window is undefined

I created an entire new project with a server.js containing a single line:

var chartjs = require('chart.js');

and a package.json with a dependency on chart.js. Running node server.js produces the following error:

alex@alex-pc ~/repos/temp2 $ node server.js 
/home/alex/repos/temp2/node_modules/chart.js/Chart.js:668
            return window.requestAnimationFrame ||
                   ^
ReferenceError: window is not defined
    at /home/alex/repos/temp2/node_modules/chart.js/Chart.js:668:11
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/alex/repos/temp2/node_modules/chart.js/Chart.js:676:5)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/alex/repos/temp2/node_modules/chart.js/Chart.js:2021:4)
    at Module._compile (module.js:460:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:478:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:365:17)
    at require (module.js:384:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/alex/repos/temp2/server.js:1:77)

Clearly the problem is mine, because if this was a universal problem then nobody would be able to use this package at all. Anybody got any ideas?

Node v0.12.7 npm v2.11.3

[santigo171]

Hi! I’m using chart.js in a Node.js project, not a browser. My idea is save a chart in an png. I use node-canvas dependency to do it. And I get the same error than you.

I solved it by using:

const Chart = require("chart.js"); // Just importing module
Chart.defaults.animation = false; // Solution

Hope this could be useful for someone.

[philiiiiiipp]

If you use webpack like me, then in your webpack.config.js for your server so that

require('chart.js') gets transpiled to something else and not imported serverside.

Of course you have to make sure that chart.js is then only executed on the client side (if you use react then componentDidMount() would be a candidate)