Question

Why do I get "require is not defined in ES module scope, you can use import instead" error during tutorial

Hi, I’m trying to follow the tutorial:

https://docs.digitalocean.com/tutorials/jamstack-series/

Everything seemed to move along just fine, until I test the cloud/getCoffee function. When I do that, I get the above error.

I have to add though, I don’t get it 100% of the time. For a while, it appeared that if I modify (like adding/removing a blank line) & save the function form the Digital Ocean page, it would work, but as soon as I deploy it from doctl, I’d get the error again. That was a couple hours ago. Now that I’m back at it, I can’t get it working properly at all. I suspect if I keep goofing with it though, I may get some intermittent success. I haven’t nailed down the specifics to reliably reproduce the problem.

I have a scripting background, some minor web app development, but no experience with NodeJS/Mongo/Cloud. That’s why I’m messing with the tutorial.

Any ideas?

Thank you

Activation Id: 32a38503a25641e6a38503a25651e600
2022-09-18T17:48:44.171377073Z stdout: ReferenceError: require is not defined in ES module scope, you can use import instead
2022-09-18T17:48:44.171455712Z stdout:     at file:///tmp/index.mjs:2:21
2022-09-18T17:48:44.171463273Z stdout:     at ModuleJob.run (internal/modules/esm/module_job.js:183:25)
2022-09-18T17:48:44.171467211Z stdout:     at async Loader.import (internal/modules/esm/loader.js:178:24)
2022-09-18T17:48:44.171470901Z stdout:     at async actionLoop (/nodejsAction/prelauncher.js:68:20)
2022-09-18T17:48:44.174519Z    stderr: The action did not initialize or run as expected. Log data might be missing.
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Eoin O • January 28, 2023

I was able to fix this by changing the function’s runtime from Node 14 (the current default) to Node 18.

You can do that by defining nodejs:18 as the function’s runtime:

parameters: {}
environment: {}
packages:
  - name: sample
    shared: false
    environment: {}
    parameters: {}
    annotations: {}
    functions:
      - name: hello
        binary: false
        main: ""
        runtime: nodejs:18
        web: true
        websecure: false
        parameters: {}
        environment: {}
        annotations: {}
        limits: {}

You can also do it in the web interface of the function’s settings, but if you deploy again from the commandline this is overwritten with what’s defined in package.yml:

  1. Go to the function in DigitalOcean’s dashboard
  2. Click on “Settings”
  3. Under “Runtime” click Edit, to change to Node 18.

Here are the docs on available runtimes: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/functions/reference/runtimes/

Bobby Iliev
Site Moderator
Site Moderator badge
• November 8, 2022

Hi there,

Does it work with doctl if you try to add the --remote-build flag?

As a reference, the URL to the tutorial has been updated to:

https://docs.digitalocean.com/tutorials/jamstack-series-part-2-add-serverless-functions-to-app/

Best,

Bobby

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