Angular with universal does not work

Question

Hi I am using angular 2 with universal.

I am trying to this.

First I create a new project :

ng new universaldemo.

I installed these packages :

npm install --save @angular/platform-server @nguniversal/module-map-ngfactory-loader ts-loader @nguniversal/express-engine.

Here is my app.module.ts :

import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';

import { AppComponent } from './app.component';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [
    AppComponent
  ],
  imports: [
    BrowserModule.withServerTransition({ appId: 'universaldemo' }),
  ],
  providers: [],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule { }

Here is my app.server.module.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { ServerModule } from '@angular/platform-server';
import { ModuleMapLoaderModule } from '@nguniversal/module-map-ngfactory-loader';

import { AppModule } from './app.module';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    AppModule,
    ServerModule,
    ModuleMapLoaderModule
  ],
  providers: [
    // Add universal-only providers here
  ],
  bootstrap: [ AppComponent ],
})
export class AppServerModule {}

Here is my server.ts :

// These are important and needed before anything else
import 'zone.js/dist/zone-node';
import 'reflect-metadata';

import { enableProdMode } from '@angular/core';

import * as express from 'express';
import { join } from 'path';

// Faster server renders w/ Prod mode (dev mode never needed)
enableProdMode();

// Express server
const app = express();

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 4000;
const DIST_FOLDER = join(process.cwd(), 'dist');

// * NOTE :: leave this as require() since this file is built Dynamically from webpack
const { AppServerModuleNgFactory, LAZY_MODULE_MAP } = require('./dist/server/main.bundle');

// Express Engine
import { ngExpressEngine } from '@nguniversal/express-engine';
// Import module map for lazy loading
import { provideModuleMap } from '@nguniversal/module-map-ngfactory-loader';

app.engine('html', ngExpressEngine({
  bootstrap: AppServerModuleNgFactory,
  providers: [
    provideModuleMap(LAZY_MODULE_MAP)
  ]
}));

app.set('view engine', 'html');
app.set('views', join(DIST_FOLDER, 'browser'));

// TODO: implement data requests securely
app.get('/api/*', (req, res) => {
  res.status(404).send('data requests are not supported');
});

// Server static files from /browser
app.get('*.*', express.static(join(DIST_FOLDER, 'browser')));

// All regular routes use the Universal engine
app.get('*', (req, res) => {
  res.render(join(DIST_FOLDER, 'browser', 'index.html'), { req });
});

// Start up the Node server
app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Node server listening on http://localhost:${PORT}`);
});

Here is my webpack.server.config.js :

const path = require('path');
const webpack = require('webpack');

module.exports = {
  entry: { server: './server.ts' },
  resolve: { extensions: ['.js', '.ts'] },
  target: 'node',
  // this makes sure we include node_modules and other 3rd party libraries
  externals: [/(node_modules|main\..*\.js)/],
  output: {
    path: path.join(__dirname, 'dist'),
    filename: '[name].js'
  },
  module: {
    rules: [{ test: /\.ts$/, loader: 'ts-loader' }]
  },
  plugins: [
    // Temporary Fix for issue: https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/11580
    // for 'WARNING Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression'
    new webpack.ContextReplacementPlugin(
      /(.+)?angular(\\|\/)core(.+)?/,
      path.join(__dirname, 'src'), // location of your src
      {} // a map of your routes
    ),
    new webpack.ContextReplacementPlugin(
      /(.+)?express(\\|\/)(.+)?/,
      path.join(__dirname, 'src'),
      {}
    )
  ]
};

Finally i create tsconfig.server.json :

{
  "extends": "../tsconfig.json",
  "compilerOptions": {
    "outDir": "../out-tsc/app",
    "baseUrl": "./",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "types": []
  },
  "exclude": [
    "test.ts",
    "**/*.spec.ts"
  ],
  "angularCompilerOptions": {
    "entryModule": "app/app.server.module#AppServerModule"
  }
}

Below lines are added to my package.json :

"scripts": {
    ...
    "build:universal": "npm run build:client-and-server-bundles && npm run webpack:server",
    "serve:universal": "node dist/server.js",
    "build:client-and-server-bundles": "ng build --prod && ng build --prod --app 1 --output-hashing=false",
    "webpack:server": "webpack --config webpack.server.config.js --progress --colors"
    ...
}

Here is my angular-Cli.json :

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
  "project": {
    "name": "angularuniversaldemo"
  },
  "apps": [
    {
      "root": "src",
      "outDir": "dist",
      "assets": [
        "assets",
        "favicon.ico"
      ],
      "index": "index.html",
      "main": "main.ts",
      "polyfills": "polyfills.ts",
      "test": "test.ts",
      "tsconfig": "tsconfig.app.json",
      "testTsconfig": "tsconfig.spec.json",
      "prefix": "app",
      "styles": [
        "styles.css"
      ],
      "scripts": [],
      "environmentSource": "environments/environment.ts",
      "environments": {
        "dev": "environments/environment.ts",
        "prod": "environments/environment.prod.ts"
      }
    }
  ],
  "e2e": {
    "protractor": {
      "config": "./protractor.conf.js"
    }
  },
  "lint": [
    {
      "project": "src/tsconfig.app.json",
      "exclude": "**/node_modules/**"
    },
    {
      "project": "src/tsconfig.spec.json",
      "exclude": "**/node_modules/**"
    },
    {
      "project": "e2e/tsconfig.e2e.json",
      "exclude": "**/node_modules/**"
    }
  ],
  "test": {
    "karma": {
      "config": "./karma.conf.js"
    }
  },
  "defaults": {
    "styleExt": "css",
    "component": {}
  }
}

I try to create build and serve my app :

npm run build:universal
npm run serve:universal.

Does not create build and run app.

I am getting these errors :

1.

ERROR in Error: Metadata version mismatch for module F:/anitha/projects/Universal/universaldemo/node_modules/@angular/platform-server/platform-server.d.ts, found version 4, expected 3...
npm ERR! Windows_NT 10.0.15063....

2.

 Cannot find name 'process' and Cannot find name 'require'.

3.

 Unable to find app with name or index. Verify the configuration in `.angular-cli.json`
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! angularuniversaldemo@0.0.0 build:client-and-server-bundles: `ng build --prod && ng build --prod --app 1 --output-hashing=false`
npm ERR! Exit status 1

I need run and build my app. How can I do this?

Kindly advice me,

Thanks.

Answer 1

1. Version missmatch

It looks like you're using a wrong version of the platform-server module.

You can try to force the dependency version to the one needed in your project directly in this file

2. ts-node for typescript scripts

You also have to you start your server.ts script with ts-node rather than only node :

npm install ts-node --save

and change your package.json script with :

"serve:universal": "ts-node dist/server.ts

3. angular-cli.json multiple apps

To differenciate builds, you can define multiple apps in your angular-cli.json file, like this :

"apps": [
{
  "name": "app",
  "root": "src",
  "outDir": "dist",
  ...
},
{
  "name": "universal",
  "root": "src",
  "outDir": "dist-universal",
  ...
},
{
  "name": "server",
  "platform": "server",
  "root": "src",
  ...
}
],

And then, you can choose which app to launch with the --app flag :

ng build/serve --app app/universal/server

The name must match the ones in your angular-cli.json file, so in your case your app must be named 1. Or, if you need only one app/config, you can run :ng build (--prod/aot...) without --app

4. ./dist path error

Be careful about the path of your dist folder. Check these parameters :

tsconfig.**.json:

...
"genDir": "../dist"
...

angular-cli.json:

...
"outDir": "./dist",
...

These path are relative and have to match with path defined in your server.ts file