add basic npm support

[mastoj]

This small feature makes it really easy to run Npm task for build frontend projects. This also opens up for running gulp, grunt or some other frontend build tool by calling them from Npm.

To get started on Windows:

Add the following to build.cmd:

NuGet.exe "Install" "Node.js" "-OutputDirectory" "packages" "-ExcludeVersion"
NuGet.exe "Install" "Npm.js" "-OutputDirectory" "packages" "-ExcludeVersion"

Then you can run task like:

Target "Web" (fun _ ->
    Npm (fun p ->
      { p with
          Command = Install Standard
          WorkingDirectory = "./src/FAKESimple.Web/"
      })

    Npm (fun p ->
      { p with
          Command = (Run "build")
          WorkingDirectory = "./src/FAKESimple.Web/"
      })
)

Haven't tried it on *nix yet, but it should work there as well since you can override the path to npm. I have also provided defaults for *nix and Windows.

[bjartwolf]

I was able to make this work on Windows like this, running tasks in Grunt etc.
Confirmed that it worked on TeamCity CI build but I haven't yet uninstalled node.js from the build servers, but I tried to uninstall node.js from my machine and was able to build and run tests through grunt.

Target "RestoreLocalPackages" (fun _ -> 
     RestorePackageId (fun p -> { p with ExcludeVersion = true 
                                         ToolPath = "../.nuget/NuGet.exe"
                                         OutputPath = "packages" 
                                         Version = Some (new System.Version(4,0,0)) }) "Node.js" 
     RestorePackageId (fun p -> { p with ExcludeVersion = true 
                                         ToolPath = "../.nuget/NuGet.exe"
                                         OutputPath = "packages" 
                                         Version = Some (new System.Version(2,13,1)) }) "Npm.js" 

)


Target "PreBuild" (fun _ ->
    Npm (fun p ->
            { p with
                Command = Custom ("install grunt") })
    Npm (fun p ->
            { p with
                Command = Run ("fakeprebuild") })
    Npm (fun p ->
            { p with
                Command = Run ("faketest") })
)

Target "NpmInstall" (fun _ ->
    Npm (fun p ->
            { p with
                Command = Install Standard
                WorkingDirectory = "Nrk.Programspiller.Frontend" }))

A trick which could probably be documented in a separate page about using Npm with Fake is that to run grunt tasks without installing node.js and grunt etc globally I had to do this:

  "scripts": {
    "faketest": "Frontend\\packages\\Node.js\\node.exe -e \"require('grunt').tasks(['karma:ci', 'zip'], {color: false});\"",
    "fakeprebuild": "Frontend\\packages\\Node.js\\node.exe -e \"require('grunt').tasks(['publish'], {color: false});\""
  },```

[forki]

please let me know when if this is ready to merge.

[mastoj]

@bjartwolf do you think it is good enough to work? I think so, since it is really hard to know exactly how the users want to use npm. The helper tries to be helpful in that you can override where npm is.

I can try to run it using a global installed version of node and npm since that is another use case as well as try it on osx. I'll try to do that later today.

[mastoj]

I've now tried it with global npm in Windows and also in OSX and get it to run without problem. So if you think it looks good I think it is ready be merged.

[forki]

very cool!

[bjartwolf]

I see it is already closed but I agree and thanks, very useful for us!