TypeError: Object ... has no method 'charAt' about grunt-contrib-connect

[shama]

Could you post the gruntfile that generated this error?

[makotot]

i'm also having same problem and my Gruntfile is below.

File: [no files]
Warning: Object /Users/hoge/dev/project has no method 'charAt' Use --force to continue.
TypeError: Object /Users/hoge/dev/project has no method 'charAt'
    at exports.normalize (path.js:336:27)
    at Function.directory (/Users/hoge/dev/project/node_modules/grunt-contrib-connect/node_modules/connect/lib/middleware/directory.js:56:14)
    at Object.grunt.initConfig.connect.livereload.options.middleware (/Users/hoge/dev/project/Gruntfile.js:35:16)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/hoge/dev/project/node_modules/grunt-contrib-connect/tasks/connect.js:64:62)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/hoge/dev/project/node_modules/grunt/lib/grunt/task.js:258:15)
    at Object.thisTask.fn (/Users/hoge/dev/project/node_modules/grunt/lib/grunt/task.js:78:16)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/hoge/dev/project/node_modules/grunt/lib/util/task.js:282:30)
    at Task.runTaskFn (/Users/hoge/dev/project/node_modules/grunt/lib/util/task.js:235:24)
    at Task.<anonymous> (/Users/hoge/dev/project/node_modules/grunt/lib/util/task.js:281:12)
    at Task.<anonymous> (/Users/hoge/dev/project/node_modules/grunt/lib/util/task.js:215:7)

module.exports = function (grunt) {
    'use strict';

    grunt.initConfig({
        watch: {
            html: {
                files: '**/*.html',
                tasks: [],
                options: {
                    livereload: true,
                    nospawn: true
                }
            },
            js: {
                files: 'public/js/*.js',
                tasks: ['jshint'],
                options: {
                    livereload: true,
                    nospawn: true
                }
            }
        },

        connect: {
            livereload: {
                options: {
                    port: 9001,
                    hostname: '0.0.0.0',
                    base: './',
                    middleware: function (connect, options) {
                        return [
                            require('connect-livereload')(),
                            connect.static(options.base),
                            connect.directory(options.base)
                        ];
                    }
                }
            }
        },

        jshint: {
            files: {
                src: ['public/js/*.js']
            }
        }

    });

    grunt.event.on('watch', function (action, filepath) {
        grunt.log.write(action, filepath);
    });

    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-connect');

    grunt.registerTask('default', ['connect', 'watch']);
};

[abahdanovich]

Here is excerpt from my Gruntfile.coffee

connect:
      options:
        hostname: "<%= connect_hostname %>"
        middleware: (connect, options) ->
          modRewrite = require("connect-modrewrite")
          [modRewrite(["^/#/.*$ /index.html [L]"]), connect.static(options.base)]

      dev:
        options:
          port: 9001
          base: "public"

If you need any other details please let me know.

[shama]

Ah I think it's because options.base is now an array as it accepts multiple base paths. Since the more common use case is a single path, maybe it would make more sense to check if the array only has one path and bring it back to a string so the above examples will continue to work. Thoughts?

/cc @sindresorhus @cowboy

[abahdanovich]

Ah I think it's because options.base is now an array as it accepts multiple base paths.

Yes, this is the reason (checked with debugger)...
normalize() expects path as a string, but is given an array

[cowboy]

The options.base property is now normalized to an array internally. Unfortunately, we forgot that people might be using that property inside their own custom middleware, and thus caused this regression.

A short-term solution would be for you to use options.base[0] or String(options.base) inside your Gruntfile.

We need to figure out if we need to revert this change or to maintain the same behavior, but do so it in a way that leaves the original options.base property untouched.

[shama]

Ok treating this as a bug then and will un-normalize options.base. So if the user provides a string, it will be a string otherwise if multiple bases, it will be an array.

[abahdanovich]

Patch you provided fixes the problem - thank you for your help!

[gcoonrod]

I am seeing this issue again in the latest version.

