nwjs reactjs, confused about my context. Document is undefined - node.js

In my nwjs application i am using React to build my UI. Currently, React is being loaded via a <script> tag in the main file, index.html. index.html has another <script> tag which loads main.js containing code which defines and renders my React components as well as requiring (require()) a few Node modules such as "fs" and "McFly".
This all seems to be working, however when i try using another node module (react-inlinesvg) i get an error, "document is undefined".
Having looked online for help, i have come to the conclusion that React now believes that it is being run on the server? Which is odd, as before i started using the react-inlinesvg module it was happily rendering components using React.render (clientside rendering).
If you need any more context or information then please ask.

It could be that you are rendering on the server side, or also that you are rendering both sides. In the second case you could simple nest the line that is causing you error with:
if (process.env.BROWSER) {
the line causing the error
}
If the error disappears, it means that you are on the server side also!
I hope this helps...
Basically if you code is universal (or isomorphic, if you want...) with this check you can execute the code only on client side, you want to do this to use a particular style-sheet for example:
if (process.env.BROWSER) {
require("../style/main.scss");
}
Naturally if you want to do stuff server-side you can check
if (!process.env.BROWSER) {
}

if any one face this he can solve it in 2 ways:
Solution 1: if you are using nw.js 15 or above try to enable mix context mode:
in your package.json add this flag:
"chromium-args": "--mixed-context"
Solution 2: expose document to the global object using this hack:
global.document = window.document;

Related

tsconfig compilerOptions "module": "system" not working

In the angular2 5 min tutorial they use "system" as the module in the tsconfig. I have systemjs as a node_module but when trying to start my server I get System is not defined, from the first line of the compile js-file which looks like this:
System.register(['http', 'express', './config/index', 'path'], function(exports_1) {
Why is System undefined even though I have it as a node dependency?
I was trying to change it to commonjs, then the compiled js looks much simpler. But then I get errors in the angular application.
What am I missing in order for it to work with SystemJs?
Edit
I think I was bad at explaining my problem. When changing from importing modules into my server.ts file "javascript style" (var http = require('http');) to I guess "typescript style" (import * as http from 'http';) I start getting the error specified above. When doing it javascript style the compiled js looks just the same as the ts (var http = require('http');) however when doing it "typescript style" it gets compiled with modules being imported using System (the line of code specified above). So i'm getting this error when trying to start the node server and not in the browser.
I tried changing the compilerOption "module" to "commonjs" instead of "system" in tsconfig.json, doing that causes errors in the browser (this error, only the solutions doesn't seem to fit) for some weird reason so i figured i'd try with "system". But then I ran into the problem of not have System defined. So how do I get access to System when starting the node server?
It looks like you are missing reference to system.js in your index.html. Angular is meant to be run by browsers so its not enough to have it as node dependency, browser will not load it automatically. And of course do not try to run angular application on server side in node.js. What you want to do on server-side (node.js) is to run some web server that will serve content to the browser (http-server, lite-server, etc). And then open your index.html served by web server in browser that in turn will run angular2 application using system.js for module loading.
If you do have system.js referenced in index.html and you are not trying to run it on node.js server side - make sure the path is correct and it does get loaded - by using development tools of any modern browser.

Sails.js: can't find variable require (react-bootstrap-datetimepicker)

