Migrate frontend-maven-plugin from maven to gradle

Question

I have a com.github.eirslett:frontend-maven-plugin in my maven project.

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.github.eirslett</groupId>
    <artifactId>frontend-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.27</version>

    <executions>

        <execution>
            <id>install node and npm</id>
            <goals>
                <goal>install-node-and-npm</goal>
            </goals>
            <phase>generate-resources</phase>
        </execution>

        <execution>
            <id>npm install</id>
            <goals>
                <goal>npm</goal>
            </goals>
            <phase>generate-resources</phase>
            <configuration>
                <arguments>install</arguments>
            </configuration>
        </execution>

        <execution>
            <id>bower install</id>
            <goals>
                <goal>bower</goal>
            </goals>
            <phase>generate-resources</phase>

            <configuration>
                <arguments>install</arguments>
                <workingDirectory>${basedir}/src/main/webapp</workingDirectory>
            </configuration>
        </execution>

    </executions>

    <configuration>
        <nodeVersion>v4.2.4</nodeVersion>
        <npmVersion>2.7.1</npmVersion>
        <nodeDownloadRoot>https://nodejs.org/dist/</nodeDownloadRoot>
        <npmDownloadRoot>https://registry.npmjs.org/npm/-/</npmDownloadRoot>
        <workingDirectory>${basedir}/src/main/webapp</workingDirectory>

    </configuration>
</plugin>

Now I need to migrate it into gradle but I can't find examples how to do it. Grade migration tool translates only dependencies but not plugins. Is there some examples, how can I use frontend-maven-plugin in gradle?

Answer 1

You may not find any example on how to use the frontend-maven-plugin in Gradle, as it is dedicated to Maven. But you may take a look at the Siouan Frontend Gradle plugin, which is an equivalent solution for Gradle, and allows to (from official website):

Integrate your frontend NPM/Yarn build into Gradle.

The usage and configuration seems close to your Maven configuration. Define the Node/NPM/Yarn version in your build.gradle file, link the scripts you want to be run depending on the Gradle lifecycle task (clean/assemble/check), and that's all. Below is a typical usage under Gradle 5.4 with NPM, taken from the docs:

// build.gradle
plugins {
    id 'org.siouan.frontend' version '1.1.0'
}

frontend {
    nodeVersion = '10.15.3'
    // See 'scripts' section in your 'package.json file'
    cleanScript = 'run clean'
    assembleScript = 'run assemble'
    checkScript = 'run check'
}

You'll notice:

• Contrary to the frontend-maven-plugin, there's no declaration/configuration to trigger the frontend build with Gradle, as it is already provided out of the box. The download, installation of Node/NPM/Yarn requires no declaration/configuration - except the version numbers, as well as the build tasks. Just provide the NPM/Yarn command line to clean/assemble/check your frontend.
• The mimimum supported version of Node shall be 6.2.1. So your initial configuration with 4.2.4 will require to migrate Node.
• The plugin does not support Bower, and I don't think it will be supported in the future, as Bower now encourages migration to Yarn. You'll find a migration guide on Bower's website.
• The plugin does not support the use of a specific NPM release. NPM being now packaged with Node, the plugin uses the version embedded in the downloaded Node distribution.

Regards