ReferenceError: window is not defined

[Kostanos]

Trying to use amplitude-js on node 8.8.1

I got this error when I run: const amplitude = require('amplitude-js');

ReferenceError: window is not defined
    at /root/app/node_modules/amplitude-js/amplitude.js:2427:8
    at commonjsGlobal (/root/app/node_modules/amplitude-js/amplitude.js:2:82)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/root/app/node_modules/amplitude-js/amplitude.js:5:2)
    at Module._compile (module.js:612:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:623:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:531:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:494:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:486:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:556:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/root/app/src/helpers/amplitude.js:3:19)
    at Module._compile (module.js:612:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:623:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:531:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:494:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:486:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:556:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
...

[mieszko4]

Are you running server-side-rendering, i.e. are you running this in node?

[ajcumine]

I've had the same error using this package on node v6.10.3 building a static site with webpack.

After a little digging the error was caused by some browser compatibility code added by this package while checking to see if window.globalStorage exists:

if (windowLocalStorageAvailable()) {
  localStorage = window.localStorage;
} else if (window.globalStorage) {
  // Firefox 2-3 use globalStorage
  // See https://developer.mozilla.org/en/dom/storage#globalStorage
  try {
    localStorage = window.globalStorage[window.location.hostname];
  } catch (e) {
    // Something bad happened...
  }...

Because of this I've removed the package from the project and am using the <script> tag in the project index.html instead. This is unfortunate as the majority of ad blockers will automatically block this so it's not really a workaround.

[mieszko4]

I have server side rendering and I simply require only when not in node. In node I mock it.
isServer is my custom global variable

import config from "config";

const Amplitude = !global.isServer ? require("amplitude-js") : null;

const instance = Amplitude ? Amplitude.getInstance() : {
  init: () => {},
  logEvent: () => {},
  setUserId: () => {},
  setUserProperties: () => {}
};

instance.init(config.amplitude.apiKey);

export default instance;

[burrack]

is there any plan to fix that ?

[juliaschiller150]

I'd like to use this package server-side, and others are no doubt doing server-side rendering. Having a dependency on window and on document prevents this.

Can we subvert the local storage setup if window or document is undefined?

[barathkb]

I am also facing the Same issue I am using Nodejs with express over ReactJs. And I am trying to use the recent react-amplitude package launched last month
-https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-amplitude
Is there any fix for this issue, in general, the server-side rendering is causing a lot of issues because window or document is undefined

[burrack]

@barathkb - in my project i'm using react and redux. i created a redux middleware for dealing with amplitude.
in order to not get this error, i only added this middleware on the client side and it worked.

could u only use (import) amplitude on the client side ?
if u need help, it would be cool to see how/where do u use it

[barathkb]

@burrack Thanks for your suggestion but the things is that I want it both in my client side and the server side since I am using NextJs and Express every initial page load using URL will be pre-rendered on the server side.

[stormfar]

I'm having this problem still with my node express server. Some events cannot be logged on the client. Any chance this will be fixed?

[artvichi]

Would be awesome to fix!

[tmswartz12]

Has anyone found a fix to this?

[silentstormm]

?

[haoliu-amp]

Currently we just don’t support running in a Node environment for the JS SDK. Will consider to add the support.

Thanks for providing feedbacks.

[haoliu-amp]

This is sever side SDK request basically.

Please refer to #164. Closing this now.