How to install npm modules?

[kastiell93]

@girish Hi! Can you add the firebase-admin package to n8n?

[nebulon]

Added now

[ebauger]

npm install stripe?

[ebauger]

Hi @nebulon!

What if we can install custom npm module from this line export NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL=module1,modulel2,moduleN+1
in /app/data/env.sh

Here the modified Dockerfile I propose:

FROM cloudron/base:4.2.0@sha256:46da2fffb36353ef714f97ae8e962bd2c212ca091108d768ba473078319a47f4

RUN mkdir -p /app/pkg /app/code
WORKDIR /app/code

RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get -y install graphicsmagick recutils asciidoctor pandoc musl && \
    rm -rf /var/cache/apt /var/lib/apt/lists

RUN ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-musl/libc.so /lib/libc.musl-x86_64.so.1

ARG N8N_VERSION=1.25.1

# Add a script to install npm packages from env.sh
COPY install_packages_from_env.sh /app/pkg/
RUN chmod +x /app/pkg/install_packages_from_env.sh

# n8n. handlebars and jsonata are just helpful modules that user can enable
RUN npm install n8n@${N8N_VERSION}  && \
    npm install handlebars@4.7.7 jsonata@2.0.2 marked@4.3.0 bwip-js@3.3.0 ajv-formats@2.1.1 odoo-xmlrpc@1.0.8 firebase-admin@11.10.1

# install custom npm modules from the env.sh on the NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL
RUN /app/pkg/install_packages_from_env.sh /app/data/env.sh

RUN rm -rf /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/public && ln -s /run/public /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/public

ENV N8N_USER_FOLDER="/app/data/user"
ENV N8N_CONFIG_FILES="/app/data/configs/default.json"
ENV N8N_CUSTOM_EXTENSIONS="/app/data/custom-extensions"

ENV PATH=/app/code/node_modules/.bin:$PATH

COPY start.sh env.sh.template /app/pkg/

CMD [ "/app/pkg/start.sh" ]

And here's an example of what the install_packages_from_env.sh script might look like:

#!/bin/bash

# Script to install npm packages from env.sh

ENV_FILE=$1

if [ -f "$ENV_FILE" ]; then
    # Extract the line with NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL and check if it's not commented
    PACKAGES_LINE=$(grep -E '^export NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL=' $ENV_FILE)

    if [ ! -z "$PACKAGES_LINE" ]; then
        # Remove 'export ' prefix
        PACKAGES=$(echo $PACKAGES_LINE | sed 's/export NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL=//')

        # Split the packages and install them if not already present
        IFS=',' read -ra ADDR <<< "$PACKAGES"
        for package in "${ADDR[@]}"; do
            if [ ! -d "./node_modules/$package" ]; then
                echo "Installing $package..."
                npm install $package
            else
                echo "$package is already installed."
            fi
        done
    else
        echo "No packages to install or line is commented out with #."
    fi
else
    echo "env.sh file not found"
fi

On (re)start of n8n, the npm modules should installed.

What do you think?

[nebulon]

I am not sure I follow the proposal 100% but the main root cause of not being able to install other node_modules is actually that apps run in a read-only filesystem. So I don't see how such a script would fix this problem, but maybe I miss a point in your proposal.

[ebauger]

@nebulon my proposal is to install the modules when we build the image from the Dockerfile. I open to any other solution.

The modules installed will be on the read-only filesystem. See the Diff from this source

...
# Add a script to install npm packages from env.sh
COPY install_packages_from_env.sh /app/pkg/
RUN chmod +x /app/pkg/install_packages_from_env.sh
...
# install custom npm modules from the env.sh on the NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL
RUN /app/pkg/install_packages_from_env.sh /app/data/env.sh
...

[BrutalBirdie]

@ebauger
Docker images are build before runtime.
/app/data does only exist on runtime.
So the command:

RUN /app/pkg/install_packages_from_env.sh /app/data/env.sh

will not work.

But I understand where the intention is.

[girish]

Recently, with nodebb we started experimenting with making the node_modules writable (grudgingly). Maybe we can do the same for n8n.

[shrey]

@girish Certainly support this effort!

[girish]

This is implemented in https://docs.cloudron.io/apps/n8n/#custom-node-modules .

@shrey let me know if you get a chance to test it.

[shrey]

@girish Just tried it. Seems to work alright!