warehouse13/docs/DEPLOYMENT.md

Deployment Options

This project supports two deployment strategies for the Angular frontend, depending on your environment's network access.

Option 1: Standard Build (Internet Access Required)

Use the standard Dockerfile.frontend which builds the Angular app inside Docker.

Requirements:

• Internet access to npm registry
• Docker build environment

Usage:

./quickstart.sh
# or
docker-compose up -d --build

This uses Dockerfile.frontend which:

1. Installs npm dependencies in Docker
2. Builds Angular app in Docker
3. Serves with nginx

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Option 2: Pre-built Deployment (Air-Gapped/Restricted Environments) ⭐ RECOMMENDED

Use Dockerfile.frontend.prebuilt for environments with restricted npm access.

Requirements:

• Node.js 18+ installed locally (on a machine with npm access)
• npm installed locally
• No internet required during Docker build

Note: This project uses Angular 17 with webpack bundler (not Vite) for better compatibility with restricted npm environments.

Usage:

Quick Start (Recommended)

./quickstart-airgap.sh

This script will:

1. Build the Angular app locally
2. Start all Docker containers
3. Verify the deployment

Manual Steps

Step 1: Build Angular app locally

IMPORTANT: You MUST run this step BEFORE docker-compose up!

# Option A: Use the helper script
./build-for-airgap.sh

# Option B: Build manually
cd frontend
npm install  # Only needed once or when dependencies change
npm run build:prod
cd ..

This creates frontend/dist/frontend/browser/ which Docker will copy.

Step 2: Update docker-compose.yml

Edit docker-compose.yml and change the frontend dockerfile:

  frontend:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile.frontend.prebuilt  # <-- Change this line
    ports:
      - "4200:80"
    depends_on:
      - api

Step 3: Build and deploy

docker-compose up -d --build

This uses Dockerfile.frontend.prebuilt which:

1. Copies pre-built Angular files from frontend/dist/
2. Serves with nginx
3. No npm/node required in Docker

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Troubleshooting

Build Tool Package Issues

If you see errors about missing packages like:

Cannot find package "vite"
Cannot find package "esbuild"
Cannot find package "rollup"

Solution: This project uses Angular 17 with webpack bundler specifically to avoid these issues. If you still encounter package access problems in your restricted environment, use Option 2 (Pre-built) deployment above, which eliminates all npm dependencies in Docker.

Custom NPM Registry

For both options, you can use a custom npm registry:

# Set in .env file
NPM_REGISTRY=http://your-npm-proxy:8081/repository/npm-proxy/

# Or inline
NPM_REGISTRY=http://your-proxy ./quickstart.sh

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Recommendation

• Development/Cloud: Use Option 1 (standard)
• Air-gapped/Enterprise: Use Option 2 (pre-built) ⭐ RECOMMENDED
• CI/CD: Use Option 2 for faster, more reliable builds
• Restricted npm access: Use Option 2 (pre-built) ⭐ REQUIRED

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Build Strategy for Restricted Environments

This project uses Angular 17 with webpack instead of Angular 19 with Vite specifically for better compatibility with restricted npm environments. Webpack has fewer platform-specific binary dependencies than Vite.

If you encounter any package access errors during builds:

• Cannot find package "vite"
• Cannot find package "rollup"
• Cannot find package "esbuild"
• Any platform-specific binary errors

Solution: Use Option 2 (Pre-built) deployment. This completely avoids npm installation in Docker and eliminates all build tool dependency issues.