Trying to create an xterm react component in Next.js I got stuck as I'm not able to get over an error message I've never got before.
I'm trying to import a npm client-side module called xterm
, but if I add the import line the application crashes.
import { Terminal } from 'xterm'
The error reads Server Error... ReferenceError: self is not defined
and then shows this chunk of code as Source
module.exports = require("xterm");
According to some research I did, this has to do with Webpack and could be helped if something like this was done:
output: {
globalObject: 'this'
}
Would you know how to fix this?
The error occurs because the library requires Web APIs to work, which are not available when Next.js pre-renders the page on the server-side.
In your case, xterm
tries to access the window
object which is not present on the server. To fix it, you have to dynamically import xterm
so it only gets loaded on the client-side.
There are a couple of ways to achieve this in Next.js.
import()
Move the import
to your component's useEffect
, then dynamically import the library and add your logic there.
useEffect(() => {
const initTerminal = async () => {
const { Terminal } = await import('xterm')
const term = new Terminal()
// Add logic with `term`
}
initTerminal()
}, [])
next/dynamic
with ssr: false
Create a component where you add the xterm
logic.
// components/terminal-component
import { Terminal } from 'xterm'
function TerminalComponent() {
const term = new Terminal()
// Add logic around `term`
return <></>
}
export default TerminalComponent
Then dynamically import that component when using it.
import dynamic from 'next/dynamic'
const TerminalComponent = dynamic(() => import('<path-to>/components/terminal-component'), {
ssr: false
})
As an alternative, you could add the logic directly when dynamically importing the library with next/dynamic
to avoid having an extra file for it.
import dynamic from 'next/dynamic'
const Terminal = dynamic(
{
loader: () => import('xterm').then((mod) => mod.Terminal),
render: (props, Terminal) => {
const term = new Terminal()
// Add logic with `term`
return <></>
}
},
{
ssr: false
}
)