Building a custom docker image - for external npm package usage

Questions
#1

Hi guys,

I’m trying to build a new docker image in order to install some npm packages that I would like to use in the function node. To be more precise, I want to install firebase npm package and perhaps some more (like firebase-auth and firebase-app).

I’ll describe below what I did but my line var firebase = require('firebase'); in the javascript return this error:

VMError: Cannot find module 'firebase'
    at _require (/data/node_modules/vm2/lib/sandbox.js:375:25)
    at /data/packages/nodes-base/dist/nodes:3:16
    at Object.<anonymous> (/data/packages/nodes-base/dist/nodes:36:15)
    at NodeVM.run (/data/node_modules/vm2/lib/main.js:1167:29)
    at Object.execute (/data/packages/nodes-base/nodes/Function.node.ts:104:22)
    at Workflow.runNode (/data/packages/workflow/src/Workflow.ts:983:28)
    at /data/packages/core/src/WorkflowExecute.ts:675:41
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:93:5)

What I did:

  1. I changed the Dockerfile in the n8n-custom folder, with the last 3 lines below:

    Install all needed dependencies

    RUN npm_config_user=root npm install -g full-icu
    RUN npm install -g firebase
    RUN npm install -g firebase-auth
    RUN npm install -g firebase-app

  2. I did a build and pushed to my personal docker repository
    docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 --build-arg N8N_VERSION=0.126.103 -t mydockeruser/n8n:0.133.0.1 . -f docker/images/n8n-custom/Dockerfile
    docker push mydockeruser/n8n:0.133.0.1

  3. I put on .env at the same folder as docker-compose.yml these lines:
    NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL=firebase
    NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_BUILTIN=firebase

  4. I changed in my docker-compose.yml to pick this pushed image

Am I missing something?

#2

Yes, you have to allow the Function-Node to use the package by setting the environment variable

export NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL=firebase

You can find the documentation here:

#3

Thanks jan for your answer. I have this line in my docker-compose.yml - this isn’t enough?

image
image714×590 85 KB

#4

Ah very sorry, did for some reason overlook your point 3.

Yes, that looks good.

Very strange. It should then work. You could try to add it as a dependency in n8n-nodes-base and rebuild and see if that works. But normally should also work if it is globally installed. Is however possible that it makes a difference for vm2 which we use for that functionality.

1 Like
#5

jan, thanks for your answer!

changing the package.json inside nodes-base makes it work!

In order to avoid forking the repository is there something else I can do to install firebase and make it visible to function node? If not, this already solves my problem!

Regards.