`postinstall` in `package.json` scripts seems not to be executed anymore in VAADIN 23+ with `vaadin-maven-plugin:build-frontend`

Description of the bug

This is a bug regarding the VAADIN Maven Plugin. I hope this is the right place, I couldn’t find a dedicated GitHub repository for it.

In our project, we adjusted the tsconfig.json to use a custom output directory for compiled JS files. This was set to frontend/target and worked for years now including VAADIN 22.0.12. After upgrading to VAADIN 23, this folder won’t be created anymore.

It was created when building the application in production mode / starting the application in non-production mode.

We rely on a JS file in the frontend/target folder to be present with using @JsModule("./target/folder1/component.js") in a Java class (see Minimal reproducible example).

As said, since VAADIN 23, this folder won’t be created anymore. Due to that, the required JS file cannot be found leading to a failure of the build-frontend goal of the VAADIN Maven Plugin.

Error Log

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal com.vaadin:vaadin-maven-plugin:23.0.5:build-frontend (default) on project %project name%: Could not execute build-frontend goal: Error occured during goal execution:
[ERROR]
[ERROR]   Failed to find the following files:
[ERROR]       - ./target/folder1/component.js
[ERROR]
[ERROR]   Locations searched were:
[ERROR]       - `C:\Users\%username%\[...]\project\frontend` in this project
[ERROR]       - `META-INF/frontend` in included JARs
[ERROR]       - `META-INF/resources/frontend` in included JARs

Debugging

From debugging I noticed that the postinstall defined in the package.json scripts isn’t executed anymore since VAADIN 23. There we have "postinstall": "tsc" which should create the frontend/target folder which is missing now (see Minimal reproducible example). This is most likely the issue for the bug.

VAADIN 22:

[INFO] Running `npm install` to resolve and optionally download frontend dependencies. This may take a moment, please stand by...
[DEBUG] 
C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.cmd --no-update-notifier \
    --no-audit --scripts-prepend-node-path=true install

[DEBUG] Output of `C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.cmd --no-update-notifier --no-audit --scripts-prepend-node-path=true install`:
npm WARN deprecated source-map-url@0.4.1: See https://github.com/lydell/source-map-url#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated urix@0.1.0: Please see https://github.com/lydell/urix#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated source-map-resolve@0.5.3: See https://github.com/lydell/source-map-resolve#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated chokidar@2.1.8: Chokidar 2 does not receive security updates since 2019. Upgrade to chokidar 3 with 15x fewer dependencies
npm WARN deprecated resolve-url@0.2.1: https://github.com/lydell/resolve-url#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated querystring@0.2.0: The querystring API is considered Legacy. new code should use the URLSearchParams API instead.
npm WARN deprecated core-js@2.6.12: core-js@<3.4 is no longer maintained and not recommended for usage due to the number of issues. Because of the V8 engine whims, feature detection in old core-js versions could cause a slowdown up 
to 100x even if nothing is polyfilled. Please, upgrade your dependencies to the actual version of core-js.
[DEBUG] 
[DEBUG] > postinstall
[DEBUG] > tsc
[DEBUG]
[DEBUG] 
[DEBUG] added 1436 packages in 3m
[DEBUG]
[DEBUG] 102 packages are looking for funding
[DEBUG]   run `npm fund` for details
[INFO] Frontend dependencies resolved successfully.

VAADIN 23:

[INFO] Running `npm install` to resolve and optionally download frontend dependencies. This may take a moment, please stand by...
[INFO] Globally node version 16.13.1 is older than 16.14.0. Using node from C:\Users\%username%\.vaadin.
[DEBUG] Using node 16.14.0 located at C:\Users\%username%\.vaadin\node\node.exe
[DEBUG] Using npm 8.3.1 located at C:\Users\%username%\.vaadin\node\node.exe
[DEBUG] 
C:\Users\%username%\.vaadin\node\node.exe \
    C:\Users\%username%\.vaadin\node\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js \
    --no-update-notifier --no-audit \
    --scripts-prepend-node-path=true --ignore-scripts \
    install

[INFO] using 'C:\Users\%username%\.vaadin\node\node.exe C:\Users\%username%\.vaadin\node\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js --no-update-notifier --no-audit --scripts-prepend-node-path=true --ignore-scripts install' for frontend package installation
[WARNING] package-lock.json is missing from this project. This may cause the npm package installation to take several minutes. It is recommended to keep the package-lock.json file persistently in your project. Please stand by...    
[DEBUG] Output of `C:\Users\%username%\.vaadin\node\node.exe C:\Users\%username%\.vaadin\node\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js --no-update-notifier --no-audit --scripts-prepend-node-path=true --ignore-scripts install`:
npm WARN deprecated source-map-url@0.4.1: See https://github.com/lydell/source-map-url#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated urix@0.1.0: Please see https://github.com/lydell/urix#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated source-map-resolve@0.5.3: See https://github.com/lydell/source-map-resolve#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated resolve-url@0.2.1: https://github.com/lydell/resolve-url#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated querystring@0.2.0: The querystring API is considered Legacy. new code should use the URLSearchParams API instead.
npm WARN deprecated core-js@2.6.12: core-js@<3.4 is no longer maintained and not recommended for usage due to the number of issues. Because of the V8 engine whims, feature detection in old core-js versions could cause a slowdown up 
to 100x even if nothing is polyfilled. Please, upgrade your dependencies to the actual version of core-js.
[DEBUG] 
[DEBUG] added 1208 packages in 3m
[DEBUG]
[DEBUG] 101 packages are looking for funding
[DEBUG]   run `npm fund` for details
[INFO] Frontend dependencies resolved successfully.

Expected behavior

The folder should be created by tsc after building in production mode or starting the application in non-production mode.

Minimal reproducible example

I made an example project showcasing it: missing-target-folder.zip

Note: I downloaded the project from https://vaadin.com/docs/latest/flow/guide/quick-start and adjusted it.

Simply run mvn clean install -Pproduction to build it.

It has a git repository so you can have a look at 229bdcaf2dfb9206ef4fa1021787cd5a738281a0 to see what I exactly changed. This commit uses VAADIN 22.0.12. The build will succeed on that commit.

In commit 95f7d3e33b7eeb67f802d7aa6e86f13632d402aa, I set the version back to VAADIN 23.0.5. The build will fail on that commit.

Important parts:

• Added a dummy TS and Java file.
• Added our scripts section in the package.json.
• Adjustments to the tsconfig.json.
• Set pnpm.enable to false in the pom.xml.

Versions

• Vaadin / Flow version: 23.0.0+
• Java version: 17.0.2 2022-01-18 LTS
• OS version: Windows 10 21H1
• Browser version (if applicable): Not needed.
• Application Server (if applicable): Not needed.
• IDE (if applicable): Not needed.

[DManstrator]

Can confirm VAADIN 23.1.1 could be built again due to the postinstall script running again. No additional changes were needed. Thanks!

[Artur-]

We could change the logic to run the postinstall for the project itself also by default. I cannot imagine any security implication of that