title: How to deploy a node.js app with maven?
body: <p>Most of our team consists of java developers and therefore the whole build / deployment / dependency management system is built on top of maven. We use CI so every build process runs unit test (w. karma and phantomJS for the frontend, and jasmine-node for the backend). I've managed to configure a karma maven plugin for this purpose.</p>
  
  <p><strong>This does not solve the issue of downloading node.js dependencies from package.json on build.</strong> I need to deploy my node.js / express app in existing environment, so the perfect scenario would be:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>pull from the repo (done automatically with maven build)</li>
  <li><code>npm install</code> (that is - downloading dependencies from node package registry)</li>
  <li>running tests</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I was trying to find a nodejs package for maven, but to be honest - as a node.js developer I do not feel very confident when it comes to choosing the right tools, since I'm not able to distinguish a bad maven plugin from a decent one.</p>
  
  <p>Maybe using a shell plugin and invoking <code>npm install</code> from the terminal is a better choice?</p>
  
  <p>What's your opinion?</p>