Configuring Node.js
Vaadin uses the Node.js runtime in development mode to run the Vite development server, as well as the Node.js package manager (npm
) and package runner (npx
) to fetch, install, and run front-end packages.
Node.js can be installed in three ways:
-
Automatically into the user’s home directory (
~/.vaadin/node
). -
Globally with a downloaded installer or package manager, such as Homebrew.
-
Project-local installation (
project_dir/node
) using thefrontend-maven-plugin
.
For the second way, globally, Node.js can be downloaded from https://nodejs.org/en/download/. Installing Node.js automatically installs the command-line tools npm
and npx
, as well.
If Node.js is found globally, Vaadin validates that it’s a supported version: if it’s too old, it installs a compatible version into ~/.vaadin
. You should use the latest Long-Term Support (LTS) version. A project-local installation always takes precedence over a global or ~/.vaadin
installation.
You can force Node.js installation in the ~/.vaadin
folder via the require.home.node
property. This property sets the Maven requireHomeNodeExec
parameter value, so you can configure the Maven goal using <requireHomeNodeExec>true</requireHomeNodeExec>
. To force node installation into the home directory in development mode, you should use the vaadin.require.home.node
system property or the require.home.node
web init parameter.
Proxy Settings for Downloading the Front-End Toolchain
If you’re operating behind a proxy server, you should configure your proxy settings so that Vaadin can use them to download the front-end toolchain. Vaadin reads proxy settings from four places.
You can set your proxy data in any of the following:
-
System properties;
-
{project directory}/.npmrc
file; -
{user home directory}/.npmrc
file; or -
Environment variables.
The settings are read from the list here, in this order. For example, if you set your proxy in system properties, the other sources are ignored.
The keys that you should use to define your proxy settings are as follows:
In System Properties and Environment Variables | In .npmrc files | Description |
---|---|---|
|
| A proxy to use for outgoing HTTP requests. |
|
| A proxy to use for outgoing HTTPS requests. |
|
| A comma-separated string of domain extensions for which a proxy shouldn’t be used. |
The .npmrc
file structure is ini
— like Java properties files.
It includes key-values pairs separated by =
.
Here’s an example of the content of such a file with proxy settings:
proxy=http://myusername:s3cr3tpassw0rd@proxyserver1:8085"
https-proxy=http://myusername:s3cr3tpassw0rd@proxyserver1:8086"
noproxy=192.168.1.1,vaadin.com,mycompany.com
To learn more about the .npmrc
file, see the official npmrc document.
Building an Application Using Travis CI
If you’re using Travis as a Continuous Integration server, there are two options to install a proper Node.js version:
-
Specify the version via Travis configuration in
.travis.yml
; or -
Install Node.js automatically through Vaadin.
See Specifying Node.js versions in the Travis documentation for information on how to specify the Node version via the .travis.yml
file.
You can force Node.js installation to the ~/.vaadin
folder, as described in the section Configuring Node.js.
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