render _bundle error: TypeError: expected string or bytes-like object

[abadger1]

  {% render_bundle 'main' 'css' %}

error seen in ./manage.py runserver

tags = utils.get_as_tags(
File "/home/dave/skyscanner/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webpack_loader/utils.py", line 71, in get_as_tags
bundle = _get_bundle(loader, bundle_name, extension)
File "/home/dave/skyscanner/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webpack_loader/utils.py", line 47, in _get_bundle
bundle = loader.get_bundle(bundle_name)
File "/home/dave/skyscanner/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webpack_loader/loader.py", line 116, in get_bundle
filtered_chunks = self.filter_chunks(chunks)
File "/home/dave/skyscanner/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webpack_loader/loader.py", line 58, in filter_chunks
ignore = any(regex.match(chunk)
File "/home/dave/skyscanner/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webpack_loader/loader.py", line 58, in
ignore = any(regex.match(chunk)
TypeError: expected string or bytes-like object

venv) ➜ src git:(main) ✗ node -v
v14.21.3
(venv) ➜ src git:(main) ✗ npm -v
6.14.18
(venv) ➜ src git:(main) ✗ pip list | grep webpack
django-webpack-loader 2.0.1
(venv) ➜ src git:(main) ✗

Django version 4.2.4, using settings 've.settings.development'

[abadger1]

npm run build appears to run fine - lost as to how to debug further

[abadger1]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/73007144/django-webpack-loader-render-bundle-error

[abadger1]

[abadger1]

Have tried to upgrade all packages to node v18.17.1 compliant - still see same issue as above

[abadger1]

    tags = utils.get_as_tags(
  File "/home/dave/skyscanner/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webpack_loader/utils.py", line 71, in get_as_tags
    bundle = _get_bundle(loader, bundle_name, extension)
  File "/home/dave/skyscanner/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webpack_loader/utils.py", line 47, in _get_bundle
    bundle = loader.get_bundle(bundle_name)
  File "/home/dave/skyscanner/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webpack_loader/loader.py", line 116, in get_bundle
    filtered_chunks = self.filter_chunks(chunks)
  File "/home/dave/skyscanner/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webpack_loader/loader.py", line 58, in filter_chunks
    ignore = any(regex.match(chunk)
  File "/home/dave/skyscanner/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webpack_loader/loader.py", line 58, in <genexpr>
    ignore = any(regex.match(chunk)
TypeError: expected string or bytes-like object

[AntonBox]

@abadger1 the reason is because you use previously generated output file 'webpack-stats.json'. delete it!
and probably you have wrong STATS_FILE path. I guess adding 'static' to the path will help you.

[grimmq52156]

@abadger1, I just upgraded my legacy python project and encountered the exact same problem. The issue was that my package.json was using an old version of webpack-bundle-tracker, which was v0.7.0.

After upgrading my webpack-bundle-tracker to v2.0.1 (the same as django-webpack-loader) and updating my webpack.config.js according to the latest 'configuring-webpack-bundle-tracker' section in the readme, I reran the following command:

npx webpack --config webpack.config.js

Subsequently, I successfully solved the problem.

[fjsj]

Thanks @AntonBox and @grimmq52156 ! I suppose this is a version-related problem, so I'm closing this.
@abadger1 if you are still facing the issues after deleting the old generated stats, let us know.