TypeError: Cannot read property 'localStorage' of undefined

[devwojtek]

I installed auth0-js ( version 9.5.0 ) in node application.
Node version is 6.9.0.

I got the issue after launching application with npm start.

TypeError: Cannot read property 'localStorage' of undefined
....
Can't use localStorage. Using CookieStorage instead.

How can I resolve it?

[phlogisticfugu]

also ran into this issue.

we're loading a universal js app (nuxt.js) and its happening when importing the 'auth0-js' library. The reason is that the auth0-js module is itself trying to instantiate a StorageHandler, and there is no window object on the server.

think that this should be refactored:

auth0.js/src/helper/storage.js

Line 2 in dcf7138

var storage = new StorageHandler();

to just define functions, but not actually run the code that depends upon the window object

[luisrudge]

Auth0.js is meant to be used only inside the browser. If you are running a server rendered application, make sure to only instantiate Auth0.js objects when you're running in the browser. For react, for example, make sure to always instantiate objects in the componentDidMount hook.

[phlogisticfugu]

@luisrudge actually the issue is a little more subtle than that

Re: make sure to only instantiate Auth0.js objects when you're running in the browser

In my case, we are only running the actual call to auth0js.WebAuth() in the browser, and not server side. This error is being triggered not by that line, but instead in our library import: import auth0js from 'auth0-js'

In the particular universal js framework we are using (nuxt.js) imports are done as part of pre-processing bundling, and so the same libraries are loaded on the browser and client. Loading a module should not result in the execution of code. Rather, executing the functions defined in a module should execute code.

see

auth0.js/src/helper/storage.js

Line 2 in dcf7138

var storage = new StorageHandler();

which is running code upon module load.

[phlogisticfugu]

also note that this error only started appearing in version 9.5.0 of auth0-js

[phlogisticfugu]

@luisrudge I made #745 to fix this.

[luisrudge]

@phlogisticfugu you're totally right. I'll fix this in a different PR, since we don't want to have that lazy thing again, but thanks for figuring out the issue!