django-cms is (still) using gulp and webpack as part of the frontend building pipeline. The building command is gulp. The gulpfile.js contains all available commands and their logic.

Docs:

• https://docs.django-cms.org/en/latest/contributing/code.html#contributing-frontend
• https://docs.django-cms.org/en/latest/contributing/testing.html#running-frontend-tests

Hint: You can always check the requirements for a successfully building frontend here: https://github.com/django-cms/django-cms/blob/develop-4/.github/workflows/frontend.yml

Below is a working Docker configuration that successfully builds the frontend bundles. Add these two files into the project root of your django-cms code repo:

In gulpfile.js add host (and optionally port) configuration so you can later access that port from your host system:

...
const watchFiles = () => {
    browserSync.init({
      host: '0.0.0.0', // Listen on all network interfaces (for Docker)
      port: 3000,
    });
    gulp.watch(PROJECT_PATTERNS.sass, css);
    gulp.watch(PROJECT_PATTERNS.js, lint);
};
...

Dockerfile.dev.frontend:

FROM node:18.19.0 as build

# Set the working directory in the container
WORKDIR /app

# Copy package.json and package-lock.json to the working directory
COPY package*.json ./

# Install any needed packages specified in package.json
RUN npm install

# Copy the rest of the application code to the working directory
COPY . .

# Install gulp globally
RUN npm install -g gulp

# Expose the port your app runs on
EXPOSE 3000

# Define the command to run your app
CMD ["gulp", "bundle"]

docker-compose.dev-frontend.yml:

services:
  frontend:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile.dev.frontend
    volumes:
      - .:/app
      - /app/node_modules
    ports:
      - "3001:3001"
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - NODE_ENV=development
    command: gulp bundle

Execute like this:

• docker compose -f docker-compose.dev-frontend.yml run --service-ports frontend gulp watch
• docker compose -f docker-compose.dev-frontend.yml run --service-ports frontend gulp bundle