Update to Angular v6 - Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'fs'

Question

I\'m trying to migrate my Angular Universal project from Angular v5 to v6

I\'ve got a service where I use fs to load the translation on the server side.

Answer 1

For anyone still looking for an answer, here's how I managed to require('fs') in my angular 7 app. Or for that matter, any other node module.

Versions

Angular CLI: 7.0.4
Node: 10.13.0
OS: win32 x64
"@angular/animations": "~7.0.0",
"@angular/common": "~7.0.0",
"@angular/compiler": "~7.0.0",
"@angular/core": "~7.0.0",
"@angular/forms": "~7.0.0",
"@angular/http": "~7.0.0",
"@angular/platform-browser": "~7.0.0",
"@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "~7.0.0",
"@angular/router": "~7.0.0",
"@angular-devkit/build-angular": "~0.10.0",
"@angular/cli": "~7.0.4",
"@angular/compiler-cli": "~7.0.0",
"@angular/language-service": "~7.0.0",
"electron": "^3.0.7",
"typescript": "~3.1.1"

1. Install @types/node

npm install --save-dev @types/node

2. Modify tsconfig.json

Take note of "allowSyntheticDefaultImports" flag. It must be set to true.

{
  "compileOnSave": false,
  "compilerOptions": {
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "baseUrl": "./",
    "outDir": "./dist/out-tsc",
    "sourceMap": true,
    "declaration": false,
    "module": "es2015",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "target": "es5",
    "types": [
      "node"
    ],
    "typeRoots": [
      "node_modules/@types"
    ],
    "lib": [
      "es2018",
      "dom"
    ],
    "strict": false
  }
}

3. Require fs

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { } from 'electron';
import Fs from 'fs';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  templateUrl: './app.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./app.component.scss']
})
export class AppComponent {

  constructor() {
    //check if platform is electron
    let isElectron: boolean = window && window['process'] && window['process'].type;

    if (isElectron) {
      let fs: typeof Fs = window['require']('fs');
      let app: Electron.App = window['require']('electron').remote;
      console.log(fs, app, window['process']);
    }
  }
}

Note: The import statements at the top of the file are just to provide for type information. The variable values are set using node require.

For updates, Track the issue here

https://github.com/angular/angular-cli/issues/9827

Edit:

Turns out, that if your project has dependencies that require 'fs', 'path', 'child_process' etc. The angular compiler fails to compile the code. To get around this, as someone has already suggested, add (window as any).global = window; to your polyfills.ts.

In my case, I had chokidar, node-pty and electron as a dependency. This worker for me.