
COPY package.json package-lock.json /app/
Then, make sure that you are matching the same node/npm version as you run locally (replace 12 with the major version you are running, be it 10, 12, 14 or whatever):
FROM node:12
Each node version is bundled with a specific npm version (latest 12 version comes with npm 6.14.6), you can find the bundled NPM version int he changelogs, https://github.com/nodejs/node/tree/master/doc/changelogs
Additionally, instead of running npm install, you might wanna run npm ci in the container. The latter skips any checks for discrepancy between the lock file and your package.json file and just installs the locked dependency tree, which is not only faster, but will also match your local dep tree exactly.
EDIT:
In addition, this line:
COPY . /app
Would also overwrite node_modules unless you have ignored it via .dockerignore or similar.
Easiest would probably be to add a .dockerignore file to the same folder as your Dockerfile and add lines stating:
.git
node_modules
The complete Dockerfile would look like this:
# Use whatever version you are running locally (see node -v)
FROM node:12
WORKDIR /app
# Install dependencies (you are already in /app)
COPY package.json package-lock.json ./
RUN npm ci
# Add rest of the client code
# .dockerignore needs to skip node_modules
COPY . /app
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["npm", "start"]

Answer 2

So here
# Install dependencies
COPY package.json /app
RUN npm install
at the end of these steps you will have a NEW package-lock.json file and node_modules folder in the container build environment.
But then the posted Dockerfile has:
# Add rest of the client code
COPY . /app
and quite possibly -- WHAMMO! -- they're gone. Whatever OLD package-lock.json file or node_modules directory was in the . folder on the build machine will overwrite the ./app folder in the container -- including those NEW files just created in the container. Or perhaps end up with some unholy mix of both in the node_modules directory.
I take a different approach. I get everything working as I want it, and use this Dockerfile that lives in the directory with the source code:
FROM node:alpine # as of 2020-09 this runs node 14; also uses sh not bash
COPY . /app
WORKDIR /app
USER node
EXPOSE 8888 # change this to the port(s) where your app listens
CMD [ "node", "./index.js" ]
This is copied from a production system that relies on Google Cloud Build to build the container for launch on GCP. Therefore, the environment on the execution system is going to be Linux, the same as on my developer system.
If you are going cross-platform development, this obviously won't work sometimes.