Looking for help to make npm/pdfjs-dist work with Webpack and Django

Question

I've been trying for a few hours replacing a link-based pdf.js with an npm install of pdfjs-dist, since I noticed that my links were not meant to be used as cdns and could become unstable as described here.

I could not find much documentation on how to make that work other than a few examples, and when Webpack is involved they are mostly with React, while I am simply using ES6 in a Django framework (static compiling on the desired django directory, without using the webpack-plugin.)

After exchanging several messages with one of the guys that work on pdf.js it seemed that my compiling errors were probably due to how Webpack handles internally the library. Here's what I am seeing:

WARNING in ./node_modules/worker-loader/dist/index.js
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'webpack/lib/web/FetchCompileAsyncWasmPlugin' in '/home/giampaolo/dev/KJ_import/KJ-JS/node_modules/worker-loader/dist'
 @ ./node_modules/worker-loader/dist/index.js
 @ ./node_modules/worker-loader/dist/cjs.js
 @ ./node_modules/pdfjs-dist/webpack.js
 @ ./src/js/views/pdfViews.js
 @ ./src/js/index.js

WARNING in ./node_modules/worker-loader/dist/index.js
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'webpack/lib/web/FetchCompileWasmPlugin' in '/home/giampaolo/dev/KJ_import/KJ-JS/node_modules/worker-loader/dist'
 @ ./node_modules/worker-loader/dist/index.js
 @ ./node_modules/worker-loader/dist/cjs.js
 @ ./node_modules/pdfjs-dist/webpack.js
 @ ./src/js/views/pdfViews.js
 @ ./src/js/index.js

ERROR in (webpack)/lib/node/NodeTargetPlugin.js
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'module' in '/home/giampaolo/dev/KJ_import/KJ-JS/node_modules/webpack/lib/node'
 @ (webpack)/lib/node/NodeTargetPlugin.js 11:1-18
 @ ./node_modules/worker-loader/dist/index.js
 @ ./node_modules/worker-loader/dist/cjs.js
 @ ./node_modules/pdfjs-dist/webpack.js
 @ ./src/js/views/pdfViews.js
 @ ./src/js/index.js
Child HtmlWebpackCompiler:
     1 asset
    Entrypoint HtmlWebpackPlugin_0 = __child-HtmlWebpackPlugin_0
    [./node_modules/html-webpack-plugin/lib/loader.js!./src/src-select.html] 4.57 KiB {HtmlWebpackPlugin_0} [built]
Child worker-loader node_modules/pdfjs-dist/build/pdf.worker.js:
              Asset      Size      Chunks             Chunk Names
    index.worker.js  1.33 MiB  pdf.worker  [emitted]  pdf.worker
    Entrypoint pdf.worker = index.worker.js
    [./node_modules/pdfjs-dist/build/pdf.worker.js] 1.25 MiB {pdf.worker} [built]
    [./node_modules/process/browser.js] 5.29 KiB {pdf.worker} [built]
ℹ ｢wdm｣: Failed to compile.

Theoretically the pdfjs-dist should come with a zero configuration file, without even needing to set up a worker for it, so code like the one below should work:

import pdfjsLib from 'pdfjs-dist/webpack'

////////////////////////////////////////////
//// instantiate pdf
export const pdfView = () => {
  // pdfjsLib.GlobalWorkerOptions.workerSrc = 'index.worker.js';

  // var defined through a Django template tag
  const loadingTask = pdfjsLib.getDocument(pdfData.myPdfDoc)

  pdfData.myPdf = loadingTask.promise.then(pdf => {
    pdfData.pdfTotalPageN = pdf.numPages;
    return pdf;
  })
}

but it doesn't get compiled, and I would really appreciate some pointers. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

This issue seems to arise due to esModule option introduced in [email protected].

The fix for this was merged in (pre-release) [email protected]

You can fix this by either upgrading pdfjs-dist to v2.6.347 OR downgrading worker-loader to v2.0.0