PhantomJS on App Platform

Question

Hi guys,

For some reason I get a PATH error at build. Is there a solution for it?

I tried to add is globally with: npm i -g phantomjs-prebuilt@^2.1.8

2025-01-30 14:55:49] 
[2025-01-30 14:55:49] ╭──────────── buildpack detection ───────────╼
[2025-01-30 14:55:49] │  › using Ubuntu 22.04 stack
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │ Detected the following buildpacks suitable to build your app:
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │ 
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │    digitalocean/nodejs-appdetect  v0.0.5    
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │    heroku/nodejs                  v0.260.4  (Node.js)
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │    digitalocean/procfile          v0.0.5    (Procfile)
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │    digitalocean/custom            v0.1.3    (Custom Build Command)
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] ╰─────────────────────────────────────────────╼
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] 
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] ╭──────────── app build ───────────╼
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │ -----> Creating runtime environment
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        NPM_CONFIG_LOGLEVEL=error
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        USE_NPM_INSTALL=true
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        NODE_VERBOSE=false
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        NODE_ENV=
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        NODE_MODULES_CACHE=true
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │ -----> Installing binaries
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        engines.node (package.json):   unspecified
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        engines.npm (package.json):    unspecified (use default)
[2025-01-30 14:55:50] │        
[2025-01-30 14:55:51] │        Resolving node version 20.x...
[2025-01-30 14:55:51] │        Downloading and installing node 20.15.1...
[2025-01-30 14:55:53] │        Using default npm version: 10.7.0
[2025-01-30 14:55:54] │        
[2025-01-30 14:55:54] │ -----> Installing dependencies
[2025-01-30 14:55:54] │        Installing node modules (package.json + package-lock)
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm notice
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm notice New major version of npm available! 10.7.0 -> 11.1.0
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm notice Changelog: https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v11.1.0
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm notice To update run: npm install -g npm@11.1.0
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm notice
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error code 1
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error path /workspace/node_modules/phantomjs
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error command failed
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error command sh -c node install.js
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error PhantomJS not found on PATH
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error Phantom installation failed TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]: The "path" argument must be of type string. Received undefined
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error     at Object.join (node:path:1175:7)
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error     at findSuitableTempDirectory (/workspace/node_modules/phantomjs/install.js:127:30)
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error     at /workspace/node_modules/phantomjs/install.js:476:19
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error     at nextTickCallback (/workspace/node_modules/kew/kew.js:47:28)
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error     at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:77:11) {
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error   code: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE'
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error } TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]: The "path" argument must be of type string. Received undefined
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error     at Object.join (node:path:1175:7)
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error     at findSuitableTempDirectory (/workspace/node_modules/phantomjs/install.js:127:30)
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error     at /workspace/node_modules/phantomjs/install.js:476:19
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error     at nextTickCallback (/workspace/node_modules/kew/kew.js:47:28)
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error     at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:77:11)
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /tmp/npmcache.taC4h/_logs/2025-01-30T14_55_54_632Z-debug-0.log
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │ 
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │ -----> Build failed
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        We're sorry this build is failing! You can troubleshoot common issues here:
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/troubleshooting-node-deploys
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        Some possible problems:
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        - Node version not specified in package.json
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │          https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/nodejs-support#specifying-a-node-js-version
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        Love,
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        Heroku
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │        
[2025-01-30 14:57:33] │ ERROR: failed to build: exit status 1
[2025-01-30 14:57:34] │ 
[2025-01-30 14:57:34] │ 
[2025-01-30 14:57:34] │  ✘ build failed
[]

Bobby · Answer

Hey!

The error suggests that the build process isn’t recognizing the installed PhantomJS.

Instead of installing it globally, add it as a dependency:

npm install phantomjs-prebuilt --save

And then reference the bin directory in the node_modules, eg:

"scripts": {
  "postinstall": "export PATH=$PATH:./node_modules/.bin"
}

If the above does not work, you could also try to modify your App Platform build command to explicitly install PhantomJS:

"build_command": "npm install && npm rebuild phantomjs-prebuilt"

If the issue persists, do you by any chance have your repository publicly available? I could try deploying it on my end to further investigate it.

- Bobby

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