Run nested npm script from parent directory in Netlify? - netlify

Question

Im trying to set up continuous deployment on Netlify. Ive linked my Github account so I now need to set my build command:
The complication is that my package.json with the build command (from create-react-app) is not in the project root. Instead its 1 folder deep like so:
react // this is a folder
-package.json // has build commands for React
server // this is a folder
-package.json // has build commands for my backend as a service
As I'm using a backend as a service I don't need anything in the 'server' folder deployed to Netlify, just the contence of the 'react' folder.
Can I run a command in react/package.json from the project root?
On my local machine I can run the build command from the root with this:
{
"scripts": {
"netlify": "cd ./react && npm run build"
}
}
But on Netlify it errors:
9:56:31 AM: Executing user command: npm run netlify
9:56:31 AM: > # netlify /opt/build/repo
9:56:31 AM: > cd ./react && npm run build
9:56:32 AM: > testproject#0.0.1 build /opt/build/repo/react
9:56:32 AM: > npm-run-all build-css build-js
9:56:32 AM: sh: 1: npm-run-all: not found
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! file sh
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! errno ENOENT
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! syscall spawn
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! testproject#0.0.1 build: `npm-run-all build-css build-js`
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! spawn ENOENT
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR!
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! Failed at the testproject#0.0.1 build script.
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
9:56:32 AM: npm WARN Local package.json exists, but node_modules missing, did you mean to install?
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! /opt/buildhome/.npm/_logs/2018-03-01T02_56_32_022Z-debug.log
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! errno 1
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! # netlify: `cd ./react && npm run build`
9:56:32 AM: npm ERR! Exit status 1

Answer 1

disclaimer: I work for Netlify
Our build process will only 'npm install' for you if there is a /package.json. I think you could probably get a successful build with this build command:
cd ./react && npm install && npm run build
...assuming you have npm-run-all in package.json anyway :)
This however is not the BEST way to solve the problem. The best practice would be to instead use the netlify.toml file to set a base for your build. We'll cd to this directory before starting the build, and then we'll just pick up your package.json and do the installation automatically so your build command would be simplified to npm run build, and anyone else who clones your repo would also be set up for success on Netlify :)
[build]
base = "react"
...is all that you'd need in that file.