Add a docker file for building frontend assets

Author: benjaoming

docker/frontend.dockerfile

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+FROM ubuntu:bionic
+
+ENV LANG C.UTF-8
+
+# install latest python and nodejs
+RUN apt-get update && \
+    apt-get install -y \
+      nodejs \
+      npm \
+      gettext \
+      git \
+      sudo \
+      build-essential \
+      python3 \
+      python3-dev \
+      python3-pip \
+      libxml2-dev \
+      libxslt1-dev \
+      zlib1g-dev
+
+RUN bash -c "pip3 install pip setuptools --upgrade --force-reinstall"
+RUN bash -c "pip3 install virtualenv"
+RUN bash -c "npm install -g bower"
+
+# RUN adduser --system --shell /bin/bash --home "/repo" rtd
+
+# A volume used to share `pex`/`whl` files and fixtures with docker host
+VOLUME /repo
+
+# do the time-consuming base install commands
+CMD /bin/bash -c "/usr/local/bin/virtualenv -p python3 rtd \
+    && source rtd/bin/activate \
+    && cd /repo \
+    && pip install -r requirements.txt \
+    && npm install \
+    && bower --allow-root install \
+    && npm run vendor \
+    && npm run build"

docs/development/standards.rst

@@ -53,6 +53,22 @@ may change, so that assets are compiled before deployment, however as our front
 end assets are in a state of flux, it's easier to keep absolute sources checked
 in.
 
+Build in a Docker container
+---------------------------
+
+Front end assets can be built in a Docker container. This simplifies the steps
+needed (described in the following sections) and can be considered more secure,
+since you won't expose your local development environment to packages from NPM.
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+    # Builds the Docker image
+    docker image build . -t "rtd-frontend" -f docker/frontend.dockerfile
+
+    # Runs the image from the repository root
+    docker run -v $PWD/:/repo "rtd-frontend"
+
+
 Getting Started
 ---------------