I'm using Sails js and I want to use a nodejs module.
I also use React js.
I want to use react-bootstrap-datetimepicker in my javascript script.
react-bootstrap-datetimepicker
I installed my module with npm install react-bootstrap-datetimepicker
I tried in config/boostrap.js to add this line var DateTimeField = require('react-bootstrap-datetimepicker');, but DateTimeField isn't recognised in my js script.
Uncaught ReferenceError: DateTimeField is not defined
I also tried to add this line directly in my script, but I have this error:
ReferenceError: Can't find variable: require
And also this one in my script: import DateTimeField from "react-bootstrap-datetimepicker";
I have all these errors in the navigator console.
EDIT 1:
I understand what you said, thank you for your answer.
BUT, for example with react-bootstrap, I can use:
var Input = ReactBootstrap.Input;
var ButtonInput = ReactBootstrap.ButtonInput;
There is exactly the same architecture with react-bootstrap-datetimepicker, so I maybe I can do the same?
var DateTimePicker = ... . DateTimePicker
I tried to include like you said, but it doesn't recognise DateTimePicker.
Here is the doc:
Installation :
npm install react-bootstrap-datetimepicker
Then
javascript
var DateTimeField = require('react-bootstrap-datetimepicker');
render: function() {
return <DateTimeField />;
}
See (examples/) for more details.
And in examples/, the line is:
import DateTimeField from "react-bootstrap-datetimepicker";
Ok, first you have to understand the division of server side and client side javascript, even thought you are using the same language, and you can share libraries, bare in mind, that for client side js you need to supply the user browser with the libraries and scripts it needs, so those have to be in the html you serve the user. When you require any module in sails bootstrap or similar, you are loading the script into the server memory, not serving it to the users browser, that means you can use in the server code, but not in client code.
For you use case, you have to download the library code, and put it in your assets/js folder and if you have the script tags in the layout, sails will automatically inject it there for you, but if not or you are using other template engine like jade, just manually add it.
example:
<html>
....
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/<react-version>/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/<react-version>/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-bootstrap/<version>/react-bootstrap.min.js">
<script src='/js/react-bootstrap-datetimepicker.min.js'></script>
// The other js files that depend on datetimepicker go here
</html>
Now just to be clear, require is a node.js function, node.js is not the same as javascript, its a piece of software with its own functions, thats why you are getting an error related to it when trying to use it in the browser, there is no require method there, so you can't use it, at least not directly. You can use browserify to sort of emulate the node workflow, where you have a node_modules folder and use require on those, browserify will bundle (search for the modules and merge them) and give you a javascript file that you can then link in your html code. That is more setup work, and unless you really need it, because you have a lot of files, i think is not worth the effort.. lets say for just one file using require.
So i think you were misguided by that github repo, because it says npm-install. Just ignore it (unless you use browsefify like i said) and download the link i gave you above ( the .min.js).
So to sumarize, you issue have nothing to do with sails, just link the library in the html you provide to the user, like any other client side script.

Why can't I require files which are available due to app.use?

If a directory has been made available to a node application in the server.js file which sits in the main directory using:
app.use("/scripts",express.static(__dirname + "/scripts"));
and I attempt to use require from a file inside of that directory (/scripts/custom.js) using:
var Testing123 = require('../app/models/article');
Is there a reason this is not possible? and is there a solution to that problem?
Edit: In one of my views (views/tree.ejs) I use:
<script type="text/javascript" src="../scripts/custom.js"></script>
to access my Custom script which sits inside my scripts folder which is made available using express.static, Custom uses a web scraper to scrape articles and present them in circles (in the form of an image, title and link) on views/tree.ejs, I now want custom.js to save each article it creates to a mongodb database but to do so, it needs access to things like my Article Schema hence the problem above.
You cannot because Node.js scripts and browser scripts do not run in the same context. Your app.use call just exposes a /scripts route that serves assets statically on your HTTP Server.
Your scripts/custom.js script seems to be a browser-side script (Because you load it with a script tag inside an ejs view) but you want to use require inside it and this will not work as this is a Node.js function.
Have a look at LearnYouNode which is an excellent Node beginner tutorial so that you will understand how modules work in Node and know a bit more about the separation between server-side and client-side JS.

