crypto.randomUUID is not a function

[jladbury]

At first I was going to raise this as a bug, as it does not occur in HFS 2.3, nor in the WebStorm server. However, a bit of investigation shows that somehow my application is involved.

The application makes a call to crypto.randomUUID. As I say, this works fine in HFS 2.3 and in the WebStorm server, but fails in HFS 3.

I searched the repository for 'crypto' and found a recent change, and upgraded to the latest version (0.37.0). The problem remains.

The strange thing is that if I use devtools to enter crypto.randomUUID in the console BEFORE loading my app, it works fine. However, after the app is loaded I get the error despite not making any (intentional) change to crypto-related stuff.

I would be grateful for any suggestions, as I want to move permanently to the new HFS; but for the moment this will stop me.

[rejetto]

hi Julian, what do you mean by "my application" ?
did you make a web app, and are using hfs just to serve its static files?

[jladbury]

Yes indeed!

[rejetto]

if I had to guess, you are missing crypto because you are neither on localhost or in https.
If this is it, then it has nothing to do with hfs 3.

[jladbury]

That's definitely something to do with it. I will document further and request your comments.
By the way, many thanks for such a useful tool.

[jladbury]

Yes, that's nailed it!
In HFS 3:

• Access from http://192.168.1.180/c9/c9define/compiled/index.htm gives the problem
• Access from http://localhost/c9/c9define/compiled/index.htm works fine

As to HFS 2, it defaults to localhost if I press 'Open in Browser'. However, if I copy and paste the URL it displays, I get the problem. So, as you suggest, this has nothing to do with HFS version.

Might I suggest that the instructions at the top of the Shared Files page in the Admin panel (Your shared files can be browsed from http://192.168.1.180/ or http://192.168.56.1/ or http://[fe80::dd32:bd01:25cb:f1b8]/ be updated to include localhost?

Also, if you have time to explain briefly why the localhost differs from the actual IP address I would be grateful!

[rejetto]

thanks for your suggestion, but I'm not very sure including localhost in the list would cause more good than evil.
localhost doesn't work over the network, and that's how i expect people to use it. It says "shared files" for this reason.
While the old "open in browser" button wasn't meant to share, but just to open your browser, so localhost was fine.

your problem with crypto was caused by a decision made by web-browsers in recent years. I don't know their reasons, but you may google for it.
I had to fight with it as well 🫠

[jladbury]

Thanks for taking the time to comment. Just FYI, my use case for HFS is local testing rather than file sharing.

[rejetto]

yes, I see that, and I'm glad to see people find it useful for other purposes as well 😊