react-pdf is not compatible without shims

Describe the bug

When trying to use React PDF in a Vite React project, we get:

Uncaught ReferenceError: global is not defined
    at node_modules/blob/index.js (index.js:5)
    at __require (chunk-KVFJW2XH.js?v=ce5c473e:12)
    at node_modules/blob-stream/index.js (index.js:3)
    at __require (chunk-KVFJW2XH.js?v=ce5c473e:12)
    at asyncToGenerator.js:32

It’s from the blob NPM library, but what’s really strange is the code in .vite/@react-pdf_renderer.js on line 554 is:

var BlobBuilder = global.BlobBuilder || global.WebKitBlobBuilder || global.MSBlobBuilder || global.MozBlobBuilder;

But the module definitely does not get packaged with references to global: https://unpkg.com/blob@0.1.0/main.js

We’d like to understand where the global is coming from, then be able to fix and/or work around this so that we can use React PDF in our project.

Also noteworthy is that when we try to use Document, Page, or other exports that the TypeScript types say should be there, we get:

Uncaught SyntaxError: The requested module '/node_modules/.vite/@react-pdf_renderer.js?v=ce5c473e' does not provide an export named 'Document'

It really makes me wonder if we’re somehow selecting a server version of React PDF, but I can’t see how or where that’s happening in the monorepo imports that are going on.

Reproduction

https://github.com/thekevinbrown/vite-react-pdf-reproduction

System Info

Output of npx envinfo --system --npmPackages vite,@vitejs/plugin-vue --binaries --browsers:

  System:
    OS: macOS 11.2.3
    CPU: (8) arm64 Apple M1
    Memory: 541.69 MB / 16.00 GB
    Shell: 5.8 - /bin/zsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 15.11.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v15.11.0/bin/node
    Yarn: 1.22.5 - ~/.yarn/bin/yarn
    npm: 7.6.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v15.11.0/bin/npm
  Browsers:
    Brave Browser: 90.1.23.75
    Chrome: 90.0.4430.212
    Firefox: 88.0
    Safari: 14.0.3
  npmPackages:
    vite: ^2.3.0 => 2.3.2 

Used package manager: yarn

Logs

$ vite --debug
  vite:config bundled config file loaded in 33ms +0ms
  vite:config using resolved config: {
  vite:config   plugins: [
  vite:config     'vite:pre-alias',
  vite:config     'alias',
  vite:config     'react-refresh',
  vite:config     'vite:dynamic-import-polyfill',
  vite:config     'vite:resolve',
  vite:config     'vite:html',
  vite:config     'vite:css',
  vite:config     'vite:esbuild',
  vite:config     'vite:json',
  vite:config     'vite:wasm',
  vite:config     'vite:worker',
  vite:config     'vite:asset',
  vite:config     'vite:define',
  vite:config     'vite:css-post',
  vite:config     'vite:client-inject',
  vite:config     'vite:import-analysis'
  vite:config   ],
  vite:config   server: {
  vite:config     fsServe: {
  vite:config       root: '/Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction',
  vite:config       strict: false
  vite:config     }
  vite:config   },
  vite:config   configFile: '/Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/vite.config.ts',
  vite:config   configFileDependencies: [ 'vite.config.ts' ],
  vite:config   inlineConfig: {
  vite:config     root: undefined,
  vite:config     base: undefined,
  vite:config     mode: undefined,
  vite:config     configFile: undefined,
  vite:config     logLevel: undefined,
  vite:config     clearScreen: undefined,
  vite:config     server: { fsServe: [Object] }
  vite:config   },
  vite:config   root: '/Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction',
  vite:config   base: '/',
  vite:config   resolve: { dedupe: undefined, alias: [ [Object] ] },
  vite:config   publicDir: '/Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/public',
  vite:config   cacheDir: '/Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/.vite',
  vite:config   command: 'serve',
  vite:config   mode: 'development',
  vite:config   isProduction: false,
  vite:config   build: {
  vite:config     target: [ 'es2019', 'edge88', 'firefox78', 'chrome87', 'safari13.1' ],
  vite:config     outDir: 'dist',
  vite:config     assetsDir: 'assets',
  vite:config     assetsInlineLimit: 4096,
  vite:config     cssCodeSplit: true,
  vite:config     sourcemap: false,
  vite:config     rollupOptions: {},
  vite:config     commonjsOptions: { include: [Array], extensions: [Array] },
  vite:config     minify: 'terser',
  vite:config     terserOptions: {},
  vite:config     cleanCssOptions: {},
  vite:config     write: true,
  vite:config     emptyOutDir: null,
  vite:config     manifest: false,
  vite:config     lib: false,
  vite:config     ssr: false,
  vite:config     ssrManifest: false,
  vite:config     brotliSize: true,
  vite:config     chunkSizeWarningLimit: 500,
  vite:config     watch: null
  vite:config   },
  vite:config   env: { BASE_URL: '/', MODE: 'development', DEV: true, PROD: false },
  vite:config   assetsInclude: [Function: assetsInclude],
  vite:config   logger: {
  vite:config     hasWarned: false,
  vite:config     info: [Function: info],
  vite:config     warn: [Function: warn],
  vite:config     warnOnce: [Function: warnOnce],
  vite:config     error: [Function: error],
  vite:config     clearScreen: [Function: clearScreen]
  vite:config   },
  vite:config   createResolver: [Function: createResolver],
  vite:config   optimizeDeps: { esbuildOptions: { keepNames: undefined } }
  vite:config } +2ms
  vite:deps Hash is consistent. Skipping. Use --force to override. +0ms

  vite v2.3.2 dev server running at:

  > Local: http://localhost:3000/
  > Network: use `--host` to expose

  ready in 139ms.

