How to tell WebStorm to look in Docker container for project?

I have my current project directory looking like so:

.
├── backend
│   ├── Dockerfile # NestJS Dockerfile.
│   ├── docker # Folder that contains docker-compose.yml file.
│   ├── package.json
│   └── src
└── frontend
    ├── Dockerfile # Angular Dockerfile.
    ├── package.json
    └── src

My docker-compose.yml file looks like so:

version: "3.7"
services:
  # ########################
  # Back-End Container
  # ########################
  backend: # Node-Express backend that acts as an API.
    container_name: nest_backend
    build:
      context: ../
    restart: always
    expose:
      - 3000
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - /home/node/node_modules
      - "../:/home/node/"
  # ########################
  # Front-End Container
  # ########################
  frontend: # Angular frontend to be served to client.
    container_name: angular_frontend
    build:
      context: ../../frontend/
    restart: always
    expose:
      - 4200 # Angular ng-serve port.
      - 49153 # Websocket port for live reloading.
    ports:
      - "49153:49153"
      - "4200:4200"
    volumes:
      - /home/node/node_modules
      - "../../frontend/:/home/node/"
    depends_on:
      - backend
networks:
  default:

I want to use Docker and not lose the benefit of using WebStorm as an IDE. It tells me that the tslint package is not installed, for example, and that I need to run npm install to install the node_modules folder. However, my node_modules folders only exist in the containers. Is there a way I can make it so that WebStorm works properly with this?

I know there's something called path mapping, and I've tried to configure it, but nothing happens; it still tells me to install packages.

Here's what I've done so far:

I've followed the tutorial here:

Went to Edit Configuration at the top-right of the window next to the debug buttons.
Clicked the + sign and chose Node.js.
Clicked ... next to Node interpreter.
Clicked the + sign, chose Add Remote....
Selected Docker Compose from the radio buttons, clicked the folder icon next to Configuration file(s), and chose the appropriate service from the dropdown Service.
Clicked OK on everything and just ran it. It would run, give an error that the command was not found.

When I run docker-compose up, everything runs smoothly. When I tried to add the run configuration Run > Edit Configurations... to add (+) a Docker-compose run, pointing it to the docker-compose.yml file, it works smoothly as well.

What I wish to accomplish is to use the features of the IDE while in Docker. Currently, it does not know where to look for tslint configurations, or node_modules.

Solution

TLDR;

Trick is to update the path inside docker container from /your-path to /opt/project.

Detail solution

The issue with webstorm is they don't allow you to define the path from where you can pick node_modules. But they have a default path from which they pick it. I was facing the same issue while I wanted to integrate remote debugging for a backend node service running inside docker.

You need to update your docker file. Suppose you were using Dockerfile was something like this

# pull official base image
FROM node:12.11-buster

# set working directory
WORKDIR /app

COPY ./package.json ./package-lock.json /app

RUN npm install

Now this won't be detecting the node_modules for remote debugging or any other integration you need in webstorm.

But if you update the dockerfile to something like this

# pull official base image
FROM node:12.11-buster

# set working directory
# This done particularly for enabling debugging in webstorm.
WORKDIR /opt/project

COPY ./package.json ./package-lock.json ./.npmrc /opt/project

RUN npm install

Then the webstorm is able to detect everything as expected.

Trick is to update the path from /your-path to /opt/project

And your docker-compose file should look something like this:

version: "3.7"
services:
  backend-service:
    build:
      dockerfile: ./Dockerfile.local
      context: ./
    command: nodemon app.js
    volumes:
      - ./:/opt/project
      - /opt/project/node_modules/
    ports:
      - 6060:6060

You can read more about this in my blog here