How to test an AngularJS/SocketStream/Node.js app using Karma

I am working on an AngularJS application that is delivered by a SocketStream/node.js server.
I have an AngularJS service that calls api functions on the SocketStream server and progress has been good so far.
But now the time has come to start writing the first tests and the first testing framework that came to mind is Karma/Jasmine, since this is the recommend AngularJS set up.
So far so good, but since my AngularJS modules are imported using 'require' (SocketStream's version, not require.js) and server api calls are part of the test, I need to configure Karma to load SocketStream (at least its client side).
I took a good look at 'https://github.com/yiwang/angular-phonecat-livescript-socketstream' but when I run this example I get run time errors, possibly because I have later versions of variuous dependencies installed.
I managed to get 'required' resolved by packing my SocketStream app by adding 'ss.client.packAssets()' to app.js and run 'SS_PACK=1 node app.js', but when I start karma it logs an error message saying:
'Chrome 23.0 (Linux) ERROR
Uncaught TypeError: undefined is not a function
at /the...path/client/static/assets/app/1368026081351.js:25'
'1368026081351.js' is the SocketStream packed assets file. If I don't load it the error message is something like 'require is undefined', so my best guess is that the error is happening somewhere inside the SocketStream require code. Also because I run karma in DEBUG mode and can see all the files being served.
I have been trying different approaches as to find out what is happening but to now avail. So my questions are:
Is anybody else successfully testing AngularJS/SocketStream using Karma?
Does anybody have any suggestions as to how I can fix, or at least debug this problem?
Are there any alternatives/better solutions?
Time to answer, sort of, my own question:
Sort of, because I came to the conclusion that Karma and node.js/SocketStream have a lot of overlap, so I decided to see if I can omit Karma altogether and deliver the Jasmine testing platform through SocketStream. It turns out that that is possible and here's how I did it:
I defined a new SocketStream route and client in my 'app.js' file:
ss.client.define( 'test', {
view: 'SpecRunner.html',
css: ['libs/test'],
code: ['libs', 'tests', 'app'],
tmpl: 'none'
});
ss.http.route( '/test', function(req, res) {
res.serveClient( 'test' );
});
I downloaded jasmine-standalone-1.3.1.zip and copied 'SpecRunner.html' to the 'client/views' folder. I then edited it to make it load AngularJS and all SocketStream client files, like all other views:
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.0.6/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.0.6/angular-resource.min.js"></script>
<SocketStream/>
I removed the 'script' tags that import the sample source files ( 'Player.js' and 'Song.js' ) and specs but let the last 'script' block in place unmodified.
I then created a new folder inside 'client/css/libs' called 'test' and copied 'jasmine.css' in there unmodified.
Then I copied 'jasmine.js' and 'jasmine-html.js' renamed to '01-jasmine.js' and '02-jasmine-html.js' but otherwise unmodified, into '/client/code/libs'.
Now Jasmine is in place and will be invoked by using the '/test' route. The slightly unsatisfactory bit is that I haven't found an elegant place to store my spec files. They only work so far if I place them inside the 'libs' folder. Anywhere else and they are served by SocketStream as modules and are not run.
But I can live with that for now. I can run Jasmine tests without having to configure a special Karma setup.

Testing Node.js app with Zombie

I am writing a node.js app in coffee-script using the express framework. After exploring a couple of options I finally decided to use mocha and zombie.js. However, I am having a hard testing the UI. For example, to implement a successful user authentication I do the following: see the code pasted here my_gist
What I really wanted to do is the following:
call get '/sessions/new', which will call the SessionsController and display the authentication form
then I'll call the browser.visit method, enter the values for the fields and submit the form, which will generate a post method
if the username and password are correct, I'll expect the SessionsController to react accordingly and redirect to the right page.
Unfortunately, whenever I run the tests it complains about Zombie: require is not defined ReferenceError: require is not defined. It turns out it doesn't like the two lines in my /javascripts/app.js
require("coffee-script")
require('./tfs.coffee')
Even when I try to extract any information from the browser after the visit method, I just get undefined values. Apparently none of my assertions is being tested. It just passes the test. Is there anything I am doing wrong? Has anyone testing coffee-script written app in express using Zombie.js faced that problem? what could be the fix?
If /javascripts/app.js is being loaded from the browser, you would want to make sure that RequireJS (or some other browser framework that defines require) is loaded first, or load them in your HTML document:
<script src="coffee-script.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="tfs.coffee" type="text/coffee"></script>
You might need to wait until the page is fully loaded before extracting values.

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