toJSON: Cannot read property 'prototype' of null at Function.toObject

[tamird]

When calling MessageObject.toJSON(), I get the following error:

Cannot read property 'prototype' of null at Function.toObject

Which occurs in this function:

                TimeSeriesQueryRequest.toObject = function toObject(message, options) {
                    if (!options)
                        options = {};
                    var object = {};
                    if (options.arrays || options.defaults)
                        object.queries = [];
                    if (options.defaults) {
                        if ($util.Long) {
                            var long = new $util.Long(0, 0, false);
                            object.start_nanos = options.longs === String ? long.toString() : options.longs === Number ? long.toNumber() : long;
                        } else
                            object.start_nanos = options.longs === String ? "0" : 0;
                        if ($util.Long) {
                            var long = new $util.Long(0, 0, false);
                            object.end_nanos = options.longs === String ? long.toString() : options.longs === Number ? long.toNumber() : long;
                        } else
                            object.end_nanos = options.longs === String ? "0" : 0;
                        if ($util.Long) {
                            var long = new $util.Long(0, 0, false);
                            object.sample_nanos = options.longs === String ? long.toString() : options.longs === Number ? long.toNumber() : long;
                        } else
                            object.sample_nanos = options.longs === String ? "0" : 0;
                    }
                    if (message.start_nanos != null && message.hasOwnProperty("start_nanos"))
                        if (typeof message.start_nanos === "number")
                            object.start_nanos = options.longs === String ? String(message.start_nanos) : message.start_nanos;
                        else
                            object.start_nanos = options.longs === String ? $util.Long.prototype.toString.call(message.start_nanos) : options.longs === Number ? new $util.LongBits(message.start_nanos.low >>> 0, message.start_nanos.high >>> 0).toNumber() : message.start_nanos; // <-- unguarded access to `$util.Long`!!
                    if (message.end_nanos != null && message.hasOwnProperty("end_nanos"))
                        if (typeof message.end_nanos === "number")
                            object.end_nanos = options.longs === String ? String(message.end_nanos) : message.end_nanos;
                        else
                            object.end_nanos = options.longs === String ? $util.Long.prototype.toString.call(message.end_nanos) : options.longs === Number ? new $util.LongBits(message.end_nanos.low >>> 0, message.end_nanos.high >>> 0).toNumber() : message.end_nanos;
                    if (message.queries && message.queries.length) {
                        object.queries = [];
                        for (var j = 0; j < message.queries.length; ++j)
                            object.queries[j] = $root.cockroach.ts.tspb.Query.toObject(message.queries[j], options);
                    }
                    if (message.sample_nanos != null && message.hasOwnProperty("sample_nanos"))
                        if (typeof message.sample_nanos === "number")
                            object.sample_nanos = options.longs === String ? String(message.sample_nanos) : message.sample_nanos;
                        else
                            object.sample_nanos = options.longs === String ? $util.Long.prototype.toString.call(message.sample_nanos) : options.longs === Number ? new $util.LongBits(message.sample_nanos.low >>> 0, message.sample_nanos.high >>> 0).toNumber() : message.sample_nanos;
                    return object;
                };

This code was generated with --strict-long, so I'm not really sure why util.Long is undefined, or why any of the code paths above need to be guarded with if ($util.Long) {.

[dcodeIO]

--strict-long has no effect on generated code. It just makes sure to document long fields as Long instead of number|Long for TypeScript. The CLI basically just wraps up what the encoder, decoder and converter generate at runtime anyway in a reflection based scenario.

This code was generated with --strict-long, so I'm not really sure why [...] any of the code paths above need to be guarded with if ($util.Long) {.

Currently, generated code aims to remain compatible with any configuration (with or without long.js), in case it is shared or otherwise depended upon by another application.

[tamird]

That's fine; what's the story with $util.Long being undefined?

[dcodeIO]

That's fine; what's the story with $util.Long being undefined?

Looks like long.js isn't present. You can check this by evaluating protobuf.util.Long. If it's unset, you can also explicitly set it, like so:

protobuf.util.Long = require("long");
protobuf.configure();

[tamird]

long.js is present; I can do what you suggest, but why is it not being picked up automatically?

[dcodeIO]

For reference, this is about how the process works:

• inquire("long") (ref) tries to load the long library, which requires a global require function to be available
• if it cannot be required, it looks for it in global.dcodeIO.Long and if it isn't there either, it sets protobuf.util.Long to null
• AMD modules specify "long" as a dependency and it's set like shown above if it is available (ref)

Referring to the error you see: Long conversion to strings is available with long.js only. Conversion to (a possibly unsafe) number should work even if long.js isn't present.