Installing node once only and not each time with Maven build - maven

Question

I need one help .
I am using grunt for compiling CSS/JS
I have an issue that my node package is getting created with each build and it is taking a lot of space in Jenkins . I am using maven front end plugin for the same .
I want that node package gets only created once initially and not again with each maven build .
<id>grunt</id>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>com.github.eirslett</groupId>
<artifactId>frontend-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>0.0.26</version>
<!-- optional -->
<configuration>
<workingDirectory>DIR
</workingDirectory>
<nodeVersion>v4.2.1</nodeVersion>
<npmVersion>3.5.1</npmVersion>
<installDirectory>node</installDirectory>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>node and npm install</id>
<goals>
<goal>install-node-and-npm</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<arguments>install</arguments>
<installDirectory>node</installDirectory>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>npm install</id>
<goals>
<goal>npm</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<arguments>install</arguments>
<installDirectory>node</installDirectory>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>grunt build</id>
<goals>
<goal>grunt</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<arguments>build</arguments>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
We are doing a build with maven -P grunt . It is creating and installing node with each maven build .
For having node globally I am trying maven -P grunt -g , but it is not working .
In the GitHub group , I saw people mentioning we can't do with maven frontend plugin , so I tried maven exec plugin .
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>prepare-dist-npm-runtime-dependency</id>
<phase>prepare-package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<executable>node/node</executable>
<workingDirectory>dist</workingDirectory>
<arguments>
<argument>../node/npm/cli.js</argument>
<argument>install</argument>
<argument>--production</argument>
</arguments>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
But I am not able to see it working . Can anyone help how to run maven to get it working for global node installation and not installing node with each build ?
If any other suggestion to have node installed only once and not globally will be grateful .

Answer 1

You can't install Node or NPM globally with the Frontend maven plugin. If we take a look at the documentation we'll see that the entire purpose of the plugin is to be able to install Node and NPM in an isolated environment solely for the build and which does not affect the rest of the machine.
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.)
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.
You can try to run the plugin with two different profiles, one for install and one for day-to-day use after installation. In the below example, you should be able to install Node and NPM by running:
mvn clean install -PinstallNode
Then every build after:
mvn clean install -PnormalBuild
Or because normalBuild is set to active by default, just:
mvn clean install
Notice install goals are not in the day-to-day profile:
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>installNode</id>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>com.github.eirslett</groupId>
<artifactId>frontend-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>0.0.26</version>
<!-- optional -->
<configuration>
<workingDirectory>DIR</workingDirectory>
<nodeVersion>v4.2.1</nodeVersion>
<npmVersion>3.5.1</npmVersion>
<installDirectory>node</installDirectory>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>node and npm install</id>
<goals>
<goal>install-node-and-npm</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<arguments>install</arguments>
<installDirectory>node</installDirectory>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>npm install</id>
<goals>
<goal>npm</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<arguments>install</arguments>
<installDirectory>node</installDirectory>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>grunt build</id>
<goals>
<goal>grunt</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<arguments>build</arguments>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
<profile>
<id>normalBuild</id>
<activation>
<activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
</activation>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>com.github.eirslett</groupId>
<artifactId>frontend-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>0.0.26</version>
<!-- optional -->
<configuration>
<workingDirectory>DIR</workingDirectory>
<nodeVersion>v4.2.1</nodeVersion>
<npmVersion>3.5.1</npmVersion>
<installDirectory>node</installDirectory>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>grunt build</id>
<goals>
<goal>grunt</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<arguments>build</arguments>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
</profiles>