nodejs cannot find module 'zombie' with PHP mink

Question

I\'m trying out Mink (PHP) on Ubuntu 14.04; I basically did the following:

$ apt-show-versions nodejs
nodejs:amd64/trusty 0.10.45-1nodesource1~trusty1 uptoda         


        

Answer 1

Ok, found some sort of a method which seemingly works - but I'd still like someone more knowledgeable to answer.

Anyways, the trick is - zombie can accept a path to the nodejs binary; so if you cannot really pass environment variables for nodejs from PHP, then make a shell script which will set these environment variables, and then call nodejs.

First this was my install:

# remove previous
sudo npm uninstall -g zombie --save-dev
sudo apt-get remove --purge nodejs && sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

# install new
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | bash
nvm install iojs-v3.3.1
npm list -g --depth=0
nvm install 4.0.0
npm list -g --depth=0
npm -g install zombie --save-dev

The problem with nvm is that it installs in a user directory, and I'd like to test my scripts both on my user machine and remote server, where my uids are completely different. Regardless, using a custom executable helps a bit with that. So, create a script in a "global" location, I chose /home, so I'll need sudo to create files there:

sudo touch /home/node_pth.sh

... then paste in the following content:

#!/bin/bash
export NODE_PATH=/home/USERNAME/.nvm/versions/node/v4.0.0/lib/node_modules
#echo ARGS ARE "$@" | tee -a /tmp/node.log
/home/USERNAME/.nvm/versions/node/v4.0.0/bin/node "$@"

... of course, replacing the paths with your correct ones; then finally make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /home/node_pth.sh

Now we can use the following test_php_mink.php PHP file:

<?php

$nodeModPath = "/home/USERNAME/.nvm/versions/node/v4.0.0/lib/node_modules"; # correct NODE_PATH, but will not help
$nodePath = "/home/node_pth.sh"; # shell script that sets NODE_PATH, then calls node executable

echo "NODE_PATH is: '" . getenv ( "NODE_PATH" ) . "'\n"; #
putenv("NODE_PATH=".$nodeModPath);
echo "NODE_PATH is: '" . getenv ( "NODE_PATH" ) . "'\n"; # is there - but still doesn't help with call

# composer autoload:
require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

echo "safe_mode: '" . ini_get("safe_mode") ."'\n"; # have PHP 5.5.9, safe_mode is removed


$driver = new \Behat\Mink\Driver\ZombieDriver(
  //~ new \Behat\Mink\Driver\NodeJS\Server\ZombieServer()
  # copy defaults here for everything but nodeBin;
  # see vendor/behat/mink-zombie-driver/src/NodeJS/Server.php
  new \Behat\Mink\Driver\NodeJS\Server\ZombieServer("127.0.0.1", 8124, $nodePath, null)
);

$session = new \Behat\Mink\Session($driver);

// start the session
$session->start();
?>

---

... OR, I just realized there is setNodeModulesPath($nodeModulesPath) in vendor/behat/mink-zombie-driver/src/NodeJS/Server.php, so we can drop the proxy bash executable altogether:

<?php

$nodeModPath = "/home/USERNAME/.nvm/versions/node/v4.0.0/lib/node_modules"; # correct NODE_PATH, but will not help via putenv

echo "NODE_PATH is: '" . getenv ( "NODE_PATH" ) . "'\n"; #
putenv("NODE_PATH=".$nodeModPath);
echo "NODE_PATH is: '" . getenv ( "NODE_PATH" ) . "'\n"; # is there - but still doesn't help with call

# composer autoload:
require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

echo "safe_mode: '" . ini_get("safe_mode") ."'\n"; # have PHP 5.5.9, safe_mode is removed

$zsrv = new \Behat\Mink\Driver\NodeJS\Server\ZombieServer();
$zsrv->setNodeModulesPath($nodeModPath . "/"); # needs to end with a trailing '/'

$driver = new \Behat\Mink\Driver\ZombieDriver( $zsrv );

$session = new \Behat\Mink\Session($driver);

// start the session
$session->start();

?>

Anyways, when this script is called, it outputs:

$ php test_php_mink.php
NODE_PATH is: ''
NODE_PATH is: '/home/USERNAME/.nvm/versions/node/v4.0.0/lib/node_modules'
safe_mode: ''

... and as there are no errors, I'm assuming it is all fine now...