SyntaxError: Unexpected token { when compiling my node.js code

Question

I'm getting the below error every time with the first 'import' when I trying to run grandstack neo4j graphql api app.

PS C:\Users\grand-stack-starter-master\api> nodemon index.js
[nodemon] 1.19.1
[nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
[nodemon] watching: *.*
[nodemon] starting `node index.js src/index.js`
C:\Users\grand-stack-starter-master\api\src\index.js:1
import { typeDefs } from "./graphql-schema";
       ^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token {
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:723:23)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:789:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:653:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:593:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:585:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:831:12)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:283:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:622:3)
[nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting... 

Below is my grandstack node.js code

import { typeDefs } from "./graphql-schema";
import { ApolloServer } from "apollo-server";
import { v1 as neo4j } from "neo4j-driver";
import { makeAugmentedSchema } from "neo4j-graphql-js";
import dotenv from "dotenv";

// set environment variables from ../.env
dotenv.config();


const schema = makeAugmentedSchema({
  typeDefs
});


const driver = neo4j.driver(
  process.env.NEO4J_URI || "bolt://localhost:7687",
  neo4j.auth.basic(
    process.env.NEO4J_USER || "neo4j",
    process.env.NEO4J_PASSWORD || "xxxx"
  )
);


const server = new ApolloServer({
  context: { driver },
  schema: schema
});

server.listen(process.env.GRAPHQL_LISTEN_PORT, "0.0.0.0").then(({ url }) => {
  console.log(`GraphQL API ready at ${url}`);
});

I get this error for every import statement. If I remove the problematic import from the code(ex:import { typeDefs } from "./graphql-schema";) then I get the same error with the next import like below

import { ApolloServer } from "apollo-server";
       ^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token {
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:723:23)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:789:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:653:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:593:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:585:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:831:12)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:283:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:622:3)
[nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting...

Can someone please help me to identify where it goes wrong

Answer 1

Looks like there is something wrong with your package.json.

When you start the api I see this command:

[nodemon] starting `node index.js src/index.js`

So you are not using babel to transpile the code, and that's probably why your imports don't work. You should use the package.json in the grand-stack-starter (downloaded from the website) which calls the correct command to start the api server with the babel support.

"start": "./node_modules/.bin/nodemon --exec babel-node src/index.js"

As you can see this command uses babel-node to transpile your code using babel, this adds support for your imports that now should work properly, and you can run the api with just a npm start. If you use the package from the github repository, the code is little different and you should use the npm command:

npm start-dev