App fails to start when using cups service

[hlarubi]

Hi,

I'm trying to use a cf cups command to link to a public MH service from a private environment to test out the sample code and connectivity. Unfortunately, the app fails to start as it can't find the messagehub service from a "user-provided" service type. The error is in the npm package called message-hub-rest. Could you please take a look?

Thanks!

2018-09-11T23:49:39.93-0700 [CELL/0] OUT Creating container
2018-09-11T23:49:40.50-0700 [CELL/0] OUT Successfully created container
2018-09-11T23:49:45.33-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] OUT > message-hub-nodejs-console-sample@3.0.0 start /home/vcap/app
2018-09-11T23:49:45.33-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] OUT > node ./app.js
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR /home/vcap/app/node_modules/message-hub-rest/lib/messagehub.js:76
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR throw new Error(serviceNamePrefix + '* is not provided in the services environment variable. ' +
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR at new Client (/home/vcap/app/node_modules/message-hub-rest/lib/messagehub.js:76:13)
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:663:10)
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR at Object. (/home/vcap/app/app.js:50:29)
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR at Module.load (module.js:565:32)
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR at tryModuleLoad (module.js:505:12)
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR at bootstrap_node.js:612:3
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR ^
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR at Module._compile (module.js:652:30)
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] OUT Using VCAP_SERVICES to find credentials.
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR Error: messagehub* is not provided in the services environment variable. Make sure you have bound the Message Hub service to your Bluemix application
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR at Function.Module._load (module.js:497:3)
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:693:10)
2018-09-11T23:49:45.48-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR at startup (bootstrap_node.js:191:16)
2018-09-11T23:49:45.50-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
2018-09-11T23:49:45.50-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR npm ERR! errno 1
2018-09-11T23:49:45.50-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR npm ERR! message-hub-nodejs-console-sample@3.0.0 start: node ./app.js
2018-09-11T23:49:45.50-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR npm ERR! Exit status 1
2018-09-11T23:49:45.50-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
2018-09-11T23:49:45.50-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR npm ERR!
2018-09-11T23:49:45.50-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR npm ERR! Failed at the message-hub-nodejs-console-sample@3.0.0 start script.
2018-09-11T23:49:45.66-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR npm ERR! /home/vcap/app/.npm/_logs/2018-09-12T06_49_45_507Z-debug.log
2018-09-11T23:49:45.66-0700 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
2018-09-11T23:49:45.71-0700 [CELL/0] OUT Stopping instance 67d705a8-bf01-44e6-6683-7dfa

[edoardocomar]

The stack trace shows that parsing the VCAP_SERVICES env var fails.
It must be simply the case that its structure for your app using a CUPS differs from the ordinary case.

You should simply edit the app.js code to suit your environment.
Try modify these lines
https://github.com/ibm-messaging/message-hub-samples/blob/master/kafka-nodejs-console-sample/app.js#L38-L50
to extract the info from your specific VCAP_SERVICES and get the 3 values and assign them to the objects used by the demo app.
e.g.

opts.brokers = your_list_of_brokers_from_your_vcap
opts.api_key = your_api_key_from_your_vcap
adminRestInstance = new MessageHubAdminRest(wrap_vcap_service(your_api_key_from_your_vcap, your_admin_url_from_your_vcap))