TypeError: Object /Users/gcoonrod/dev/galileo-training has no method 'charAt'
    at exports.normalize (path.js:336:27)
    at SendStream.root.SendStream.from (/Users/gcoonrod/dev/galileo-training/node_modules/grunt-contrib-connect/node_modules/connect/node_modules/send/lib/send.js:116:16)
    at Object.staticMiddleware [as handle] (/Users/gcoonrod/dev/galileo-training/node_modules/grunt-contrib-connect/node_modules/connect/lib/middleware/static.js:86:8)
    at next (/Users/gcoonrod/dev/galileo-training/node_modules/grunt-contrib-connect/node_modules/connect/lib/proto.js:193:15)
    at Object.livereload [as handle] (/Users/gcoonrod/dev/galileo-training/node_modules/connect-livereload/index.js:147:5)
    at next (/Users/gcoonrod/dev/galileo-training/node_modules/grunt-contrib-connect/node_modules/connect/lib/proto.js:193:15)
    at Function.app.handle (/Users/gcoonrod/dev/galileo-training/node_modules/grunt-contrib-connect/node_modules/connect/lib/proto.js:201:3)
    at Server.app (/Users/gcoonrod/dev/galileo-training/node_modules/grunt-contrib-connect/node_modules/connect/lib/connect.js:65:37)
    at Server.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:98:17)
    at HTTPParser.parser.onIncoming (http.js:2108:12)

Any further updates on how to address?

Here are the grunt modules i'm using

"devDependencies": {
    "grunt": "~0.4.2",
    "grunt-contrib-concat": "~0.3.0",
    "connect-livereload": "~0.3.2",
    "grunt-contrib-watch": "~0.5.3",
    "grunt-contrib-connect": "~0.7.1",
    "grunt-htmlhint": "~0.4.0",
    "grunt-contrib-jshint": "~0.8.0",
    "grunt-contrib-csslint": "~0.2.0"
  }

And the Gruntfile.js

module.exports = function(grunt){
    var LIVERELOAD_PORT = 35728;
    var lrSnippet = require('connect-livereload')({port: LIVERELOAD_PORT});
    var livereloadMiddleware = function (connect, options){
        return [
            lrSnippet,
            connect.static(options.base),
            connect.directory(options.base)
        ];
    };

    grunt.initConfig({
        connect: {
            client: {
                options: {
                    port: 9001,
                    hostname: 'localhost',
                    base: new '.',      //For Windows
                    //base: '/Users/gcoonrod/dev/galileo-training/', //For Mac
                    middleware: livereloadMiddleware 
                }
            }
        },

        watch: {
            client: {
                files: [
                    'views/**/*',
                    'css/**/*',
                    'scripts/**/*',
                    'test/**/*', 
                    'index.html'
                ],
                tasks: ['htmlhint'],
                options: {
                    livereload:LIVERELOAD_PORT
                }
            }
        },

        htmlhint: {
            build: {
                options: {
                    'tag-pair': true,
                    'tagname-lowercase': true,
                    'attr-lowercase': true,
                    'attr-value-double-quotes': true,
                    'id-unique': true,
                    'style-disabled': true
                },
                src: [
                    'views/**/*.html', 
                    'index.html'
                ]
            }
        },

        jshint: {
            options: {
                eqeqeq: true,
                browser: true,
                globals: {
                    jQuery: true,
                    devel: true,
                    worker: true,
                    angular: true
                }
            },
            ignore_warning: {
                options: {
                    '-W099': true,
                    '-W030': true
                },
                src: [
                    ''
                ]
            },
            files: {
                src: [
                    'Gruntfile.js',
                    'scripts/**/*.js',
                    'test/**/*.js'
                ]
            }
        }
    });



    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-connect');
    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-htmlhint');
    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');

    grunt.registerTask('server', ['build', 'connect:client', 'watch:client']);
    grunt.registerTask('build', ['htmlhint']);
}

[shama]

@gcoonrod I think this part base: new '.' should just be base: '.'. The new keyword is for instantiating an object (and I'm surprised it's not throwing a type error for you).

[gcoonrod]

Sorry, that was a left over from trying new Array('.') I've removed it already and still get the same error.

[abahdanovich]

I had exactly the same situation a week or two ago...

    connect:
      options:
        hostname: CONNECT_HOSTNAME
        middleware: (connect, options) ->
          modRewrite = require("connect-modrewrite")
          [connect.logger('dev'), modRewrite(["^/#/.*$ /index.html [L]"]), connect.static(options.base)]

Changing options.base to String(options.base) seems to solve the problem, but I'm not sure whether it is the right solution of the problem...

[gcoonrod]

String(options.base) in the middleware config worked. Thank you.

[cowboy]

connect.static expects a string, but if your options.base is an array, you're going to have problems. The default middleware actually iterates over the options.base array and calls connect.static once for each item.

[yankee42]

I believe that the documentation still needs some fixing. The without livereload still suffers from the problem.