Cannot load Node native addons with webpack - node.js

Question

Although I am using vue-cli in the example code to generate a webpack config, nothing is specific to vue.
I create the example app like this:
vue init webpack webpack_modules_example
Generated webpack.base.conf:
'use strict'
const path = require('path')
const utils = require('./utils')
const config = require('../config')
const vueLoaderConfig = require('./vue-loader.conf')
function resolve (dir) {
return path.join(__dirname, '..', dir)
}
module.exports = {
context: path.resolve(__dirname, '../'),
entry: {
app: './src/main.js'
},
output: {
path: config.build.assetsRoot,
filename: '[name].js',
publicPath: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production'
? config.build.assetsPublicPath
: config.dev.assetsPublicPath
},
resolve: {
extensions: ['.js', '.vue', '.json'],
alias: {
'vue$': 'vue/dist/vue.esm.js',
'ad-block': 'ad-block/build/Release/ad-block.node',
'#': resolve('src'),
}
},
module: {
rules: [
{
test: /\.vue$/,
loader: 'vue-loader',
options: vueLoaderConfig
},
{
test: /\.js$/,
loader: 'babel-loader',
include: [resolve('src'), resolve('test'), resolve('node_modules/webpack-dev-server/client')]
},
{
test: /\.(png|jpe?g|gif|svg)(\?.*)?$/,
loader: 'url-loader',
options: {
limit: 10000,
name: utils.assetsPath('img/[name].[hash:7].[ext]')
}
},
{
test: /\.(mp4|webm|ogg|mp3|wav|flac|aac)(\?.*)?$/,
loader: 'url-loader',
options: {
limit: 10000,
name: utils.assetsPath('media/[name].[hash:7].[ext]')
}
},
{
test: /\.(woff2?|eot|ttf|otf)(\?.*)?$/,
loader: 'url-loader',
options: {
limit: 10000,
name: utils.assetsPath('fonts/[name].[hash:7].[ext]')
}
},
]
},
node: {
setImmediate: false,
dgram: 'empty',
fs: 'empty',
net: 'empty',
tls: 'empty',
child_process: 'empty'
}
}
I want to include this library, so I do this:
npm install --save ad-block
And on the code (App.vue) I add this:
<script>
...
const {AdBlockClient, FilterOptions} = require('ad-block')
...
Because it's a native module, I need to install some loader for webpack (tried several):
npm install native-ext-loader --save-dev
Add the loader to the webpack config:
{
test: /\.node$/,
loader: "native-ext-loader"
},
And create an alias in the webpack config too:
alias: {
...
'ad-block': 'ad-block/build/Release/ad-block.node',
...
}
But when I run npm run dev and go to http://localhost:8080/
I see this error in the console:
Uncaught Error: Cannot open /ad-block.node: TypeError: Cannot read property 'dlopen' of undefined
at Object.eval (ad-block.node?9538:1)
at eval (ad-block.node:2)
at Object../node_modules/ad-block/build/Release/ad-block.node (app.js:733)
at webpack_require (app.js:679)
at fn (app.js:89)
at eval (App.vue?26cd:9)
at Object../node_modules/babel-loader/lib/index.js!./node_modules/vue-loader/lib/selector.js?type=script&index=0!./src/App.vue (app.js:757)
at webpack_require (app.js:679)
at fn (app.js:89)
at eval (App.vue?a8e9:1)
If I use this without webpack, it works. Not sure what am I missing!

Answer 1

NodeJS is a server-side programming environment and as such, supports “native” add-on modules compiled to run on the same host that runs your Node service.
While Node is programmed using JavaScript, it is not browser JavaScript and so native ad-ons cannot be expected to run in the browser.
See Node C++ Addons for more information.