deploying nodejs app to Azure via FTP does not work

Question

I am trying out Azure with Node and using Wercker CI to build then deploy to Azure via FTP.

But it seems like I am having some trouble getting this to work. I am copying a server.js file along with a package.json and some other assets. But it looks like nothing runs the npm install command. Plus, I get a You do not have permission to view this directory or page. when reaching the site.

There is a web.config file with the following config:

<!--
    This configuration file is required if iisnode is used to run node processes behind IIS or IIS Express.  For more information, visit:
    https://github.com/tjanczuk/iisnode/blob/master/src/samples/configuration/web.config
-->

<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <handlers>
            <!-- indicates that the app.js file is a node.js application to be handled by the iisnode module -->
            <add name="iisnode" path="./server.js" verb="*" modules="iisnode"/>
        </handlers>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <!-- Don't interfere with requests for logs -->
                <rule name="LogFile" patternSyntax="ECMAScript" stopProcessing="true">
                        <match url="^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]+\.js\.logs\/\d+\.txt$"/>
                </rule>
                <!-- Don't interfere with requests for node-inspector debugging -->
                <rule name="NodeInspector" patternSyntax="ECMAScript" stopProcessing="true">                    
                    <match url="^\.\/server.js\/debug[\/]?" />
                </rule>
                <!-- First we consider whether the incoming URL matches a physical file in the /public folder -->
                <!--<rule name="StaticContent">
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="./app/assets/{REQUEST_URI}"/>
                </rule>-->
                <!-- All other URLs are mapped to the Node.js application entry point -->
                <rule name="DynamicContent">
                    <conditions>
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="True"/>
                    </conditions>
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="./server.js"/>
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
        <iisnode watchedFiles="*.js;node_modules\*;routes\*.js;views\*.jade;middleware\*.js"/>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

And the server.js is as simple as:

var http_1 = require('http');
var express = require('express');
var log4js_1 = require('log4js');
var morgan = require('morgan');
var split = require('split2');
// NOTE: Some of the features used are only available in ES6
// do not forget to start the server using `node --harmony` option so that everything will work properly,
// in case you use anything that is behind the staging flag.
// Check https://nodejs.org/en/docs/es6/#which-features-are-behind-the-es_staging-flag
// to see which features require the flag.
var app = express();
var APP_PORT = process.env.PORT || 5000;
var APP_PATH = __dirname + "/public";
// We will need to split the output from morgan into lines to avoid trailing line feeds,
// https://github.com/expressjs/morgan/issues/70.
var log = log4js_1.getLogger();
var log4jsStream = split().on('data', function (line) {
    log.debug(line);
});
app.use(morgan('tiny', { stream: log4jsStream }));
// `__dirname` in this case will be `./dist/` since we start the server from there.
app.use(express.static(APP_PATH));
app.all('/*', function (req, res) {
    res.sendFile(APP_PATH + "/index.html");
});
var server = http_1.createServer(app);
server.listen(APP_PORT, function () {
    // console.log(`Express server listening on port ${APP_PORT}`);
});

//# sourceMappingURL=server.js.map

Finally, the package.json contains the necessary deps.

So I am just wondering, is there any way to deploy an app to Azure and trigger the npm install and start the web server?

I can see that if you do the deployment via Git, Kudu will do all of that for me. But I do not think that is an option for me while using Wercker to do the deployment. Also, I am compiling some TypeScript files during the CI builds and I do not want those in version control, so having a git repo where I need to store all the compiled files is also not an option.

I would really appreciate some input on how to handle this.

Answer 1

When deploying via FTP npm install will not be automatically run. In this case you can use console to run npm install