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Error: [nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting...

Hafiz Saifullah on July 22, 2020

Hey...! I am facing above error while trying to run npm run dev-client in 2nd instance of terminal, while in 1st instance of terminal, there is al...

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Garret • Jul 22 '20

The part you specifically need is:

<!doctype html>
^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0

You're getting an HTML string somewhere instead of a JSON string.

Check your code for where you are using JSON.parse and surround it in a try-catch to find which place the error is occurring.

Hafiz Saifullah • Jul 22 '20

Than for your kind response.
JSON.parse() is used in crypto/index.js file in following method...,

const syncWithRootState = ()=> {
    request({ url: `${ROOT_NODE_ADDRESS}/api/bocks` }, (error, response, body)=> {
        if (!error && response.statusCode === 200) {
            const rootChain = JSON.parse(body);

            console.log('replace transaction pool map on a sync with', rootChain);
            blockchain.replaceChain(rootChain);
        }
    });

    request({ url: `${ROOT_NODE_ADDRESS}/api/transaction-pool-map` }, (error, response, body) => {
        if (!error && response.statusCode === 200) {
            const rootTransactionPoolMap = JSON.parse(body);

            console.log('replace transaction pool map on a sync with', rootTransactionPoolMap);
            transactionPool.setMap(rootTransactionPoolMap);
        }
    });
}

what changing should be done???

Garret • Jul 22 '20 • Edited

From the original error message, the log in the first request was made "replace transaction pool map on a sync with {}" which means the second request is the issue.

The API response from /api/transaction-pool-map is giving an HTML document rather than a JSON response. You will need to see what exactly the issue is on the API side of this.

However, also for the fact that you do not want your app to error out like that on users, you should also surround the JSON parse code with try-catch or create a new function that safely parses JSON without crashing.

For example a safe parse might be:

function safeParse (data) {
  try {
    const result = JSON.parse(data);
    return result; // Success valid JSON
  } catch (e) {
    console.error('JSON data error', data, e)
    return undefined; // Data was not valid JSON
  }
}

Hafiz Saifullah • Jul 23 '20

When I run only one instance of app, either by using npm run dev or by using npm run dev-peer, it works fine. but when I try to run a second instance, app is crashed.
Is there may be an issue with installation or use of "cross-env"???

Hafiz Saifullah • Jul 25 '20

Thanx to @Garret, I have resolved my issue by replacing

const rootChain = JSON.parse(body);
console.log('replace transaction pool map on a sync with', rootChain);
blockchain.replaceChain(rootChain);

with

function safeParse (body) {
                const rootChain = JSON.parse(body);
                console.log('replace transaction pool map on a sync with', rootChain);
                blockchain.replaceChain(rootChain);
}

Dom (dcode) • Jul 22 '20

It's possible that the API you're using supports either an HTML or JSON response. You could try setting the Accept header to "application/json" to see if you then get a JSON response back.

Hafiz Saifullah • Jul 23 '20

Thank You @dom for your kind response, but I am new to coding, so I am facing troubles to understand that what is Accept header and how can I set it to "application/json".

Hafiz Saifullah • Jul 22 '20

Another occurrence of JSON.parse() is in crypto/app/pubsub.js file in listener() method.
Following is listener() method.

listener() {
        return {
            message: messageObject => {
                const { channel, message } = messageObject;

                console.log(`Message received. Channel: ${channel}. Message: ${message}`);
                const parsedMessage = JSON.parse(message);

                switch(channel) {
                    case CHANNELS.BLOCKCHAIN:
                        this.blockchain.replaceChain(parsedMessage, true, () => {
                            this.transactionPool.clearBlockchainTransactions({
                                chain: parsedMessage 
                            });
                        });
                        break;
                    case CHANNELS.TRANSACTION:
                        if (!this.transactionPool.existingTransaction({
                            inputAddress: this.wallet.publicKey
                        })) {
                            this.transactionPool.setTransaction(parsedMessage);
                        }
                        break;
                    default:
                        return;
                }
            }
        }
    }

Hafiz Saifullah • Jul 23 '20

Hafiz Saifullah • Jul 25 '20

Thanx to @Garret, I have resolved my issue by replacing

const rootChain = JSON.parse(body);
console.log('replace transaction pool map on a sync with', rootChain);
blockchain.replaceChain(rootChain);

with

function safeParse (body) {
                const rootChain = JSON.parse(body);
                console.log('replace transaction pool map on a sync with', rootChain);
                blockchain.replaceChain(rootChain);
}

Matt Swensen • Jul 22 '20

Whenever you see Unexpected token < in JSON, you can bet that your code is making a request for some JSON but the server is responding with HTML—which is usually an HTML error page. If you can inspect that HTML response it will probably give you a clue as to what’s going on.