How do I add a custom script to my package.json file that runs a javascript file?

Question

Custom Scripts

npm run-script <custom_script_name>

or

npm run <custom_script_name>

In your example, you would want to run npm run-script script1 or npm run script1.

See https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/run-script

Lifecycle Scripts

Node also allows you to run custom scripts for certain lifecycle events, like after npm install is run. These can be found here.

For example:

"scripts": {
    "postinstall": "electron-rebuild",
},

This would run electron-rebuild after a npm install command.

I have created the following, and it's working on my system. Please try this:

package.json:

{
  "name": "test app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node script1.js"   
  }
}

script1.js:

console.log('testing')

From your command line run the following command:

npm start

Additional use case

My package.json file has generally the following scripts, which enable me to watch my files for typescript, sass compilations and running a server as well.

 "scripts": {
    "start": "concurrently \"sass --watch ./style/sass:./style/css\" \"npm run tsc:w\" \"npm run lite\" ",    
    "tsc": "tsc",
    "tsc:w": "tsc -w", 
    "lite": "lite-server",
    "typings": "typings",
    "postinstall": "typings install" 
  }

Steps are below:

1. In package.json add:

   "bin":{
       "script1": "bin/script1.js" 
   }
   

2. Create a bin folder in the project directory and add file runScript1.js with the code:

   #! /usr/bin/env node
   var shell = require("shelljs");
   shell.exec("node step1script.js");
   

3. Run npm install shelljs in terminal

4. Run npm link in terminal

5. From terminal you can now run script1 which will run node script1.js

Reference: http://blog.npmjs.org/post/118810260230/building-a-simple-command-line-tool-with-npm

Lets say in scripts you want to run 2 commands with a single command:

"scripts":{
  "start":"any command",
  "singleCommandToRunTwoCommand":"some command here && npm start"
}

Now go to your terminal and run there npm run singleCommandToRunTwoCommand.

Suppose I have this line of scripts in my "package.json"

"scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
    "export_advertisements": "node export.js advertisements",
    "export_homedata": "node export.js homedata",
    "export_customdata": "node export.js customdata",
    "export_rooms": "node export.js rooms"
  },

Now to run the script "export_advertisements", I will simply go to the terminal and type

npm run export_advertisements

You are most welcome 😊😊

Your script

"scripts": {
    "start": "node script1.js",
    "script2": "node script2.js"
}

Commands

npm start
npm run script2