protobuf-javascript: Try to reproduce "'proto' is not defined"

Overview

This repository aims to reproduce the "'proto' is not defined" error as described in ReferenceError: proto is not defined #10 to help the developers figure out whether there is a bug and, if there is, how to fix it.

There two sub-directories:

• noejs is a node.js native app that cannot reproduce the error.
• react-app is a React.js app that can reproduce the error.

I'll first mention the other existing work in the next section and then describe how to use these two apps.

Other work

The issue [1] Failed to compile. 'proto' is not defined (also 'COMPILED') #447 in grpc-web mentions a similar problem that used TypeScript. The quick workaround was to disable eslint as mentioned in this comment. Others in the discussion also provided alternative workarounds. See this, this, this, this, and this.

The issue also mentions the Pull Request Disable static checkers on generated js files #752. But note that this PR is for grpc-web so it only fixes the output of --grpc-web_out but not --js_out.

But [1] gave me the hint to try to disable eslint in the React.js app and that did work around the issue.

How to use

Environment

My environment:

• Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop
• npm: 6.14.15
• yarn: 1.22.15
• node (or nodejs): 14.18.2
• google-protobuf: 3.19.4

nodejs

cd into the sub-directory nodejs and run run.sh. This should print good at the end and doesn't report any error.

react-app

There are two shell scripts:

• run-npm.sh
• run-yarn.sh

Running run-npm.sh produced the following output (which suggests eslint might be the cause):

Failed to compile.

[eslint] 
src/foo_pb.js
  Line 26:1:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 29:15:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 30:20:   'COMPILED' is not defined  no-undef
  Line 31:3:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 46:1:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 47:10:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 60:1:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 78:1:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 80:17:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 81:10:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 92:1:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 116:1:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 118:3:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 130:1:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 146:1:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 152:1:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 157:29:  'proto' is not defined     no-undef

Search for the keywords to learn more about each error.
WARNING in [eslint] 
src/App.js
  Line 4:7:  'proj' is assigned a value but never used  no-unused-vars

src/foo_pb.js
  Line 12:14:  The Function constructor is eval     no-new-func
  Line 61:7:   'f' is defined but never used        no-unused-vars
  Line 80:13:  Missing '()' invoking a constructor  new-parens

ERROR in [eslint] 
src/foo_pb.js
  Line 26:1:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 29:15:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 30:20:   'COMPILED' is not defined  no-undef
  Line 31:3:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 46:1:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 47:10:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 60:1:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 78:1:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 80:17:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 81:10:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 92:1:    'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 116:1:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 118:3:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 130:1:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 146:1:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 152:1:   'proto' is not defined     no-undef
  Line 157:29:  'proto' is not defined     no-undef

Search for the keywords to learn more about each error.

webpack compiled with 1 error and 1 warning

Running run-yarn.sh produced the same output as run-npm.sh.