single quote cases exception

[dylang]

When translating a string in Node with a single quote I get the following exception:

/usr/local/lib/node/.npm/translate/0.6.0/package/lib/translate.js:80
  callback(null, JSON.parse(body).responseData.translatedText);
                                              ^
TypeError: Cannot read property 'translatedText' of null
at [object Object].callback (/usr/local/lib/node/.npm/translate/0.6.0/package/lib/translate.js:80:51)
at IncomingMessage.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node/.npm/request/1.9.3/package/main.js:253:21)
at IncomingMessage.emit (events.js:59:20)
at HTTPParser.onMessageComplete (http.js:111:23)
at Socket.onend (http.js:1224:12)
at Socket._onReadable (net.js:630:26)
at IOWatcher.onReadable [as callback] (net.js:156:10)

[Marak]

Hrmmm, let's see what we can do about that.

[dylang]

This was my local workaround, Google doesn't seem to care, at least with English.

 str.replace(/'/g, '’')

[Marak]

Can you paste me the sample code which caused the issue? I'm trying to reproduce locally and cannot.

[dylang]

This test works on the command line. If you see it working when there are no single quotes, then it breaks with the single quote.

$ node
> var t = require('translate');
> t.text("this is a test", function(err, text) { console.log(text); });
> esta es una prueba
> t.text("this isn't a test", function(err, text) { console.log(text); });
> 
/usr/local/lib/node/.npm/translate/0.6.0/package/lib/translate.js:80
      callback(null, JSON.parse(body).responseData.translatedText);
                                                  ^
TypeError: Cannot read property 'translatedText' of null
    at [object Object].callback (/usr/local/lib/node/.npm/translate/0.6.0/package/lib/translate.js:80:51)
    at IncomingMessage.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node/.npm/request/1.9.3/package/main.js:253:21)
    at IncomingMessage.emit (events.js:59:20)
    at HTTPParser.onMessageComplete (http.js:111:23)
    at Socket.onend (http.js:1224:12)
    at Socket._onReadable (net.js:630:26)
    at IOWatcher.onReadable [as callback] (net.js:156:10)

[Marak]

Interesting....the same code works fine for me on the repl and in a file.

Can you try adding a console.log line here: https://github.com/Marak/translate.js/blob/master/lib/translate.js#L76 to dump the body?

I'd like to see what google is returning that causing the JSON.parse to bomb.

Also, which version on node are you running?

[dylang]

Node 0.4.2.

I'm using translate from npm - not locally.

I'll download the source from trunk and see what happens.

[Marak]

npm still installs the source on your machine @ /usr/local/lib/node/.npm/translate/0.6.0/package/lib/translate.js

but cloning the source and running

 npm link . 

from inside the repo will link your clone into your local npm

[dylang]

Yup but was bringing up in case the version on npm was out of date because you said it worked for you locally. I tried the version from trunk and had the same problem.

> var t = require('./translate.js');  t.text("this isn't a test", function(err, text) { console.log(text); });
> 
/Users/dylan/projects/translate.js/lib/translate.js:80
      callback(null, JSON.parse(body).responseData.translatedText);
                                                  ^
TypeError: Cannot read property 'translatedText' of null
    at [object Object].callback (/Users/dylan/projects/translate.js/lib/translate.js:80:51)
    at IncomingMessage.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node/.npm/request/1.9.3/package/main.js:253:21)
    at IncomingMessage.emit (events.js:59:20)
    at HTTPParser.onMessageComplete (http.js:111:23)
    at Socket.onend (http.js:1224:12)
    at Socket._onReadable (net.js:630:26)
    at IOWatcher.onReadable [as callback] (net.js:156:10)

Request:

{ uri: 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/language/translate?v=1.0&q=this%20isn\'t%20a%20test&langpair=en|es' }

Response:

{"responseData": null, "responseDetails": "invalid language pair", "responseStatus": 400}

It looks like node is doing incorrect html escaping of '?

[Marak]

Can you try updating to the latest version of request by running:

 npm install request

Thanks

[dylang]

Nevermind about the escaped single quote - that's the console trying to be helpful.

Real url:

http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/language/translate?v=1.0&q=this%20isn't%20a%20test&langpair=en|es

I have the latest request:

request@1.9.3             =mikeal active installed latest remote   Simplified HTTP request client.  

I'm a little insane about updating my npm modules, i run npm update every morning, afternoon, and evening.

[dylang]

I don't understand the purpose of this:

// http client for accessing google api
var googleTranslate = http.createClient(80, 'ajax.googleapis.com');

If you are using request you don't need to create another connection with node's http.

[Marak]

Yeah, must be old code from before request module existed, I removed it.

Are you still experiencing an issue? I can't figure out how to replicate it on this machine. The url that is being sent to request is correct ( i.e. it works if you curl it or paste it in a browser ).

[dylang]

Still having the issue from Node, and I agree - that same url works in the browser. So strange. I'm going to try sending different user agent to see if maybe Google is doing something.

[dylang]

Hmm - getting somewhere - that url gives me the same error when I run it through curl.

[dylang]

Fixed it!

You have some strangeness in your url builder. encodeURIComponent only has one input, a string. Also you were doing string building and array concat which is kind of confusing and not a helpful optimization with just a few strings. Finally I swapped the order so that if there is anything in the string that confuses Request or Google at least Google still gets the language and translates it.

Here's what I have:

return '/ajax/services/language/translate?v=1.0'
        + '&langpair=' + encodeURIComponent(input + '|' + output)
        + '&q=' + encodeURIComponent(text);

Do you want me to create a pull request?

[Marak]

Hrmmm, sure. I wonder why it works with on one machine, but not another.

[dylang]

haha node 0.4.2. this is old.