Rupesh Tiwari

Rupesh Tiwari

I help students and professionals to become Full Stack Software Developer in less than a year!

Creating NPMRC in Windows Developer Box for Azure DevOps Server

6 minute read

Are you wondering how to create an .npmrc file and put an authentication token from azure devOps for your team member’s development boxes? Do you have multiple scoped private npm registries in your on-premise azure devOps artifacts feeds? This is a required tooling you must do when you are working on on-premise Azure DevOps server. Read this article to get your answers.

Introduction

In this article, I will focus more on restoring scoped node packages from local artifacts feed. I have myorg as my company which creates some npm packages which are not public called as soped packages. They are goin in local azure artifacts feed.

As a developer, I need to setup my npmrc file and it’s credential to install all of my scoped npm packages. Read to learn how to Set up npm authentication on your dev box.

Why do you need .npmrc?

In order to publish or restore npm packages from either npmjs.com or your local azure devOps npm registry you need authentication. Azure devOps npm registry uses .npmrc file where you define your registry names and your authentication token. Learn more about .npmrc configuration files

vsts-npm-auth

Remember vsts-npm-auth can automatically add authentication token to npmrc if it has only one registry entry. In this article, I will explain you how to setup npmrc authentication for multiple registry npmrc file. Learn more here

What is Upstream sources in Azure DevOps?

If your project only depends on npm packages from npmjs.com. Then in that case you just create one upstream source in azure devOps server. Use packages from npmjs.com Learn more

In our discussion, we are talking about the Scoped npm packages. Created locally for my company and published to azure artifacts feed.

Using NPM Scopes

Scopes are built into npm and are a way of grouping packages together. You can publish and download scoped npm packages to/from your azure Artifacts feeds. There are benefits of using scoped packages and many company uses local scope and they publish their local npm packages. We are doing the same.

Defining our scoped projects

Suppose, I have a project that depends on 2 scoped packages which are in my azure artifacts feed. @myorg-branding/logging and @myorg-customers/editor and it also depends on some packages from npmjs.com like lodash , jquery. Now in order to install my packages from local artifacts feed what do I need to do? How will I put authentication token such that I can download both private and public packages? Let’s see how can we setup our .npmrc file.

Step 1: Creating .NPMRC file for scoped packages.

I will use VSCode to create .npmrc file and edit.

  1. Open VsCode from c:/users/<USERNAME>
  2. Create a file .npmrc

Next follow below instructions to get your authentication token and update .npmrc file.

  1. Go to your company’s Azure Artifacts, select Connect to feed.
  2. Select npm.
  3. Select Other in the Project setup section. Copy the credential text from step

Step 2: Generating Personal Access Token (PAT)

Next, we need to create PAT and encode Base64 and add to .npmrc file. We will create one

  1. On the Connect to feed page click on Personal Access Token link. It will take you to page create new token and add new token.
  2. I will give the name NPM-DEV
  3. Keep the default collection
  4. Expiration choose Custom defined and go for maximum ( which is 1 year expiry). Select 1 year time line.
  5. Since this is for just development I will not check Build, Release, Test, Packaging etc. Select Custom defined, WorkItems Read write and manage, Code give full acess and select Create button.
  6. Copy the token created and notice expiry is set for next year.

Note:💡 If you get authentication errors and can not install NPM packages with this credential try to give Full Access to your PAT and try again. You can Edit your PAT anytime to give full access.

Step 3: Base64 encode the personal access token from Step 2

Don’t go internet and use online base64 creator to convert in base64. Because, someone can hack and take your organization PAT and misuse. To create base64 version of your PAT locally, run this command in PowerShell opened in admin mode. It will prompt PAT so enter the Authentication token that you get from Artifacts step 2. And then it will give you the base64 text. Copy the text you will need that in next step.

node -e "require('readline') .createInterface({input:process.stdin,output:process.stdout,historySize:0}) .question('PAT> ',p => { b64=Buffer.from(p.trim()).toString('base64');console.log(b64);process.exit(); })"

Step 4: Update npmrc file with Base64 PAT

Replace both [BASE64_ENCODED_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN] values in your user .npmrc file with your personal access token from Step 3

Final NPMRC file

This is how your .npmrc file look like.

@myorg-branding:registry=http://myorg-tfs:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/_packaging/NpmFeed/npm/registry/
@myorg-customers:registry=http://aicpa-tfs:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/_packaging/NpmFeed/npm/registry/
always-auth=true

; begin auth token
//myorg-tfs:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/_packaging/NpmFeed/npm/registry/:username=NPM-DEV
//myorg-tfs:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/_packaging/NpmFeed/npm/registry/:_password=bKrmcXhrNUFwdG50ZGcydGJqY2JkcmZlNnY2b3ozemtpbDdtMmxtY3Nya2FtNG5ybjVjYQ==
//myorg-tfs:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/_packaging/NpmFeed/npm/registry/:email=myorg@myorg.com
//myorg-tfs:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/_packaging/NpmFeed/npm/:username=NPM-DEV
//myorg-tfs:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/_packaging/NpmFeed/npm/:_password=axhmcXhrNXFwdG54ZGcydGJqY2JkcmZlNnY2b3ozemtpbDdtMmxtY3Nya2FtNG5ybjVjYQ==
//myorg-tfs:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/_packaging/NpmFeed/npm/:email=myorg@myorg.com
; end auth token

Installing Scoped packages

Now you can open your project where you have scoped packages as well as public npm packages.

Then run npm install to install scoped packages and npmjs.com packages as well.

Should I create PAT and NPMRC for each member in my team?

The answer to this question is relative. However, I will prefer to do one PAT for entire dev team. So that one person can be authorized to maintain this PAT whenever expired that person can update the PAT.

Keep your NPMRC in your company’s shared folder so that all DEV team members can copy from there and drop it to%USERPROFILE%/.npmrc location.

Should I create new PAT and NPMRC for CI/CD?

For BUILD and release CI/CD, I would prefer creating separate PAT to keep things separate. Feel free to use same if you have given Full Access or you don’t want to keep separate.

Like I said the answer to these questions are relative. There is no right or wrong.

How many .npmrc files I should have in my Team?

I would say minimum 2:

  1. One for developers (npm-user)
  2. One for CI/CD (npm-cicd)

How do I update the PAT after expiry?

You can assign one person in the team who will put a calendar and remind him/herself to update the PAT one month before it expires. S/he will Edit the PAT and extend the date for next year.

  1. Go to PAT list page http://myorg-tfs:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/_usersSettings/tokens
  2. Select NPM-USER,
  3. Select Edit button
  4. Change the date for next year to expire
  5. Select Save Button

References

  1. Use npm scopes
  2. Upstream sources
  3. Set up authentication on your dev box
  4. Then follow the step 3 to create base64 token and update npmrc file.

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