  vite:time 1ms   / +0ms
  vite:spa-fallback Rewriting GET / to /index.html +0ms
  vite:time 19ms  /index.html +36ms
  vite:resolve 1ms   /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/vite/dist/client/client -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/vite/dist/client/client.js +0ms
  vite:resolve 2ms   /@vite/client -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/vite/dist/client/client.js +0ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   /src/main.tsx -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/src/main.tsx +2ms
  vite:load 2ms   [fs] /@vite/client +0ms
  vite:resolve 1ms   ./env -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/vite/dist/client/env.js +9ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   /node_modules/vite/dist/client/env.js -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/vite/dist/client/env.js +0ms
  vite:transform 7ms   /@vite/client +0ms
  vite:time 14ms  /@vite/client +45ms
  vite:load 10ms  [fs] /src/main.tsx +9ms
  vite:load 0ms   [plugin] /@react-refresh +140ms
  vite:rewrite 1ms   [no imports] /@react-refresh +0ms
  vite:transform 1ms   /@react-refresh +141ms
  vite:time 1ms   /@react-refresh +141ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   react -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/.vite/react.js?v=ce5c473e&es-interop +146ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   /node_modules/.vite/react.js?v=ce5c473e&es-interop -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/.vite/react.js?v=ce5c473e&es-interop +0ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   react-dom -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/.vite/react-dom.js?v=ce5c473e&es-interop +2ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   /node_modules/.vite/react-dom.js?v=ce5c473e&es-interop -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/.vite/react-dom.js?v=ce5c473e&es-interop +0ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   ./App -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/src/App.tsx +0ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   /src/App.tsx -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/src/App.tsx +0ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   /node_modules/.vite/react.js?v=ce5c473e -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/.vite/react.js?v=ce5c473e +0ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   /node_modules/.vite/react-dom.js?v=ce5c473e -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/.vite/react-dom.js?v=ce5c473e +0ms
  vite:transform 147ms /src/main.tsx +6ms
  vite:time 158ms /src/main.tsx +7ms
  vite:load 0ms   [fs] /node_modules/vite/dist/client/env.js +8ms
  vite:rewrite 0ms   [no imports] node_modules/vite/dist/client/env.js +8ms
  vite:transform 0ms   /node_modules/vite/dist/client/env.js +2ms
  vite:time 1ms   /node_modules/vite/dist/client/env.js +1ms
  vite:load 1ms   [fs] /src/App.tsx +8ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   @react-pdf/renderer -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/.vite/@react-pdf_renderer.js?v=ce5c473e +16ms
  vite:resolve 0ms   /node_modules/.vite/@react-pdf_renderer.js?v=ce5c473e -> /Users/kevin/development/vite-react-pdf-reproduction/node_modules/.vite/@react-pdf_renderer.js?v=ce5c473e +0ms
  vite:hmr [self-accepts] src/App.tsx +0ms
  vite:transform 8ms   /src/App.tsx +15ms
  vite:time 10ms  /src/App.tsx +16ms
  vite:time 2ms   /src/favicon.svg +163ms
  vite:spa-fallback Rewriting GET / to /index.html +7s
  vite:time 4ms   /index.html +6s
  vite:cache [304] /@vite/client +0ms
  vite:time 2ms   /@vite/client +38ms
  vite:cache [304] /src/main.tsx +1ms
  vite:time 1ms   /src/main.tsx +2ms
  vite:cache [304] /@react-refresh +15ms
  vite:time 0ms   /@react-refresh +14ms
  vite:cache [304] /node_modules/vite/dist/client/env.js +2ms
  vite:time 1ms   /node_modules/vite/dist/client/env.js +2ms
  vite:cache [304] /src/App.tsx +3ms
  vite:time 1ms   /src/App.tsx +3ms
  vite:time 1ms   /src/favicon.svg +161ms

---

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[Cslove]

@thekevinbrown thank you so much!! meet same problem. and your vite plugin solved my issue! by the way, it should yarn add vite-plugin-shim-react-pdf -D, thanks again!

[thekevinbrown]

Alrighty, finally found a set of shims and workarounds that make it work, both in Vite Dev and Production builds.

• Aliases need to be created to some browserify shims for node globals.
• Because the load order is different in dev and production, I needed to put quite a few shims in different files. (Actually on disk in node_modules. Yuck.)
• readable-stream which is needed for Node streams in the browser works fine in dev mode, but in a production build it fails because of circular imports which Rollup doesn’t handle particularly well, but also probably shouldn’t be there in the first place in ESM land (https://github.com/rollup/rollup-plugin-commonjs/issues/293, https://github.com/nodejs/readable-stream/issues/348). I changed the package to use a Registry pattern so it’d work (https://github.com/techinsite/readable-stream) and published it as vite-compatible-readable-stream.
• Because there are about 7 new dependencies needed, including Vite aliases, and manual patching of files in node_modules I bundled that up into vite-plugin-shim-react-pdf.

So, if you’re coming here from Google, you do the following in your Vite project:

$ yarn add --dev vite-plugin-shim-react-pdf

Then in vite.config.js:

import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import reactRefresh from "@vitejs/plugin-react-refresh";
import shimReactPdf from "vite-plugin-shim-react-pdf";

// https://vitejs.dev/config/
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [reactRefresh(), shimReactPdf()],
});

The you’ll also need to use the default import because of the missing exports. E.g.

Instead of:

import { Text, View, StyleSheet } from "@react-pdf/renderer";

You have to do:

import pdf from "@react-pdf/renderer";
const { Text, View, StyleSheet } = pdf;

React PDF also didn’t have a development project you could use to test changes, so I made a really rough one out of the examples: https://github.com/TechInSite/react-pdf-development-harness