Web application stopped compiling - ReferenceError: TextDecoder is not defined

Question

My project was working fine but suddenly, without any changes, it started failing. Follow the errors:

[INFO] const TEXT_DECODER = new TextDecoder();
[INFO]                      ^
[INFO] 
[INFO] ReferenceError: TextDecoder is not defined
[INFO]     at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\myname\workspace\company\company-ui-app\node_modules\engine.io\build\server.js:16:22)
[INFO]     at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:688:30)
[INFO]     at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:699:10)
[INFO]     at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:598:32)
[INFO]     at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:537:12)
[INFO]     at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:529:3)
[INFO]     at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:636:17)
[INFO]     at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:20:18)
[INFO]     at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\myname\workspace\company\company-ui-app\node_modules\engine.io\build\engine.io.js:5:18)
[INFO]     at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:688:30)

My application is build via maven, and it uses a plugin to compile the Javascript part through gulp. Follow below the snipped of my pom.xml that is causing this exception:

   <plugin>
                <groupId>com.github.eirslett</groupId>
                <artifactId>frontend-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.12.1</version>

            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>install node and npm</id>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>install-node-and-npm</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <nodeVersion>v10.12.0</nodeVersion>
                        <npmVersion>6.4.1</npmVersion>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>

                <execution>
                    <id>npm install</id>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>npm</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <!-- Optional configuration which provides for running any npm command -->
                    <configuration>
                        <arguments>install --verbose</arguments>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>

                <execution>
                    <id>gulp compile --prod</id>
                    <phase>generate-resources</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>gulp</goal>
                    </goals>

                    <configuration>
                        <arguments>compile --prod</arguments>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>

                <execution>
                    <id>gulp dist-compile</id>
                    <phase>generate-resources</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>gulp</goal>
                    </goals>

                    <configuration>
                        <arguments>dist-compile</arguments>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>

            </executions>
        </plugin>

During the execution of the npm part I got a strange output (not sure if this is related):

[INFO] npm timing audit compress Completed in 145ms
[INFO] npm info audit Submitting payload of 83059bytes
[INFO] npm http fetch POST 502 https://repo.mycompany.com/repository/npm-all/-/npm/v1/security/audits/quick 2251ms

Answer 1

This is likely the same issue as reported here: https://github.com/socketio/engine.io/issues/683

That particular line (the one causing the error) was added in the 6.5.0 release of engine.io. It used TextDecoder without importing it. The issue should be fixed now in version 6.5.1.

If your project was working and then stopped, then it likely means that you were dynamically pulling the latest version of engine.io. Now that the latest (6.5.1) works again, hopefully your project does as well.

I was seeing the same issue yesterday, and it's working again for me now.