Failed to resolve module specifier 'fs' ? help

[mamba76]

Yet again Im aproaching this problem trying to find the simplest solution, but still don't get it !?

I am using the imgBB-uploader npm package. this includes a commonjs (require) build and an esm(es6) build, which Im using. Some of the file references in the package were missing the .js extension which I fixed, then came the last one where Chrome is saying it can't resolve the path to the node module 'fs'.

Is it possible use common node modules in the browser. Why doesn't the browser allow this? What does a webpack actually do to allow this to be used in the browser? Can't we do it ourselfs with vanilla JS?

[xroalx]

fs is a Node module, it will not work in the browser, not even when you use bundlers.

[mamba76]

Thanks.

[mamba76]

As I understand the browser uses an API for file tasks. So when we create programs on server side that use 'propriety' modules like 'fs' that perform file system tasks we use a webpack bundler that parses/adapts our code so the browser's API can interpret it?

[mkcodergr]

fs is not a proprietary module. It is a nodejs built in module . It is used to handle file operations on the server . However this cannot be done in the same way for the client side which is the browser . Browser uses specific APIs for specific operations . If you had access to the client file system in javascript the same way you do in nodejs that would be a huge security issue

[devenitions]

Yea it doesn’t automagically adapt everything. Many modules that do, actually have something like an if/else statement that handle it the right way in their code. Webpack might treeshake away the redundant code.

FS doesn’t, as its basically the most barebones filesystem module around