Why can't browserify find this npm module?

[TheDiscordian]

Hello, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, but I'm tearing my hair out over this. For the life of me, browserify won't acknowledge an installed module:

% npm install -g browserify
% . ~/.bash_profile
% npm install --save ipfs-http-client
% browserify main.js        
Error: Can't walk dependency graph: Cannot find module 'ipfs-http-client' from '/Users/disco/Programming/DiscoChat/browserify-sadness/main.js'
    required by /Users/disco/Programming/DiscoChat/browserify-sadness/main.js
    at /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/browserify/node_modules/resolve/lib/async.js:146:35
    at processDirs (/opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/browserify/node_modules/resolve/lib/async.js:299:39)
    at isdir (/opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/browserify/node_modules/resolve/lib/async.js:306:32)
    at /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/browserify/node_modules/resolve/lib/async.js:34:69
    at FSReqCallback.oncomplete (node:fs:211:21)

main.js

var IpfsHttpClient = require('ipfs-http-client');

async function onload() {
	ipfs = await IpfsHttpClient.create({url: "http://127.0.0.1:5001", timeout: "5m"});

	// try to get our peerid
	try {	
		me = await ipfs.id();
	} catch { // if we fail, try again in 1 second
		setTimeout(function(){onload()}, 1000);
		return;
	}

	document.getElementById("status").innerHTML = "Kubo node is running, PeerID: " + me.id.toString();
}

The example in the README works fine, but if I follow the exact same steps with ipfs-http-client it can't even find it.

[goto-bus-stop]

it doesn't have a main entry point specified in package.json, only an exports field. browserify doesn't support the newer exports field, but it also doesn't support ES modules, so the module may not work with browserify at all.

[PanagiotisDrakatos]

@goto-bus-stop I resepect your experience and i need your help i am facing a similar issue with another module node-java.

% npm install -g browserify
% . ~/.bash_profile
% npm install --save java
% browserify src/java.js -p esmify --standalone mybundle > bundle.js

This is the java.js file

#!/usr/bin/env node
const java = require("java");
function myfunc2() {
    java.classpath.push(__dirname +"/adrestus-crypto-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar")
    var mnemonic = "example1";
    var passphrase = "pass";
    var result = java.callStaticMethodSync("io.Adrestus.crypto.WalletAddressExport", "getAddressFromMnemonic", mnemonic, passphrase);
    return result;
}
module.exports = {
    myfunc2,
};

When i load the bundle from html code i got this error

Uncaught Error: Cannot find module '/node_modules/java/build/Release/nodejavabridge_bindings.node'

Does my module also not supported with browserfy or its something different? what are your thoughts?

[goto-bus-stop]

It's a slightly different issue. The OP is trying to use a package that probably fundamentally works in the browser, but browserify lacks support for ES modules, so it can't be used.

The java package requires using the local filesystem and executing native code, which is fundamentally impossible in the browser and can never work. There is no way to do that in the browser. This is generally true any time you see an error about a .node file, because .node files are native code.