In my Developing with Node.js on Azure course I show how to setup a Git repository in an Azure App Service.
When you push code into the repository, Azure will use heuristics to figure out the type of application you are pushing into the repository. The outcome of the heuristics will create a deployment script. If Azure decides you are pushing a Node.js application, for example, the deployment script has the following steps inside:
1. Sync files from the Git repo into the web site directory
2. Select the Node version*
3. Run npm install
in the web site directory.
After these steps, most Node.js applications are ready to start.
A common set of questions I hear revolve around how to change the deployment script to add additional simple steps. Perhaps the project needs to run a transpiler or a tool like Webpack before the application can start.
You can write your own script from scratch or copy and modify the script from Azure. I'd suggest starting by looking at the script Azure generates first. Go to the Kudu website for the app service and select "Download deployment script" under the Tools menu.
In the script, near the bottom, is a :Deployment label and the three steps listed above. Here’s what I’ve added to one project’s deployment script to run webpack:
:: 4. run build step pushd "%DEPLOYMENT_TARGET%" call :ExecuteCmd !NPM_CMD! run build IF !ERRORLEVEL! NEQ 0 goto error popd
This customization doesn’t execute webpack directly, instead the customization executes an “npm run build” command. Any commands needed to build the app are encapsulated into a script or command found in package.json:
"scripts": { "serve": "webpack-serve --open --config webpack.config.js", "build": "webpack --mode production --config webpack.config.js" },
One advantage to this approach is the ability to skip installing webpack as a global dependency. Instead, npm will search the node_modules/.bin folder for tools like webpack, grunt, gulp, and tsc. Although you can install tools globally in an app service plan, I tend to avoid global tools when possible and thunk through project.json instead.
You can now override Azure’s deployment script with your custom script by checking the script into your source code repository.
* Note the deployment script only uses the 2nd step if the App Service is Windows based. Otherwise the underlying container sets the Node.js version.