diff --git a/frontend/README.md b/frontend/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..65e5acff5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+## This is a module to build zanata frontend javascript projects
+
+At the moment it only contains "user profile page" bundle.
+
+To build it, just run
+
+```mvn install```
+
+It will build and deploy to local maven repository a jar file containing the javascript bundle.
+The jar file can be used directly under any servlet 3 compatible container and the bundle is accessible as static resources.
+See [Servlet 3 static resources](http://www.webjars.org/documentation#servlet3).
+
+The following Maven properties can be overridden on the command line with ```-Dkey=value```:
+
+```
+<node.version>v0.12.2</node.version>
+<npm.version>2.7.6</npm.version>
+<node.install.directory>${download.dir}/zanata-frontend/node-${node.version}-npm-${npm.version}</node.install.directory>
+<npm.cli.script>${node.install.directory}/node/npm/bin/npm-cli.js</npm.cli.script>
+```
+
+By default it will try to install npm modules from npm registry (default cache TTL is 10 seconds).
+If you activate profile ```-DnpmOffline``` the cache-min option will become 9999999 which means it will try to install npm modules from cache first.
diff --git a/frontend/pom.xml b/frontend/pom.xml
index 4a3b2992b2..741196cf34 100644
--- a/frontend/pom.xml
+++ b/frontend/pom.xml
@@ -17,8 +17,10 @@
     <web.target>${project.build.directory}/web</web.target>
     <bundle.output>${project.build.directory}/build</bundle.output>
     <bundle.dest>${bundle.output}/META-INF/resources</bundle.dest>
-    <node.install.directory>${project.build.directory}</node.install.directory>
+    <node.install.directory>${download.dir}/zanata-frontend/node-${node.version}-npm-${npm.version}</node.install.directory>
     <npm.cli.script>${node.install.directory}/node/npm/bin/npm-cli.js</npm.cli.script>
+    <!-- in seconds. 10 is the default value -->
+    <npm.cache.min>10</npm.cache.min>
 
     <!-- ==== list of modules to build by npm and node ==== -->
     <module.user-profile-page>user-profile-page</module.user-profile-page>
@@ -85,6 +87,8 @@
               <arguments>
                 <argument>${npm.cli.script}</argument>
                 <argument>install</argument>
+                <argument>--cache-min</argument>
+                <argument>${npm.cache.min}</argument>
               </arguments>
             </configuration>
           </execution>
@@ -125,4 +129,18 @@
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
+  <profiles>
+    <profile>
+      <id>npmOffline</id>
+      <activation>
+        <property>
+          <name>npmOffline</name>
+        </property>
+      </activation>
+      <properties>
+        <npm.cache.min>9999999</npm.cache.min>
+      </properties>
+    </profile>
+  </profiles>
+
 </project>