Module not found: Can't resolve 'child_process' - google-spreadsheet

Question

I am trying to save form data to a spreadsheet in Next.js but I keep getting this error which appears as soon as I import google-spreadsheet

Error

./node_modules/google-spreadsheet/node_modules/google-auth-library/build/src/auth/googleauth.js:17:0 Module not found: Can't resolve 'child_process'

Bellow is what I have that is causing the error.

// The error appears when I do this import
import { GoogleSpreadsheet } from "google-spreadsheet";

const SPREADSHEET_ID = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SPREADSHEET_ID;
const SHEET_ID = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SHEET_ID;
const CLIENT_EMAIL = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_CLIENT_EMAIL;
const PRIVATE_KEY = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_SERVICE_PRIVATE_KEY;

const doc = new GoogleSpreadsheet(SPREADSHEET_ID);

const appendSpreadsheet = async (row) => {
    try {
      await doc.useServiceAccountAuth({
        client_email: CLIENT_EMAIL,
        private_key: PRIVATE_KEY,
      });
      // loads document properties and worksheets
      await doc.loadInfo();

      const sheet = doc.sheetsById[SHEET_ID];
      const result = await sheet.addRow(row);
      return result;
    } catch (e) {
      console.error("Error: ", e);
    }
};

Answer 1

I just solve it.

Please create next.config.js file in your root. And fill it below.

module.exports = {
  webpack: config => {
    config.node = {
      fs: 'empty',
      child_process: 'empty',
      net: 'empty',
      dns: 'empty',
      tls: 'empty',
    };
    return config;
  },
};

Hoorai!

Answer 2

I was having this problem with nextjs 12. Here's what fixed it for me:

My code:

const doc = new GoogleSpreadsheet(SPREADSHEET_ID);
await doc.useServiceAccountAuth({
  client_email: process.env.GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL,
  private_key: process.env.GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY,
});
    
await doc.loadInfo(); 
console.log('title', doc.title);

My next.config.js:

const nextConfig = {
  reactStrictMode: true,
  webpack: (config, { isServer }) => {
    if (!isServer) {
      config.resolve.fallback.fs = false
      config.resolve.fallback.tls = false
      config.resolve.fallback.net = false
      config.resolve.fallback.child_process = false
    }

    return config
  },
  future: {
    webpack5: true,
  },
  fallback: {
    fs: false,
    tls: false,
    net: false,
    child_process: false
  },
}

module.exports = nextConfig;

Took inspiration/fix from here

Answer 3

Found this answer due to a similar issue. I later learned for next.js, with some of these api libraries, you must call call this type of code (serverside) in two contexts getStaticProps or getServerSideProps . See this and this for more details.

Answer 4

Try changing the import statement to:

const { GoogleSpreadsheet } = require('google-spreadsheet');

Source: https://www.npmjs.com/package/google-spreadsheet

Answer 5

The reason is that the library you require uses some nodejs native modules, like path , fs or child_process . As part of the build process nextjs will create js bundles for your client and server separately. The issue is that your client build cannot resolve those nodejs modules. As a workaround you can tell nextjs to ignore these modules for the client build only.

next.config.js

const nextConfig = {
  webpack: (config, { isServer }) => {
    if (!isServer) {
      config.resolve.fallback = {
        fs: false,
        path: false,

      }
    }
    return config
  }
}

module.exports = nextConfig;

Answer 6

the library does not support ES6 feature yet

if you look to the module export you will find somthing like this:

module.exports = {
  GoogleSpreadsheet,
  GoogleSpreadsheetWorksheet,
  GoogleSpreadsheetRow,

  GoogleSpreadsheetFormulaError,
};

https://github.com/theoephraim/node-google-spreadsheet/blob/master/index.js

change the import statement to commonjs modules like this:

const { GoogleSpreadsheet } = require('google-spreadsheet');