Can't open documents generated with ^8.1.0 in Next.js API route using Packer.toBuffer()

[rbourdon]

I use docx in a Next.js application (pages directory) in an api route with Packer.toBuffer(), and after v8.1.0 Word has failed to open the generated document.

Here's a simple reproduction on codesandbox: https://codesandbox.io/p/sandbox/exciting-meadow-k89f6g

Reverting back to 8.0.4 resolves the issue.

[SawkaDev]

Same Issue here.

[joshkel]

I've encountered what I believe is the same issue. I have a Hapi backend that started returning unusable values when I upgraded to 8.1.0.

Since it started with 8.1.0, I believe it's the result of the migration to Vite in #2148.

From what I can tell:

The problem arises because the output of Packet.toBuffer() isn't a Node.js Buffer. It calls itself a Buffer (e.g., if you call JSON.stringify on it, "Buffer" appears in the output), and it's an instance of Uint8Array (just like a real Node.js Buffer), but it's not an instance of Buffer, so Hapi does not invoke its code path for serving a binary blob. I haven't looked into Next.js, but I'm guessing it's the same root problem.

From inspecting the build/index.cjs build of docx, it looks like docx -> jszip -> Buffer is resolving to the third-party buffer package instead of using Node.js's native Buffer support. (In case it helps, my application is using the build/index.cjs build of docx.)

[dolanmiu]

I upgraded the project from webpack to vite for better DevX and native ESM support

Yes, this is Vite doing some of it's own optimisations (I am guessing to make it compatiable for web and node etc).

Still looking into it

[joshkel]

Looks like the newly released 8.2.1 fixes this. (See #2222.) Thanks, @dolanmiu!

I'm not an expert on this (I've never published to NPM), but it seems to me that it would be better for docx to not bundle its dependencies at all? That would reduce its bundle size and prevent issues like this (although it's possible that it might make users responsible for providing dependencies themselves). See #2254.

[SawkaDev]

8.2.1 Fixed it for me as well.

[rbourdon]

Confirming this is resolved with 8.2.1. Thanks @dolanmiu!

[dolanmiu]

Excellent, thanks for the testing everyone!