I get an "Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token ." message when I try to use my express app in debug mode in VSCode (F5) if my code includes optional chaining (?.). I do not have this problem when I use the app with the command "npm start" which is working properly. I do not have experience on building projects with very specific configuration (compilers, lighters...), this one was created just with npm init.
Below you can see the details that I consider useful for solving the issue. Let me know if you need anything else. Is there anyway I can debug the app if it includes optional chaining syntax? Should I update any version? Should I change any config file?
Details:
node v16.10.0
npm v7.24.0
package.json
"main": "server/server.js",
"scripts": {
"start": "nodemon -e js,json,html,yml,css server/server.js",
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
},
"repository": {
"type": "git",
},
"license": "ISC",
"dependencies": {
"@marsaud/smb2": "^0.17.2",
"bcrypt": "^5.0.1",
"body-parser": "^1.19.0",
"compression": "^1.7.4",
"cookie-parser": "^1.4.5",
"cors": "^2.8.5",
"equals": "^1.0.5",
"express": "^4.17.1",
"jsonwebtoken": "^8.5.1",
"moment": "^2.24.0",
"mongodb": "^3.6.5",
"mssql": "^7.2.1",
"nodemailer": "^6.4.10",
"nodemon": "^2.0.7",
"redoc": "^2.0.0-rc.24",
"swagger-jsdoc": "^4.0.0",
"tedious": "^14.0.0",
"underscore": "^1.9.1"
}
}
launch.json
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"type": "node",
"request": "launch",
"name": "Iniciar el programa",
"program": "${workspaceFolder}/backEnd/server/server.js"
}
],
}
I had this same issue and downgrading npm to version 6.14.16 is what worked for me. Another work around that I was running while searching for a solution was to remove nodemon from the package.json scripts commands and replacing them with just node
"scripts": {
"start": "node js,json,html,yml,css server/server.js",
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
},
and running
nodemon --exec npm run start
Not sure what the exact issue is though, but it seems to be related to running the nodemon command from within the scripts in package.json file. I was able to verify this by simply running
npm run start
with the package.json changes mentioned above perfectly fine, but once it was changed to run with nodemon, I run into issues with optional chaining.
I finally found the solution, I was not using the right debugger so it was mainly a Visual Studio Code wrong configuration setup issue. I recently installed some other debuggers so I had to set the node.js debugger again.
Did you try to switch to different node version? I use node v14 and don't have the problem, but I read on other websites mentioned that they are using v16 and also have problem with optional chaining.