Can't build simplest node express app

[kfishkin]

Hi all, I’m trying to deploy the very simple Node Express app described at " Express server on Netlify for free - Step by step guide" , and it’s failing.

First it failed because of ’ error:0308010C:digital envelope routines::unsupported on NodeJS’, but after much googling I was able to fix this by adding --openssl-legacy-provider to NODE_OPTIONS

But now it barfs with “Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression
8:03:04 PM: @ …/node_modules/express/lib/application.js
8:03:04 PM: @ …/node_modules/express/lib/express.js
8:03:04 PM: @ …/node_modules/express/index.js
8:03:04 PM: @ ./api.js”

The BUILD exits with code 2, I believe because of this warning. What to do?

The failed build log is at Netlify App

thanks!

[hrishikesh]

Please refer to official docs over third-party blog posts: Express on Netlify | Netlify Docs

[kfishkin]

Thanks so much for the reply @hrishikesh ! I blame Google ;-), that other link was ranked much higher in search.
Unfortunately, I tried the instructons at the site you provided, but the path is still bumpy and no success yet.

1. still had to add export NODE_OPTIONS=–openssl-legacy-provider
2. then build barfed because there was no build command - as per Express on Netlify | Netlify Docs I added “build”: “echo Building Functions”, to package.json
3. build still fails with exit code 2, though no errors shown in the log
   12:45:42 PM: Failed during stage ‘building site’: Build script returned non-zero exit code: 2 (Search results for '"non-zero exit code: 2"' - Netlify Support Forums)
   12:45:39 PM: Netlify Build
   12:45:39 PM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:39 PM: ❯ Version
   12:45:39 PM: @netlify/build 29.12.1
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:39 PM: ❯ Flags
   12:45:39 PM: baseRelDir: true
   12:45:39 PM: buildId: 64989950e29d410007c18398
   12:45:39 PM: config: /opt/build/repo/netlify.toml
   12:45:39 PM: deployId: 64989950e29d410007c1839a
   12:45:39 PM: tracing:
   12:45:39 PM: enabled: ‘false’
   12:45:39 PM: host: 10.65.94.9
   12:45:39 PM: parentSpanId: 9fea0d80cccb4aed
   12:45:39 PM: traceFlags: ‘00’
   12:45:39 PM: traceId: de5431bdd1dd283b8a87c6d5a59cd3fe
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:39 PM: ❯ Current directory
   12:45:39 PM: /opt/build/repo
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:39 PM: ❯ Config file
   12:45:39 PM: /opt/build/repo/netlify.toml
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:39 PM: ❯ Context
   12:45:39 PM: production
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:39 PM: Build command from Netlify app
   12:45:39 PM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:39 PM: $ npm run build
   12:45:39 PM: > evan_be@1.0.0 build
   12:45:39 PM: > echo Building Functions
   12:45:39 PM: Building Functions
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:39 PM: (build.command completed in 323ms)
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:39 PM: Functions bundling
   12:45:39 PM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:39 PM: Packaging Functions from functions directory:
   12:45:39 PM: - api.js
   12:45:39 PM: ​
   12:45:40 PM: ​
   12:45:40 PM: (Functions bundling completed in 492ms)
   12:45:40 PM: ​
   12:45:42 PM: Build failed due to a user error: Build script returned non-zero exit code: 2
   12:45:42 PM: Failing build: Failed to build site
   12:45:42 PM: Finished processing build request in 20.45

[SamO]

Hi,

I’m seeing your build fails due to config in your most recent deploy. Can you share what your build settings look like?

Also can you take a look at this support guide as it may answer your questions:

[Support Guide] Debugging Netlify site builds

Last reviewed by Netlify Support - August, 2023 Note: This article is only about builds within Netlify’s Continuous Integration (CI) environment, as triggered from git commits or from incoming build webhooks. You can learn more in depth about how Netlify builds your site in this article about how our build bots build sites. Some background There are a fair number of reasons that a build could fail in Netlify’s CI environment, even if building works locally. Testing locally is always the place …

[kfishkin]

Thanks for the reply @SamO ! As you can tell, I’m completely new to nodeJS, just trying to get ‘hello world’ going. I had already taken a look a that doc, I didn’t find anything that I was doing ‘off’, but may have missed something.
Anyways, here’s my package.json
{
“name”: “evan_be”,
“version”: “1.0.0”,
“description”: “”,
“main”: “index.js”,
“scripts”: {
“build”: “echo Building Functions”,
“test”: “echo "Error: no test specified" && exit 1”
},
“keywords”: ,
“author”: “”,
“license”: “ISC”,
“dependencies”: {
“@netlify/functions”: “^1.6.0”,
“@types/express”: “^4.17.17”,
“express”: “^4.18.2”,
“netlify-lambda”: “^2.0.16”,
“serverless-http”: “^3.2.0”
}
}
and here’s netlify.toml
[functions]
external_node_modules = [“express”]
node_bundler = “esbuild”
[[redirects]]
force = true
from = “/api/*”
status = 200
to = “/.netlify/functions/api/:splat”

On Netlify, my “Build & Deploy” settings are all the defaults.

My “environment variables” set one thing:
NODE_OPTIONS=–openssl-legacy-provider

and that’s it.

[hrishikesh]

@kfishkin

still had to add export NODE_OPTIONS=–openssl-legacy-provider

Not sure why unless you’re still using webpack somewhere. Your package.json still had netlify-lambda, so most likely it came from there.

When following the documentation, please do as per the documentation if you don’t want to get errors. I forked your repo, made changes according to the documentation and the site worked fine without any config: f-95268.netlify.app/api/hello

I’ve submitted a PR here: Fix issues by Hrishikesh-K · Pull Request #1 · kfishkin/evan_be (github.com)

[kfishkin]

wow, what great support, thanks!!
I’m still not sure what it was I did wrong, but having a working example is what I needed. Thanks again!