Angular SSR - ReferenceError: Element is not defined

Question

I have an angular 7 project that I'm developping. I use server-side rendering to allow facebooks crawler to work properly. Until now, I've developped already some components and haven't encountered any troubles yet. But now I'm having a problem since I'm working on a component using fullcalendar...

There are no troubles serving the application using ng s. But when I try to build the application using server-side rendering npm run build:ssr && npm run serve:ssr, I'm now receiving the following error: npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE

Until now I made a npm install and npm audit fix but this hasn't helped. I suppose that the problem comes from a bad configuration in either my app.module.ts or app.server.module.ts but I can't figure it out.

Here the content of the error message:

C:myApp\dist\server.js:151900
    var matchesMethod = Element.prototype.matches ||
                        ^

ReferenceError: Element is not defined
    at C:myApp\dist\server.js:151900:25
    at C:myApp\dist\server.js:151801:13
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:myApp\dist\server.js:151803:2)
    at __webpack_require__ (C:myApp\dist\server.js:20:30)
    at Module.<anonymous> (C:myApp\dist\server.js:151309:76)
    at __webpack_require__ (C:myApp\dist\server.js:20:30)
    at Object.@fullcalendar/angular (C:myApp\dist\server.js:134654:18)
    at __webpack_require__ (C:myApp\dist\server.js:131212:30)
    at Module../node_modules/@fullcalendar/angular/fullcalendar-angular.ngfactory.js (C:myApp\dist\server.js:131336:79)
    at __webpack_require__ (C:myApp\dist\server.js:131212:30)
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! silver-home@0.0.0 serve:ssr: `node dist/server`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the silver-home@0.0.0 serve:ssr script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     C:\Users\myUser\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache\_logs\2019-04-28T20_11_07_675Z-debug.log

Content of npm debug.log:

0 info it worked if it ends with ok
1 verbose cli [ 'C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe',
1 verbose cli   'C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js',
1 verbose cli   'run',
1 verbose cli   'serve:ssr' ]
2 info using npm@6.4.1
3 info using node@v10.15.3
4 verbose run-script [ 'preserve:ssr', 'serve:ssr', 'postserve:ssr' ]
5 info lifecycle myApp@0.0.0~preserve:ssr: myApp@0.0.0
6 info lifecycle myApp@0.0.0~serve:ssr: myApp@0.0.0
7 verbose lifecycle myApp@0.0.0~serve:ssr: unsafe-perm in lifecycle true
8 verbose lifecycle myApp@0.0.0~serve:ssr: PATH: C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm-lifecycle\node-gyp-bin;C:\myApp\node_modules\.bin;C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\xampp\php;C:\ProgramData\ComposerSetup\bin;C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;C:\Program Files (x86)\Bitvise SSH Client;C:\Program Files (x86)\AOMEI Backupper;C:\Program Files\nodejs\;C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU Tools Arm Embedded\7 2018-q2-update\bin;C:\Users\myUser\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;C:\Users\myUser\AppData\Roaming\Composer\vendor\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin;C:\mingw\bin;C:\Users\Uchendu\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Users\myUser\Desktop\Etudes\Math spec\programmation\bin;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_144\bin;
9 verbose lifecycle myApp@0.0.0~serve:ssr: CWD: C:myApp
10 silly lifecycle myApp@0.0.0~serve:ssr: Args: [ '/d /s /c', 'node dist/server' ]
11 silly lifecycle myApp@0.0.0~serve:ssr: Returned: code: 1  signal: null
12 info lifecycle myApp@0.0.0~serve:ssr: Failed to exec serve:ssr script
13 verbose stack Error: myApp@0.0.0 serve:ssr: `node dist/server`
13 verbose stack Exit status 1
13 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.<anonymous> (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm-lifecycle\index.js:301:16)
13 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.emit (events.js:189:13)
13 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm-lifecycle\lib\spawn.js:55:14)
13 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:189:13)
13 verbose stack     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:970:16)
13 verbose stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:259:5)
14 verbose pkgid myApp@0.0.0
15 verbose cwd C:\myApp
16 verbose Windows_NT 10.0.17134
17 verbose argv "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe" "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "run" "serve:ssr"
18 verbose node v10.15.3
19 verbose npm  v6.4.1
20 error code ELIFECYCLE
21 error errno 1
22 error myApp@0.0.0 serve:ssr: `node dist/server`
22 error Exit status 1
23 error Failed at the myApp@0.0.0 serve:ssr script.
23 error This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
24 verbose exit [ 1, true ]

Are there any suggestions how I can solve that problem?

Answer 1

Add this line in your server.ts File :

global['Event'] = null;
global['KeyboardEvent'] = null;

Answer 2

ReferenceError: window is not defined
    at Object.<anonymous> (D:\bid\mii\pdfconvetor\dist\server\main.js:11220:30237)
    at 5RHE.module.exports (D:\bid\mii\pdfconvetor\dist\server\main.js:11181:37)
    at Object.5RHE (D:\bid\mii\pdfconvetor\dist\server\main.js:11183:112)
    at __webpack_require__ (D:\bid\mii\pdfconvetor\dist\server\main.js:20:30)
    at Module.K011 (D:\bid\mii\pdfconvetor\dist\server\main.js:61812:17)
    at __webpack_require__ (D:\bid\mii\pdfconvetor\dist\server\main.js:20:30)
    at Object.0 (D:\bid\mii\pdfconvetor\dist\server\main.js:992:18)
    at __webpack_require__ (D:\bid\mii\pdfconvetor\dist\server\main.js:20:30)
    at D:\bid\mii\pdfconvetor\dist\server\main.js:84:18
    at Object.<anonymous> (D:\bid\mii\pdfconvetor\dist\server\main.js:87:10)
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! pdfconvetor@0.0.0 serve:ssr: `node dist/server`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the pdfconvetor@0.0.0 serve:ssr script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     C:\Users\mittal\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache\_logs\2019-08-02T10_47_18_582Z-debug.log

Answer 3

The problem is coming from a third-party library.

https://github.com/fullcalendar/fullcalendar-angular

ReferenceError: Element is not defined
    at C:myApp\dist\server.js:151900:25
    at C:myApp\dist\server.js:151801:13
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:myApp\dist\server.js:151803:2)
    at __webpack_require__ (C:myApp\dist\server.js:20:30)
    at Module.<anonymous> (C:myApp\dist\server.js:151309:76)
    at __webpack_require__ (C:myApp\dist\server.js:20:30)
    at Object.@fullcalendar/angular (C:myApp\dist\server.js:134654:18)
    at __webpack_require__ (C:myApp\dist\server.js:131212:30)
    at Module../node_modules/@fullcalendar/angular/fullcalendar-angular.ngfactory.js (C:myApp\dist\server.js:131336:79)
    at __webpack_require__ (C:myApp\dist\server.js:131212:30)

It looks like it's failing to import the component factory for the calendar component, and this makes me think that you're missing some node dependencies.

Verify that you've installed the @fullcalendar/core @fullcalendar/daygrid packages.

This library is using another JavaScript library (the "core" package) which isn't designed for server-side rendering. While you might be able to compile the project. If there is anything in the "core" library that can't run on NodeJS then it will likely fail to compile or will fail to run.